I found these great wooden shelves for $5 at a garage sale this weekend. I've been admiring wall shelves for a while and wanted my own. I found them and now... what do I do with them. I have a bit of a decorating dilemma in my living room. Let me explain.....
We have a huge leather couch. We purchased this couch for our last house. It is too big for this space but too expensive to replace. Everything in this room is a design dilemma for me. You see the pack in play in the corner... nice decorating huh? Even worse ... nothing matches!What I want is a remake of this room. I want you all to help with the transformation. Now that the kitchen is done... it is time to move on. This time I am going to only purchase thrifty finds. This will be a design on a dime makeover.
After looking at the photos I think it is worse than I thought!!! It looks so cluttered. Keep in mind I cannot change the couch. I love the fireplace screen and the cross wall. I would love ideas to remake or reuse what I already have.
So do you think you can help? Please forward to any designing friends I will feature any decorating bloggers to help with the makeover.
11 comments:
Okay, you are so hard on yourself! I don't think your living room looks bad. What you will find funny is that our couch is JUST LIKE THAT, but darker brown, is OVERLY HUGE in our living room and can only be in one place! Funny!
What if you got something different for your t.v. and put it in the corner by your fireplace. Then you free up that whole wall to decorate. You could rearrange the crosses to have some on each side of the shelves that you put in the middle of them. Distress the shelves, or put on a glaze in the creases to give them dimension. Prop your pictures up on them with other "stuff". Just a suggestion.
I think you are too hard on yourself too. But we all our. And I think you are thinking too much about it. I would move everything out of the room that I could for a day. Yes, it will clutter some other room in your house for a little while. But it will give you a fresh palate so to say. Then when you have a plan- after looking at blankness for a short while- you can bring back what you want and put it where you want. I would also consider pulling in an accent color and use it to lighten up the couch (which is an awesome couch) and you can update your curtains with this really easily (valance with fringe on the existing curtains). Also, consider some of the words on walls that are out there. You could put your family's name or your last initial. This would personalize it. Ok- there's my 2 cents. It's already a great room. You just need a fresh perspective to appreciate it!
also I like this site-
http://nestingplacenc.blogspot.com/ for fresh ideas.
I took down the stuff on the sides of the fireplace and it already looks better, less cluttered.
My husband and I talked about needing a design plan. We plan to purchase a new flat screen TV and entertainment center in the future.
I think I might paint the one I have now black. Any thoughts?
Hmm.. love the tv in the corner and an accent wall where the tv is now. Awesome.
Can you take apart the couch? Meaning, to put the longer section in front of the window and the shorter section by the bar stools? This may open it up some and give the illusion of a longer room.
Shelving on either side of the fireplace? Nice.
Please post after pictures!
Paint changes everything...maybe just paint the wall space on either side of the fireplace? A $20 gallon of paint can make life happy and change easy on the pocket book:) I however think our living room is perfectly lovely as is, but that is just me!
Also, Rick found a cost-effective crown molding thing. www.creativecrown.com...we bought enough 4inch crown molding from the site for P's room for $66!! Now that is a steal!! So you might let us try it out ( we pick it up tomorrow) and if it works the way we think it will you could 'update' that way too and add to your resell value in the long run!!
I meant your living room is perfect as is...
I think you should look for a larger tv cabinet...something with more substance. Another idea is to get a sofa table and place against the wall...place tv on top, baskets with "stuff" underneath. Look at thrift stores, pick up something made of wood you can paint. Black with rough edges would look nice...or if you prefer, cream/white with an antique glaze.
Paint the wall that the fireplace is on an accent color. You need a color in that room. I'd go for avacodo green or terra cotta if it were me. A rug will tie in the wall color and the space. I found a really good deal a few years ago on target.com (9X12 rug less than $200 shipped!)...or paint a floor cloth (email me and I'll tell you how...very inexpensive and easy!)
Good luck! Oh, and as everyone else has said...it really looks great...it's just good to have others put in their two cents...maybe you can get an idea or two.
girl...I am the QUEEN of craigslist, garage sales, estate saels...etc...ALSO...my sis is an interior designer and she has GREAT ideas!! I can give you her email if you want....she can transform a room with a little paint and some moving around over email or phone..all she needs it pictures!! Let me know and I would LOVE to do that for you!! I love the cross wall and fireplace!! XOXO
I would definately paint your entertainment stand black. I also think you should consider painting your fireplace... maybe a chocolate brown. I know it is scary, but painted brick looks great. A lot of the new houses I do are painting right off the bat. Also consider a rug.... a FRUGAL way that I get rugs is to order "samples" of carpet tiles from my rep (or the website). 6 samples will get you a 4 x 6 rug, for free!
I'm with Jackie. I think you need to give the room some color. I think the color you should go for is the color of your blog background - green! I would add a colored throw on your sofa too just to add easy color. Otherwise the room looks fine to me. I'd go with green!!!
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