Background

It’s been nearly 7 years since we moved into our 1939 colonial. When we moved in, my husband painted almost all of the rooms within the first year. Fast forward 6 years…we needed foundation work done last year and the foundation company patched walls that had begun cracking due to our foundation issues. This patchwork, along with my 5-year itch to move prompted us to begin a refresh painting project that keeps getting bigger. Along with painting the walls, we’re painting the trim and ceilings of our living room, entryway hall, kitchen/sitting room/dining room, and mudroom/laundry area. Whew! So far, our living room and entryway are painted. As I finish each area, I’ll share the finished product with you!

Living Room

When we moved into this home, we painted it the same wall color and set everything up almost exactly as we had it in our previous home. So we lived with our old living room for about 10 years and I was ready for a change!

The biggest issue with old homes is lighting and our living room had terrible lighting issues – it was such a pretty room but it faces west and was dark with no canned lights, only floor lamps, and table lamps. So my first goal was to LIGHTEN EVERYTHING UP!

The wood blinds were falling apart so I knew we needed new window treatments. Goal two – new window treatments!

Our area rug had seen better days…as our Yorkie grew older, her accidents increased and I knew we needed a new rug. Goal three was a new area rug.

Finally, the driving force behind our living room refresh was to take our “formal” living room (that we barely used) and make it into a family room. Before, we had our TV in a small family room in our kitchen. I’ve come to the conclusion that I actually prefer more separation between the kitchen and family room (sorry to those House Hunters looking for an open concept)! By moving the TV from our kitchen area to our living room, we’d have far more room to comfortably spread out and I wouldn’t have to worry about making too much noise in the kitchen! So goal four for the project was to turn our living room into a cozy and comfortable family room.

I didn’t want to get rid of all the furniture and I didn’t want to spend a ton of money; I planned to keep some of the furniture, an inherited sideboard, and all of our original artwork. Goal five was to use many of our original pieces and incorporate them into the new design.

Over the summer, I sold off the lamps on the sideboard and our coffee table on Facebook Marketplace. While we were out of town, we had an electrician install 4 canned lights and wire the middle of the room for a chandelier. We were moving quickly on this project! I had the room measured for custom plantation shutters and I was getting ready to place the order.

And then…the project ground to a halt when, in a month’s span, our black lab had a 48-hour emergency vet stay and ACL surgery. Our project budget went towards his vet bills and we put things on hold for a while.

Over winter break we were ready to return to the project. I had originally planned to keep our couch because I loved it but as I continued planning for our living room, I realized it really wasn’t going to fit into the look I was going for. I ended up getting lucky and selling it to a friend who lives down the street!

As I planned out what vibe I wanted our living room to project, I pinned TONS of Pinterest photos for inspiration. My taste has changed from a more traditional look to something more clean and modern but our house is still very traditional. I wanted to combine tradition with modern touches and lots of light! See the very end of this post for all of my Pinterest inspiration!

AFTER: The Unveiling

It took us about six months to finally complete it but here’s how it turned out! I’m so incredibly pleased with it! My husband really did a vast amount of the work – he painted everything in here, wired and mounted our TV above the fireplace, and hung the semi-flush mount chandelier!

The ceiling, walls, and trim are all Benjamin Moore’s Simply White-the walls are eggshell, the trim is semi-gloss and the ceiling is flat. I did a TON of research on white paint and it was between this one and Decorator’s White; I chose Simply White because it is just a tad warmer.

The only new items we purchased in the photo (I’ve linked similar pieces below the photo) are the couch, jute rug, and throw pillows. The rest are things we already had in other rooms of our house. The sunburst mirror used to be above our fireplace. As we refreshed our living room, I moved lots of things around to other rooms – this is a good way to keep your house feeling new without spending a lot of money!

I would have loved a large sparkly chandelier hanging in this room but our ceilings aren’t tall enough (#oldhouseproblems); however, I am SO HAPPY with the one we chose (it’s linked below the photo).

When we decided to mount the television above the fireplace, this also motivated us to cut the cord on cable so we’d have fewer wires and boxes to worry about. So far, so good without cable (thank you, Hulu Live)! I do think we could fit a larger TV up there but I really don’t want to spend the extra money on it now when we have a perfectly good one to use.

We had the framed painting of Paris in our living room before; each time I look at it, I see something new. Putting the painting above the sideboard is a change from how we used to have it and I really like how the two pieces balance each other.

Regarding the two black chairs in the back of the room…I’m working on a gallery wall for that blank white wall and will do a separate post on that when it’s complete!

I looked at several Pinterest photos for inspiration for how to style the sideboard. We were able to pull the sideboard decor together for around $50 – thanks to Tuesday Morning and antique stores – so nothing in the photos can be linked exactly. I’ve linked to some similar items below in case you’re interested!

I found this beautiful oil painting at a furniture store in the West Bottoms of Kansas City several years ago and just fell in love with it! I’ve always thought horses were beautiful, majestic animals and I love how this painting shows that; I also love the simplicity of it.

This little area is just on the other side of the wall from our front door. We already had everything in this photo but I’ve linked to some similar items!

Thanks for following along! I’d love to hear your thoughts on the refresh and I’m happy to answer any questions!

XOXO, Leah

Pinterest Inspo: