Living Room Makeover Reveal

 2 years ago we bought a house. We knew unlike our first home that this would be our long time home. We knew we had space to expand, and grow, play, and have fun as a family. It was our dream home. An ugly 70's home with awesome bones, and hideous decor just waiting for some love. For the living room we had BIG plans. We knew it would be awhile before it all happened, but the time has finally come and I love the outcome.

 So we did most of the work ourselves (we left the floor to the experts) I thought I would share a few things here. Making over old homes is a lot of fun, and a lot of work (hence the spotty posts around here)

 So first, some fun before and afters... When we moved in the entire house had some lovely pink carpet. Seriously the entire house... (it's almost all gone we are just still picking tile for the bathrooms) We replaced the carpet upstairs with laminate wood floors. We decided hand scrapped laminate so it had the real wood look and feel but, with 2 dogs and 3 kids laminate was a better option. Also the floor to ceiling windows cause 30 degree temperature changes in the room on some days, and so real wood wasn't an option. We also painted the walls Grey Opal by Valspar. It's my favorite color ever. Pale blue grey, so calm and relaxing and bright.

 We stripped the windows bare of the ugly floral treatments and alluminum blinds, and we added a curtain rod along the trim of the window. This allows us to still have privacy when we want it, but bright sunlight the rest of the time. We also had my dad install fans into the beams in the ceiling, he is awesome like that.

 (the before above is mid-point before we had already painted everything)
The floors and painted railing brightened up the whole room. To paint the railing we removed it since we had to for the flooring to go in anyway, and sprayed it.

 Before we had a huge awkward closet right when you walked in the front door. Cons it was a strange island that blocked the flow and view from the front door. Pro, tons of storage space, and there are never enough closets. However we decided to cut it down anyway. We also had a photo wall that we had painted a brown as an accent wall and painted frames in different sizes and styles yellow to put on it. It was fun, but I was ready for change.

 So we ripped the closet out and then re-built a smaller cabinet.
I topped it with vases I found at joanns, I added stripes of painters tape and then spray painted a light spray of white over the whole vase, removed the tape and had some faint stripes. It was perfect. I added some fake grass for a pop of color.

 We re-did the photo wall using frames from Ikea they are 20"X20" which is awesome and huge, I printed the pictures (12X12) at costco. It was fun to see all the pictures of the kids, they are wearing handmade clothes in nearly every picture and that just makes me smile. We also were searching for the perfect light we finally found a round flat ceiling light that was perfect for the wall, the kids call it the moon :)

 The front of the cabinet we built cubbies, for large baskets. That way we still had shoe storage and winter gear storage. The top cubbies are for decoration but we can use them for storage later if we need to.

 One of the things we did was add all new baseboards. I love tall baseboards, clean and fresh and nothing makes an old house feel new again like new trim. We used MDF trim from a local supplier (not the big box stores) Doing this we were able to put all new trim through the upstairs for around 60 bucks  not bad at all. We left most of it clean and simple just adding caulk and paint.

 However in a few areas we had issues with uneven flooring see the big gap? So we added some quarter round along the bottom and it fixed the issue and looked great.

 The other transformation of the room was furniture. We knew we were going for clean modern and simple with a mid century modern vibe. We were pretty lucky with most of the finds. We picked up these two matching rockers from my husband's Grandpa. I want to recover them, my husband is pretty dead set against it... so maybe someday but they are awesome and we love them.

 The wall art was painted by a friend, the rug was a great find at costco, super soft and plush and it was 8'X10' which was hard to find especially at a great price. The couch was a great find from Thrive Furniture out of California but they ship for FREE! Made in the USA and they are great to work with. The color and style were perfect and it's nice and long perfect for taking a nap :)

 The old radio, was a great find at a thrift store. It works if we get one piece for it, but it's in perfect condition. The deer head is from White Faux Taxidermy. I wasn't so sure about it at first, but now I love it, and the glitter made me nervous because I hate glitter (it sticks to everything) However it doesn't come off. I highly recommend  White Faux Taxidermy, they were great to work with and have some really cool stuff. (Jude wants the T-Rex)

 Our friend made these super cool cement planters with gold leaf on top, and succulents to go inside. They are amazing. (I am trying to link to his store but I can't find it so I will get back to that)

To finish it off, we picked up this knock off Eames Rocker, just as cool as the original but a fraction of the price and I love it. The pillow is from Target. (don't you love target)

Whew! Ok that's it, the living room makeover that is finally over! Now just a small break before we move onto the next major project :) When you buy an old house they never end, but the results are so rewarding.