Living Room Remodel

The living room is a room that I've wanted to make my own style (whatever that is) since the day that we moved in.  We were fortunate enough to get my parents couches, which provide a lot of seating, but they do make the house look very traditional and dark.  They are just in too good of shape to get rid of, and they are too big for the basement, so I am going to have to work them into the design for now. 

This is a picture of our living room last year. 

The love seat couch closed off the space and made our house seem less open.  We were given a gigantic clock for our wedding, but we had to switch it out for a smaller one because of the trim on the fireplace.  The smaller clock never looked as good and it doesn't even work consistently.  I bought the blue candles in hopes of incorporating more blue into the room, but it's just been too hard to do with the couches.  The crazy lampshades were also to incorporate blue, but they are just too different for the rest of the room.  We liked the pictures on the side of the fireplace, but they add more browns, greys and golds to the room.  I recovered the big pillows to match these.  And finally, the chair in the corner was a hand-me-down from college that I always said I would recover, but that hasn't happened yet.  As you can tell, we have a lot going on and working towards one consistent design is probably a good idea.

We both like a living room where the layout looks more conversational, rather than making the TV the total focus, although let's not kid ourselves, we all know that it is.   This is the reason that Greg got his TV first to kick-start the re-design.  The picture below is what we mean as "conversational" where the chairs are facing the couch. 

I love the grey color on the wall in the picture below.  I think painting our fireplace wall with an accent grey color would really make the fireplace pop and bring in the grey that is in the pillows and the pictures on the wall.

I want to get rid of the bulky end tables that we bought on Craigslist and go to a long bookcase along the back of the couch and have some baskets to hide the clutter.  Right now, we really don't need Abby's toys displayed on the fireplace and thinking to the future, the baskets would be good for hiding away kids toys.  I decided that I am going to move the fun colored lamps to the basement and decorate around those downstairs, and I might replace them with new lamps. 

I think the windows need something to dress them up and draw the eye upwards.  What better than  adding more horizontal stripes to the room!  In the picture below, the person used a painter's drop cloth and painted the stripes.  I think I'm going to try it and use a green color for the contrasting stripes.

The last thing I want to redo is the decorations above the fireplace.  I have read this website on layering what you place above the fireplace.  I'm not really sure what to put up there, but I'll figure it out.

So, there are some ideas that I'm working towards so I can finally finish up this room and call it good.  Greg went out of town last week, and I went out and bought some paint, a drop cloth, and a new piece for over the mantel.  I'm really excited to get started!







Millers Visit in April

It's been a while since my last post, but we've been busy with our families coming in town to visit.  My family came through town around Easter on their way to and from South Dakota, and we got our last bit of snow so it kept us inside.  What a bummer!

The Millers visited last weekend, and it was absolutely beautiful!  Greg's mom had a dietitian conference to attend in town, so she and Greg's brother came in town on Wednesday evening, and Greg's dad and sister came down on Friday. 

Friday evening we went out to dinner at the Blue Moose, which is a local chain that they don't have in St. Louis, and then we came back and played one of our favorite games, Loaded Questions.  Abby was just exhausted, so Chase had the chance to be the favorite for a while and catch up on some much needed love from Greg's mom.

Saturday was packed with activities.  We first started our morning off by attending the Roasterie tour, but we arrived 5 minutes late due to a train moving at snail speed blocking the intersection.  After hyping up on coffee, we headed to the City Market to buy some fruits and veggies for our "Food Trip" that we were going to try later and a side dish for BBQ-ing.

We went back home for a while so Greg's dad could watch the Nebraska football game, and then we went to Stone Pillar Winery to sit outside and enjoy the weather.

Greg's brother brought these pills that turn sour food sweet.  We started out with a control group by tasting all the foods before taking the pill.  Then, we slowly dissolved the pill on our tongues and tried them all again.  The strawberries tasted like they had sugar on them, or even better, the strawberries dipped in cocoa powder were like chocolate covered strawberries.  Alex's favorite was lime juice over yogurt, which tasted like key lime pie.  We pushed off grilling for a while, so that our taste buds had some time to go back to normal.  Ha!

We finished off the night grilling and talking around the fire pit.  It was so nice out!

Sunday morning, we played some Playstation Sports Champions.  There is a tournament mode that is pretty fun.  Greg's mom and sister really got into the boxing.  Greg would always make fun of me for flailing and waving my arms around for a playstation game because he doesn't think it truly matters, but for some reason, I noticed him getting into it a bit more when he was playing against his brother.  I think some pent up anger from their childhood was released. 

Then, our other favorite sport was skiing, where Greg's sister and mom are ducking low so they can get more speed, and Greg's mom must be going around a curve on the slope.

It was a great weekend, and so nice to be able to spend it outside.  We love when the entire family is able to come up and visit. 

On Monday, I went to the Royal's Home Opener with people from work.  Hello Springtime!  We've been waiting for you for a while now.