The Living Room, Then and Now

Today I'm going to take you back…way back. To the old days of our living room. These are about my favorite posts ever! Living here for 11 years now makes it especially fun to look back at our spaces, and when they've changes as much as this one has it makes it even more fun. 

I've been thinking about this space a lot lately because for the first time I truly LOVE it. It's always been a hard one for me because of the high ceilings and the layout. Breaking out of the box of pushing all the furniture up against the walls is what really made me fall in love. 

Let's start from the beginning, shall we? I shared this photo with you all at the 11 year tour I shared a few months go -- it's one of the best I have of this space soon after we moved in: 

I thought I was working with the tall ceilings by putting art way high up. I've since learned that I don't need to fill all of that space and bringing things back down is what makes it feel more intimate.

The furniture was handed down from my Dad and the nesting tables were a new purchase from my absolute favorite store for years, Bombay Company. RIP to the Bombay stores (they are still online!).

You'll notice I always had the sofa pushed up against the only solid wall in the space -- here's a look at that rectangle on the wall with the new sofa we got a few years in: 

I've said it a million times but it's worth saying again -- I'm not one to bash my old styles. I LOVED that rectangle on the wall at the time. I still think doing something like this is a super easy and inexpensive way to fill large wall space. 

I changed it up a bit later by adding some molding (so began my love affair) and then adding some dark red accents. Red and gold were my JAM:

That DIY sofa table cost less than $20 and worked SO well. I loved that it allowed for some accents behind the sofa. I added more molding and that rectangle looked even better:

I started moving away from the red and gold and I think that's when it really hit me that our walls were PINK.  Like, truly, completely, 100 percent pink: 

They looked a little more brown in some light, but most of the time…pink:

I always felt like that little spot between the windows needed something. I tried lots of things there, as you can see: 

Then, thankfully, we painted over the pink. Whew, WHAT a difference! My new favorite neutral, analytical gray, was added to the house:

I tried something new between the windows. (Ha! Told you.): 

That rug was soooo pretty but not so comfy and the dog chewed a hole in it within a month of getting it. Cleaning it was a pain too, so it didn't last long. 

That corner I told you about earlier this week saw a lot of changes too. I had a chair over there, then a desk: 

Then I moved that to a new spot and tried the bookcase there: 

I quite liked it so it stayed like that for awhile. I felt like we were getting there…I loved the windows trimmed out sans drapes. I feel like they became the star of this room, which was good because it took away from the ginormous wall in there. 

Now, what looked like this:

Now looks like this: 

Obviously I think it looks better now because it feels more like us and my style right now, but I liked the before too. :)

Here's the before shot of the tall wall:

And how it looks now. Adding the wainscoting really helped to ground the space!: 

And here's one that shows that you don't HAVE to have window treatments on every window: 

 I think they look better without fabric:

I quite love looking back at old photos. It's like looking back at a baby you've painted and added trim to over the years. ;)

I think my favorite part of the transformation is this corner that I was always messing with (OK, I was always messing with the whole room):

Now looks like it should have always looked like this: 

If you missed my tutorial on that project check out this post. :) 

The point is that our home has always been a learning curve for me -- I feel like it's taken me ten years to figure out what I really love and how we really use spaces. That's a long time! Not saying it should take that long for you, I'm just saying don't get too frustrated if it doesn't come to you right away. It will eventually. You just may have to live in your house for a decade, no biggie. ;)

I don't have many regrets in life, but I do regret trying to fill up our spaces with furniture after we moved in. We bought things because we hated having empty rooms -- and I didn't wait to figure out how I'd use them or what I really loved. I think a lot of us do that though and it's part of the process, right?

Have a great weekend! I'll be dancing to Luke Bryan -- I'm not a huge country fan but he gives such a great show, looking forward to it!