The living room truly has been “finished” for awhile, but I procrastinated on posting, since it’s been rather cluttered with misc. items. I had last week off work, so for the first time in awhile, it’s all clean & tidy! I think the living room has been the most dramatic before/ after and perhaps takes home the prize for best place to read a book or enjoy a conversation.
Let’s look at the before pictures (pulled from the Zillow listing):
So as you can see, the room is a sized fairly generously, but the wood floors were in awful condition (lots of scratches and paint drips) and the paint choices were horrendous. The lime green accent wall even had the trim painted to match. The three other walls (and ceiling!) were painted sky blue.
Even in it’s “before” condition- this room had many features which attracted us. We loved the light let in by the large windows (which too were in awful shape- original to the 1965 house). We also loved that there was a separate den downstairs, so that we could have a living room without a television–a place to read, chat, play guitar, and entertain.
The transformation
Before I moved in, I hired contractors to sand/ refinish the hardwood floors in the house. That alone made a big difference. Within the first month of living at Greenvale, Daniel and my dad painted the room (& ceiling!). We chose a warm greige, called “free reign” and painted the trim white. The paint alone made a huge impact on the room– it went from seizure inducing to calm & cozy. The other reason I love the color is that it takes on purple and brown hues depending on the time of day and subsequent lighting.
In terms of furnishings, we mostly up-cycled furniture from my apartment. My sister generously gifted us their sofa & love seat and my parents gave us the desk in the corner. We original bought the beige club chairs from Costco to use by the fireplace downstairs. However, when we were quoted a $2,000 price tag to update, we decided we didn’t need to sit by the fireplace after all (at least not now!). It’s also nice to comfortably seat a large group.
We have enjoyed adding more pieces as we stumble upon them– my favorite recent find was the blue & white ottoman, purchased at the Habitat Restore in Charleston, SC.
There you have it- the room that finishes the “adult floor” as Daniel likes to call it. Thanks for stopping by!
XOXO,
Kari