Living room.

Here was our living room right before moving in (courtesy of realtor.com pictures):

 

Things I loved about the space: the built-ins, the fireplace, the brightness of the room and the wood floors.

Things I didn't love?  The small size, the way we could never find a good way to layout our furniture to make this room feel anything but cramped, the lack of a mantel and the brick color (although I know it could be so much worse).

Things I changed about the space that I wish I wouldn't have?

I painted the walls.  WHY?  They were a pretty gray and now I am getting ready to paint them back to gray after going tan and then blue.  Observe our current living room, swallowed up by the massive furniture we bought back when we were renting homes (note: don't make that mistake like us):

My plans for this space include:

 Going back to gray walls

Moving this massive sectional down to our basement to use once we get our basement faux finished

Move the TV to our bedroom (and that entertainment center down to the basement, too, as it's taken a major beating in its few years with us thanks to kiddos and looks pretty rough)

Bringing in the new (to us) couch that's in our garage right now, covering it with a white slipcover and bringing up an extra chair we have in our basement and covering it with a white slipcover, too.  Yes, white seems dumb but at least it can be washed/bleached and this will be a sitting room and used much less often.

Switching out the antique folding table in our entryway in lieu of something like this:

source: Nesting Place

Then making a wall like this:

Source: Tatertots & Jello

White curtains

Keep the rug for now

MORE STUFF ON THE WALLS!  I cringe at how plain this space is every time I walk into it.  All the walls in our house are like that, actually.

Add in elements of blue, like two lamps similar to this (but with a very different price tag - have seen them at Home Goods):

Source: Layla Grace

Pillows like this.  The chevron and the blue, although I don't want a blue so bright and vibrant in my living room so I'll tone it down with something softer.  The great thing about going neutral with little pops of colors in accessories is that they're easily changeable (unlike painting your walls this blue color that you'll love initially and then get tired of very quickly - ahem, not naming names).

source: Michaela Noelle Designs

This is pretty much the blue/minty green color I'm going for.  I love everything about this whole scheme.  It's so bright and cheery and airy!

Source: Simply Kelly 


In fact, I already have two throw pillows almost this exact color!  Funny enough, I have four different throw pillows on my couch and they're not the same color family at all.  Um, classy.

If I find a dresser for the entryway that's fairly rustic/shabby chic looking (aka distressed), I intend to have Tim make me one of these to use as a side table:

Everything else is still up in the air.  I'm  not a big coffee table person, so I doubt we'll end up with one, but who knows.  We have a giant one just taking up residence in our basement right now.

Here's my color scheme I threw together: