Home Tour: Living Room

Home Tour: Living Room

Hey, let’s keep going on our virtual home tour, ok? Next up: the living room! It’s taken a long time for us to get to this point, but I finally feel like I’m happy with the way this room looks. It’s a great place for us to show off all the late 19th/early 20th century furniture and art I inherited from my great-grandfather, like the piano, bookcase and chair, along with some newer things that Andy and I have bought ourselves, like the fun “tango” rug (sometimes Andy and I try to dance the tango by following the footsteps on the rug!) and the big canvas photo of us on our wedding day on top of the bookcase.

Like everything in our house, this room has seen a lot of transformations over the years. When we first moved in five years ago, this was our dining room and I was determined to paint it pink. I thought it would be so funny, and so ironic, to paint this super formal room Barbie pink. And it was fun … for a while.

Ugh, now this makes me cringe!

Eventually we decided that the front room actually made a better dining room, so one day on a whim we flipped everything, and even though the dining room is now a longer walk from the kitchen — we walk through the living room to get there — I still think it was a great decision.

After more furniture rearranging (we moved the piano from the rumpus room, sold the daybed, changed the rug, etc.), the pink walls started to feel dark and heavy, so we repainted the room white. I’m so happy with this decision, too. This allows the furniture and art to be the focus, instead of the crazy walls, and since this room gets nice natural light, the white walls let that light really bounce around. The whole first floor feels so much brighter now.

I’m happy with how the living room looks now. There’s *always* going to be things I want to change (I’d use a bigger rug, for one), but I also have to make do with what I have. This room now feels appropriate to our house, because of all the period furniture, but also has elements of our style. It took us a loooong time to get to this point, but I really think decorating is a long game — you just have to keep tweaking and trying different combinations until you get it right. Or right for now!

Resources Piano, bookcase, chair, most of the art: inherited from my great-grandfather Globes: one was my mom’s when she was little, the other was a gift from our tax guy Rug: CB2 (old) Lamp: Target (old), with DIYed lampshade Pendant light: DIYed from Ikea

Paint color: Valspar Ultra White, satin finish