Here we go, here we go, here we GOOOOOOOOO. This room has been a long freaking time coming. I have been dreaming of this space for years on end, but really was low priority while we did other projects.
Let’s start from the very beginning (a very good place to start). This is what the room looked like when we first moved in, almost seven years ago. The carpet and upholstered walls were soaked with cat urine, the layers of flooring over the original pine were disgusting, but protected the original floors well.
I cannot even believe we bought this house in this condition. I hardly can even remember what poor condition it was in!
The first months we owned the house were a mad dash to get it livable. We cleaned everything out of here, drywalled, refinished the floors, and painted everything white. I didn’t have time to make decisions, we just rushed to get it to a baseline living condition. Once we were in that baseline living condition, we had various projects we had to get done in a very specific order.
This white room was really on the backburner for the longest time. It was FINE, but completely uninspiring. We did have rugs and some other furniture in here, but I took these photos mid-prep, so they are slightly more bare than what we’d been living in these past few years.
And now, ladies and gentlemen, feast your eyes, because this living room is FINALLY finished!
The biggest undertaking was planning a whole wall of built in shelves. We’d never done anything like this before, but I’m delusional enough to believe we could pull it off, and thankfully Ethan went along with it. With a whole lot of Youtube and a lot of trial and error, we (mostly Ethan) built this whole wall that’s now the focal point of the room.
All of the furniture was existing in the room, but it looks completely transformed in the space. It was mostly thrifted over time, a mixture of antique and modern pieces. Previously things looked like a random collection of pieces, now it truly feels cohesive, like it all fits together.
I knew moment I saw it I wanted this light fixture. No other light fixture compared. It was a little out of my budget, but I stalked sales until I finally found it at a price I was comfortable with and I went for it. And I was absolutely not wrong, it is my favorite light fixture we own, and totally makes the space.
One thing I really wanted to plan strategically was how the living room flowed into the smaller passthrough space adjacent to it. Because our home has a back addition that was added about 60 years after it was first built, there are some areas where the floors and cased openings give clues that it did not used to be one space. This particular space next to our living room is wider than a hallway, and feels like it’s part of the living room, but feels separate at the same time. The ceiling height is different, and it had some pretty textured wallpaper I wasn’t interested in taking down. A friend of mine said to treat the two spaces as sisters and not twins, which really stuck with me. I used a grasscloth wallpaper on the ceiling of the main living room, and carried it through on the walls in the secondary space. Sisters, not twins. The wall color in the main living room is Sherwin Williams Debonair, and all of the trim is Sherwin Williams Stargazer.
The sconces on the bookshelf wall were a last minute addition. I had intended to use some antique sconces we had in our garage when we moved in, but they ended up being smaller than a modern standard size, and we had already had electrical run, so we purchased these instead. I dressed up the shades with some velvet ribbon to add an extra oomph, but I’m super happy with them.
After envisioning what this room could be for so long, it feels surreal to actually be living in it. Home takes time, and although we are a little slower than most, I’m so pleased to finally be living in a space that feels like a reflection of our family and our taste.
Although most of the items in our space were collected secondhand over time, below are the sources for items still available. Anything not linked is custom, or vintage.
coffee table | curtains (these are customizable, ours are the green color) | Frame TV (ours is the 55″, the perfect not too bug size, in my opinion) | throw pillow covers (ours are the powder blue color)
Thank you, for those that have followed along with this project over on Instagram, as I’ve been sharing things. Your excitement has meant the world. That’s all for today, friends. Have a fabulous day!
