Saturday, April 7, 2012
before and after: living room / breakfast nook
I've been waiting for the right natural light to take some after pictures of the living room (and doing taxes, meeting with clients, taking my middle son on college tours, spring yard projects...). The morning sun seemed like a perfect time to record the finished living room.
Before...
After...
You can read about my inspirations and find more before photos here. Although the look is drastically different, I really didn't make many big purchases.
Here's what changed:
all walls painted in Benjamin Moore: Titanium
all baseboards including quarter-round painted in white trim (seems minor to paint the quarter round, but makes a huge difference!)
living room curtain panels received new face fabrics and re-used lining, drapery weights, hardware, etc
fireplace wall window treatments redesigned, got rid of hardware and mounted higher to give a lift to the wall
cornice boards in breakfast nook and kitchen re-used with new face fabrics
new wool rug in family room, custom sized for space but made from a store remnant (huge savings!)
cow hide rug
new side wing chair - sample from a showroom found at Greenfront Furniture (huge savings!)
new custom made ottoman for chair with remnant fabric at $5.99/yd. (upholsterer was able to make ottoman for less than $250! talk to your upholsterer!)
new small side table under large window in living room
new plug in wall lamps from Pottery Barn on large mirror wall
new throw pillows for sofa and new chair and recovered kidney pillows on Bergere chairs
antique chest of drawers on foyer wall - found for under $200!
all accessories and art are vintage or antique finds, or were items moved from other rooms
No cost changes:
painted large mirror that sits over black cabinet with wall paint
changed lamps around in foyer, living room, and office
moved rug under sofa table to under breakfast nook table
moved artwork to different spots or different rooms
Above photo: I wanted to have an ottoman for the wing chair to use not only for the chair, but also for additional seating when we have a large crowd. I didn't want the ottoman to always be in front of the chair, as it really eats into the center of the space. By placing a small sofa table as the side table to the chair, it created a spot for the ottoman to sit when not in use and fills the space under the high sofa table. The longer sofa table also fills the space under the large window nicely, helping to balance out the wall. Yes, I put a nail in the window frame to hang the picture!
I just love the antique chest of drawers find! Makes me happy every time I walk by it. It has such a great relationship to the dark, cherry wood cabinets in the kitchen and connects the foyer to the rest of the living room and breakfast nook.
Read more about the foyer before and after here.
I may switch out the chandelier next year to something airy and larger. Maybe something like this. I still need to frame the Audubon bird prints in the breakfast nook. Found the prints in a boxed set of 16 at the discount section of Barnes and Noble for $14.95 last December! That's 16 beautiful prints for under a $1 each. I couldn't find them online at Barnes and Noble to link here, but did find them here on Ebay for $28.98.
I wrote about finding this vintage starburst mirror here. It was one of my original inspiration pieces for this space. I wanted the mantel to have a more relaxed feel than before. The metal starburst mirror is the only thing I hung up over the mantel. The rest of the art leans against the wall. I knew I wanted the bust to sit up on the mantel too. It's where I started "feeling" the design for the space.
I just put these 2 cast iron orbs on top of my cabinet this morning. Yesterday, we got back from a college visit with my middle son and I had the chance to stop by Black Dog Salvage in Roanoke, Virginia. I've been looking for a few orbs to place in this spot. And there they were!
Now to finish my office re-design....
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