Living Room - Before & After

Perhaps the catlyst for this whole painting endeavor was the living room.  I painted it the WRONG color gray first, so it was a totally mismatched mess compared to the rest of the house. 

Then,  after watching the 2012 Summer Olympics without even enough places to sit for our small little family of four, we decided it was time to add some seats to the room.  We settled on a big gray sectional that would be delivered in 8 weeks.  So, we had to get going on the painting in order to make space for our new seating arrangement. 

Here's where we started:

BEFORE (view from entryway):

...and where we sit now...

AFTER (view from entryway):

After we painted all the walls and ceiling the same SW Worldly Gray 7043 from my office and the entryway, we started filling it back up with furniture (and our brand new couch - which is the Bree Corner Sectional from I.O.Metro, in Bela Pewter)

We hauled off the green rug, moved the green curtains, couch and loveseat to the den, and started working with a new color scheme of mostly gray, teal and gold.

I bought the coordinating (but not matching) pillows from World Market, Kohls, and Target. 

Here's a view from the other corner of the room, looking toward the front door.  The big round coffee table is borrowed from Paxton's room for now (he had his fire station on it).  I think it's a little too big for the room though, so we'll probably replace it with a rectangular coffee table eventually.  But, since we haven't been out to shop for that yet, this one is sufficing for now (even if it does look like a kids' play table).  It's a good height though, and *bonus* - it doesn't matter if it gets rings on it from drinks!

Now, our Dot Calm painting (see it back there in the corner?) seems to fit in a little better with the gold and turquoise shades in the painting and the gray and gold accents around the room.

For the floor, I lucked out one day at Target and found this 5' x 7' rug on clearance with the perfect colors - for only $45!  I couldn't pass that up. 

BEFORE (view from my office):

AFTER (view from my office):

We moved the Expedit bookshelves all to the back wall to make one long set of shelves.  Even though I loved the L-shaped corner bookshelf look, it was too many "L-Shapes" for the room when you added in the sectional.  I'm still hoping to replace that silver lamp behind the couch with something more interesting one of these days.

I had all sorts of curtain shopping drama that I'll spare you, but I finally was able to find (and buy, and successfully hang) these long-length Imperial Blue/Taupe Striped Grommet curtains from World Market.  They seem to be perfectly subtle, while not being a solid color.  It was worth the drama. 

Here's a view from that back corner, looking into my office.

We still need to find a new piece of furniture to put our television on, and then we'll find some artwork or a big mirror to hang on that big blank wall.  But, even with the boring view, this is DEFINITELY the best (and coziest) seat of the house! 

I highly recommend a sectional...it's awesome.  Even in a small living room.  We've enjoyed many Saturday and Sunday afternoons watching shows and football all together on the big couch.  It's a major upgrade from fighting over the three available seats we used to have...