Taking back the living room!

So we have a friend who is nesting.  And we literally mean "nesting"!  She is expecting baby #7 in a matter of days!   She was going to be hosting a luncheon at her home just a few weeks before her due date.   So she figured it was a good time to do some of the decorating that she had been putting off.  

Look at all those adorable kids!  When we saw these pictures she had hidden away in a drawer we knew we had to get them up on the walls!

We borrowed the ottoman from the family room to show how practical and useful these ottomans are!  They go just about everywhere!

Kaycee is all about her kids as you can tell from her living room BEFORE shot.   The playhouse had been in the living room since Christmas! 

But she was ready to have a more grown up friendly living room.  We said Goodbye to the big playhouse and rearranged her furniture.  This is truly a budget makeover.  We used all her existing furniture and just added some finishing touches.

The piano was moved to take center stage.  We also added some pretty dramatic curtain panels.  

We had to get creative with curtains because most 120 inch panels were way out of our budget.  We actually used two shorter panels and had them sewn together.  This is where her wonderful Mother-in-Law comes in (who just happens to be an amazing quilter)!!!  Thanks Janice!

We swapped out some of the loose back cushions that came with the couch for some decorative pillows.  We decided that brown on brown room needed a little bit of color!

Here's another BEFORE shot looking into the dining room.

They switched out the light with a chandelier they had in storage... makes a huge difference!  We love handy husbands!!   The scale is much better for the big table, plus it is hung a proper distance from the table.  Those measurements really matter!

We found this picture at Ross for a great price.  It blends better with the color scheme of this room and the adjacent family room.  Doesn't it just feel more calming and serene than the picture that was there before?  With 9 people at the dinner table every night, I am sure she will take all the calming influences she can get!

So I recently read a blog that referred to fake plants as "permanent botanicals".     I guess we will go with that!  

More "permanent botanicals".   We love them and use them all the time, but we try to be somewhat particular with them.    We have some go-to winners that we like to stock up on.  When in doubt, just put it down and walk away!

More dramatic custom, yet unbelievably priced curtains thanks to Janice.  It may be hard to see but they are colorblocked blue with brown like the others in the living room.  We really needed to use the full height of the windows to cut out the sun that came through those upper windows.  Every night at dinner time, the person on the end was blinded.  These will definitely be appreciated! 

We still need to install some tiebacks on those!  A designer's work is neverending, sigh!

So there you have it, a few simple changes and you have a grown up living room on a budget!  Coming up next, fun new changes to the family room!

A dining room transformed!

We are working our way through Beth's house one room at a time.  You may remember her bedroom makeover and you probably also remember what we did to her teenage son's room.   That was fun!   Now we are in her dining room.   The furniture didn't need to be replaced, in fact there was a beautiful table hiding under that tablecloth!  She was just tired of the wallpaper that came with the house when she moved in.  She basically wanted to update and freshen it up.   No problem!  

Here's the room, with the wallpaper that is just about old enough to be back in style again!   The rug is out of proportion to the table and corner cabinet made the room look a little off balance.

Another look...

Check it out now!  We are calling this "casually elegant".    The moldings, curtains and chandelier all give the room a more formal look but we had to balance those with a more casual looking rug.
Accessories to the rescue!

Of course we need to give credit to Beth's son in law Jared who installed and finished the beautiful wainscoting and painted over the wallpaper.  (yes, painted over the wallpaper - that was definitely a wallpaper crisis averted!)  The walls were painted a blue grey color with a hint of metallic sheen.  

The curtains replaced an old honeycomb shade. The shade wasn't needed for light control and the fabric adds so much more to the room. 

The table was a last minute find.  

And a perfect place to use a cute lamp in the room.

A few sparkly touches in the mercury glass looking candlesticks and the mirrored pictured frames.  They both have a little patina to them that make them feel a little rustic and not overly formal.  Just like our room!

Can you tell we love lanterns too.  But they are just everywhere right now.  We wanted a little different centerpiece for this room.

The mirror was hanging in the upstairs hallway.  We thought it was such a pretty shape and it worked really well in this room.  Don't be afraid to steal things from other rooms!  

That ceiling with the new chandelier... Gorgeous!

The hutch got a little makeover too with a few new dishes and such.
But it was mostly rearranging things she already had.

Here's a peek inside.

Love that mercury glass lamp!  

See what we mean?  Casually Elegant!

The Grand Finale!

So here we are at the end of Barbara's home tour.  But wait!  There's one last "room" we want to show you.  She had a small patio outside the living room/ dining room.  It was pretty much a depressing slab of concrete to begin with.  

Too much sun and it overlooked the parking area.  

But we had to make the most of it!

Some outdoor furniture and the rug definitely make a difference.  The umbrella doesn't hurt either.

An outdoor storage ottoman holds all her stuff that she doesn't want to store inside.

She said she didn't have a green thumb so we literally gave her a black plant!
We were hoping succulents would have a better chance of surviving.  

The candle ring on the table was a perfect find.

We added some lanterns and patio lights for evening ambience.

The hanging planters were a score from HomeGoods.  We planted them with succulents and now they beautify the boring beige fence.

We had to be creative out here.  It was our last room and the budget was wearing a little thin.   

The patio now blends in perfectly with the inside!  Just no zebra out here!

We put the fountain just outside her kitchen window so she can hear it while she is making dinner.

The perfect escape!