RE-modeling: My New Living Room Part 1

THE PROJECT.  The picture above shows our living room the way the previous owners had it. Some bloggers are doing a challenge for January to tackle your most daunting projects.  My living room may not be the hardest project skill level wise, but it is probably my hardest decorating choice.  We bought our new house with the intention of remodeling it.  It is exciting to me that we can do anything, go in any direction with it.  But, at the same time, it is also overwhelming because I worry I will regret my choice later and be stuck with it.  The worry has slowed my remodeling down.

THE PAST.  This is the cleaned up and cleared out version of our living room we showed buyers when we were trying to sell our house.  It generally resembles the real thing.  You can see the rest of our old house HERE.  When we put the house on the market, I realized I no longer liked the living room. I hadn't been paying attention and I felt like it had gotten really dated on me.  To me, this living room represents a rut I had fallen into.  I feel like decorating my new home is about re-energizing my life and in a way, deciding how I want to live the rest of it.  Our new home's kitchen is suppose to be our main remodel project and Reba and my husband (and some of my friends) are frustrated with me for not going forth with that project already.  The thing is,  I feel like the kitchen has to wait until I have a chance to experiment with some decorating styles.  The kitchen is like a marriage. Once I spend the money on those big ticket choices,  I will have to live with them for a very long time.  And yeah, I could play it safe and go traditional, but I don't want to. I'm not in the mood for playing it safe.  I want to be bold.  I just have to decide which flavor of boldness suits me and to me, that decision begins with the living room. 

IS THIS TRUE LOVE?  Whenever I talk about my ideas for my new home with my friend, Martha, she says that I am full of confusing contradictions.  I say I want simplicity and modern (and I DO!) but Martha reminds me I have many collections I am not ready to part with.  Still, it is hard to remember this when I see a new hot modern room and swoon.  My head is turned by all the white and nickel and rough luxe and minimalist and industrial lighting with reclaimed wood and gray linen everything.   In those moments, I fall in love with the idea of selling all my old stuff and starting fresh.  I admit I have been in an unsually fickle mood lately. Hyper ready to jump into a new look. But when I saw the blue living room above. I thought "this may be the real deal!"  Dark Blue Walls and gilt everywhere.  It could be a big enough style change to make me feel better, but not so big that I have to give up all my old stuff.  It is very Metropolitan Home and I've *never* been Metropolitan Home.  I've been Country Living, Victoria, Southern Accents, Cottage Living, Traditional Home, Renovation Style and French Country Homes.  Honestly, I am not sure I have a Metropolitan Home personality, but I think I want to find out.   Above Photo Source HERE

FLOOR TO CEILING BLUE.  They even painted the mantel blue.  I really like it. Image Source HERE

HOW ABOUT THE ROOM NEXT DOOR?  Because I intend on getting rid of the wall dividing the living room from the dining room, I have to consider how a dark and dramatic wall color would look from the dining room.  I don't want to necessarily continue the same dark, dramatic color in there.  The above picture shows how such a dramatic color would look from a neighboring room painted in a lighter color.   I think they work together really well. Gorgeous actually. Image Source HERE

Holy Smokes. I am doing it. Dark Blue living room walls ladies and gentlemen.  I will show you results so far tomorrow. 

ADDED 1/28/2012  Part 2 of my Living Room Project is HERE

Part 3 of my Living Room Remodel Project is HERE

The party I plan to join when I finish.