Living Room Project

I can't deny it anymore; I've gone crazy. I started out just wanting to redo my bedroom as a little distraction from PhD research monotony and then I added my bathroom to the project list and now... the living room.

We (me and my two roommates) have been living in our duplex for almost two years and haven't really put much effort into making our home feel welcoming and cozy and put together (Figures 1-4).

 

Figure 1: We have a small dining table that is endlessly drifting around the big open space in front of our really big front window. There are no window treatments or anything hung on the walls.

Figure 2: Our couches are nice and comfortable, but they seem awkward, like they aren't sure where they are supposed to be standing. Also notice the bleak white walls.

Figure 3: My orchid collection might be the only interesting thing in the room. I like the furniture; its functional, it matches and it is comfortable. But it is also very boring.

Figure 4: The area in front of the sliding door tends to become a storage area for junk we don't know what to do with. Like our minifridge, our clothes drying rack and random boxes. I think maybe we are just trying to block our view of the hideous (and dirty) vertical blinds.

Recently, we have put in a little effort to make the room more interesting. I bought this side table/entry way table (Figure 5 and 6) from Kohl's for 60 bucks (it was an awesome deal!) and we tried our hand at styling it after reading Young House Love's tutorial on shelf styling (Figure 7).

Figure 5: The new table adds interest and helps balance the giant window on the opposite wall (which is behind me in this picture).

Figure 6: Another view of the table. Don't mind my stuff on the table.

Figure 7: A close up on our attempt at styling the shelves. Could be better but not bad for a first try I think.

Needless to say, there are many projects and fun things to do with this space. I'm excited because it really has a lot of potential. On the short term to do list:

• Get a rug to anchor the living room area (and eventually one for the dining room area too)
• Paint the walls something other than white! I'm thinking a warm neutral?
• Put up some curtains!

We actually put some curtains up last night (which I will post about later) and I would say it was a... half win. It definitely looks more inviting but the white-ness of the walls and the dirty-ness of the venetian blinds has become a glaring problem. Painting is now at the top of the list once we convince our landlady.