Living Room Changes

So, today’s post is all about how my head works when it comes to decorating, so I’m going to try to share the process that I go through when I go about updating a space.  Most of us can’t start completely over in a room and we are always tweaking, adding and subtracting to get a new look.

When I moved in 2 years ago, I added more turquoise to my living room with the turquoise zebra rug and the Ikat fabric on the windows.  Little touches of turquoise were added around the room.  I’ve enjoyed it a lot, but there was still a lot of gold in the room, which I would rather tone down.

As I mentioned recently, after adding the new foyer table in the living room, my plans for updating and freshening up my living room are going full steam ahead.

Sharing this picture from Christopher Oquendo, AJC photographer who took pics of my house. His look so much better than mine!   This was before I moved the column.

And this is after I moved the column.  I will definitely work on getting better photos when I finish this refresh.  I added both columns on the back wall to make it more symmetrical.  These are architectural pieces that I picked up years ago, old vintage columns that I picked up from Lakewood Antiques (miss that place!) and I like them in this room.

This is sort of a progress report of what I’m planning to do and why.  I figured you all might like to know my thought processes on making changes around here.

My brain can be all over the place but one thing I have been thinking about since I moved in here is replacing this chair of many fabrics….with count them, 5 fabrics!   It’s a great chair, a high-end chair from Taylor King that I bought in 2002 from Furniture Craftsmen here in Marietta. They were going out of business back then and I fell in love with this traditional frame chair.

The fabrics were great back then and I loved it for many years.  But, now I want to lighten things up in here and the fabrics on this chair are holding me back.  I will be selling this chair, so if you are in the Atlanta area and interested, chime in and let me know!  It’s a great chair and I could have it recovered, but with all those nailheads it will be a big job to do that. It’s literally covered in nailheads.  And I sort of hate to take off all those pretty fabrics.  If I can sell it intact to someone who loves it, that would be great.  Or they can recover it.

The 2 caramel colored leather chairs in the living room came from the same sale and I’m keeping them for the long haul.  Still love them.

Here’s the new plan.

After going up to NYC last spring and attending the Birch Lane furniture line launch, I remembered their pretty pieces and was glad I got to see them in person.  We’ve been in touch over the last year and I’m going to be working with them and bringing in this Shephard chair to my house.  It’s a beautiful upholstered English arm chair and I think it’s going to be really pretty in my living room.  Traditional style and nailheads too!  I’m waiting on fabric samples to decide on a fabric, then I’ll order it.

I know you all might not see my vision when I’m making changes to rooms and that is OK. A house is always evolving and I keep my things for a very long time. I don’t have plans to change out many more pieces of furniture around here, but I do repurpose and repaint things along the way. I’m still very happy with most of my things.  As I mentioned, I did switch out the column from here and placed both of them on the far wall flanking the desk on the back wall.  I like it much better like this and the lady bust is here right by the dining room door now.

If you follow me on Instagram and Facebook, you know that this desk is no longer black.  This was a yardsale find over 10 years ago for $25 and it’s a Henredon piece.  It was stained wood, but I wasn’t crazy about the color when I bought it and I painted it black and I have enjoyed it like this for years.

All the way back in 2008, I shared a post about how I painted my furniture black, much of it with spray paint, but some with foam rollers and paintbrushes.  You can see those chairs from that post here in this picture, I’ve had them since early 2000 and they were originally stained until I painted them black.  And I’m still painting furniture!  I’ll share the new desk/vanity with you soon.  It got a dramatic makeover with green paint and I love it.

I still love this Calico Corner Tilbury ikat fabric that I got when I moved in my house.  It has a bit of green in it as you can see on the seat cushion and I’ll be sprinkling this green around my living room.

So, change is coming and I can’t wait to share it with you all.  I know that everyone might not like my choices and that is OK.  I’ve been inspired by many other bloggers who are mixing modern and traditional fabrics and adding punches of color and that is what I’m going for here.

One in particular who inspires me with her bold use of color is Jennifer from Dimples and Tangles. I have featured her on my Feature Friday series and love how she mixes things up.  Green is her signature color and she has lots of this bold Kelly green in her house.

So I’ve been taking notes from many bloggers and figuring out ways to mix up my living room to make it better for me.

Stay tuned and I hope shortly, I’ll have all the changes pulled together in here.  It involves getting new pillow covers for all my pillows. I’ve been shopping Etsy shops and found some really great fabrics.  I’ll be toning down the golds in this room, even though some of it will stay, like the caramel leather chairs.  There will just be less of it now.

My traditional accessories will stay along with all the vintage things I have found and collected. The main focus will be a new chair, pillow covers, painting that desk and just freshening things up around the room and using less accessories this time around.  I think it’s going to make a dramatic difference and I hope it all turns out like I envision.

I will admit that I do get excited about new color trends.  Have you seen Better Home and Garden’s color trends for 2015?  Looks like I’m going right in that direction with some of my ideas.  That grassy green is definitely where I’m going and the turquoise hues, I already have in this room.  Now, I totally do not follow all the trends out there, but I can’t help but be swayed sometimes.  Most of us keep our things for years, myself included and many of my fabrics date back over 10 years old.  So, when I can find ways to freshen it all up without breaking the bank, I go for it!  That’s where paint comes in.  And some new fabrics.

1.  Green/cream pillow cover/2. Chaing Mai pillow cover/3. Navy blue linen pillow cover/

4. Black/white pillow cover/5. Blue Peacock pillow cover.  All from Etsy.

So, tada!  I’m sharing my mood board for the living room and I can hardly wait to see it all come about.  I shopped online in several Etsy shops and found all of these pillow covers and I will change out my old pillows with the new ones. I scoured Etsy and bought all of them, these Etsy dealers do not know me. The new fabrics are vibrant and graphic and will add a lot of life to the room.  I had been way too matchy-matchy with the pillows I brought in here 2 years ago and they blended right in with the furniture and drapes, but really didn’t provide that punch I wanted in the room.

I’ve been inspired by many bloggers out there who add pizazz to their rooms with vibrant greens, blues and even black and white as a bold accent.  I’ve always loved a bit of black and white and have seen it used over and over with success out there, mixing with bold florals and solids, so I’ve been taking notes.  I’ve already brought in some blue and white pottery and will continue to use it in here, with several shades of blue. The vibrant green will be painted on the desk on the back wall of the living room and I really think that’s going to be fun, flanked by the black chairs.  That piece is already painted and I’ll be sharing it soon.

That Chaing Mai dragon fabric (the bold floral) is by Schumacher and I have seen it all over blogland for years now (came out in 2006).  I finally decided to jump on that train and add it to my room.  I love how bold and colorful it is and these are the most expensive pillows I’ve ever bought!  But I think it will be worth it to add that punch to the room.

Some of you may shake your head and not get my vision, but to me it’s going to be beautiful.  I know it’s a lot of different fabrics going on, but I think they all work together. I’m not getting any 2 pillows alike, but am mixing it all up for a change. I can’t wait to see it come together and of course, I’ll share it all here!

Do you see my vision or not?  It’s OK if you don’t, I get that we all have our own ideas of how to decorate a room. 

 

 

 

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