Always an Adventure: Loving My Living Room

When we first moved into our place in December 2012, it was a very nice blank canvas. It didn't need a lot in the way of repairs, which I always expected my home would. Instead, it was a very nice, very bland home just waiting for some inspiration to hit it.

Problem was, it was REALLY intimidating to fill an entire house at once. We had furniture, and I had some of my favorite items from when I lived at home, plus some raw materials for projects that I had collected over the years, intending to utilize them when I finally got my own place.

I had grand ideas, but somehow, almost two years in, my house was still looking pretty boring. My living room, especially, was making me angry. I had curtains and pillows that I liked, but there were some issues with the walls. I'm not a huge fan of the color yellow (because it has to be the PERFECT shade), and the whole first floor is...you guessed it-- yellow!

Here's the LR when we moved in:

And a shot towards the Dining Room:

After almost two years, it looked like this:

We had couches and some other great furniture, but the walls were severely lacking. The only original thing on the wall was the picture of me that my friend's mom had painted, and it's a little odd to be looking at yourself all day.

My husband is not much on home dec, but he reports that I spent months just looking at the wall before I finally decided on what to do.

Step 1: Remove photo of self and find something more appropriate; switch out small items that aren't working.

As I said, it's just too much to look at oneself all day. I switched it out for something I found at Joann for about $30 (I only buy stuff on sale; you should know that by now). It's one piece, but it's staggered for interest.

As for some of the smaller pieces, I switched one circular table out for another, and I bought an ottoman so that I could stop resting my feet on a decorative trunk.

Step 2: Utilize garbage-picked shutters in fun and funky way.

I found these AWESOME shutters on the side of the road and (swallowing my pride) threw them in the back of my car. I looked at all kinds of different ways to use them, but, ultimately, just putting them on the wall with a thorough cleaning was the best way to go. I got the idea to put up photos with clothespins from this blog.

Step 3: buy (and dress) a leaning bookshelf.

A leaning bookshelf is something I have always wanted (can't tell you why), so I was excited to find this affordable version at Walmart. It's not hardwood, but it's really nice, and it acts as the perfect way to showcase a lot of stuff I already had and just didn't know where to put. I had dudes commenting on it. That's how you know you actually made a difference.