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!