Monday, July 8, 2013

Home Tour: Formal Living Room.

First up on the post-renovations home tour, I showed you our powder room.  Next up is the formal living room.  I also refer to this room as the "sitting room" because I tend to refer to our main TV room as the living room.  Regardless of what you call it, this room is currently my favorite room in the house for any number of reasons.

Just to set the stage here, when you are in the entry way, this room is directly to your right and the formal dining is to your left.  Since it's one of the very first things guests see when they come in, I wanted the room to make a statement.  I decided early on that I wanted to stretch my comfort zone a bit and go bold in this room.

This is a picture of the room from the real estate listing.  It may be bold in its own right for different reasons.  (Obviously, we have slightly different taste than the previous owners.)


We started with a blank slate (well, a yellow slate actually).  And here's how the room looks today.


One of the reasons why I love this room so much is because it came together so easily.  I didn't really have a vision for the room when I started (besides bold choices and mixed prints), which is different than I how normally decorate.  But for whatever reason, my lack of a plan totally worked in this room.

I knew right away I wanted jewel tones in the room.  Every time I considered something else, my mind went back to jewel tones.  Then one day, Justin and I were at High Fashion Home and they had furniture displayed in various mock-up rooms.  One of the rooms was fabulous with a deep teal color, and as soon as I saw it, I knew that was the perfect color for the space.  Thankfully, the employee knew what color it was (Benjamin Moore Stained Glass).  And that's how the wall color was chosen!


We had the Ethan Allen chairs that were in our old living room recovered in a neutral linen.  Since the walls are darker, I wanted the main furniture pieces to be lighter.  You can't tell from the pictures, but the chairs have a subtle pattern on them and tie in nicely with the couch, which is from Macy's.  I may recover the vintage ottomans (a craigslist find) at some point, but I am currently digging the rose pink.  I am also considering painting the lamps (a Homegoods find) that are sitting on the end tables (another craigslist find, blogged about here), but haven't been able to commit to a color quite yet.  In the meantime, the tan color is working just fine.  And see that awesome vintage brass pharmacy lamp?  I got 3 of them on craigslist for $25 total -- yes, all 3 for $25!  



The "brass" shelves are an Ikea hack that made its way around the blog world (i.e. the Vittsjo shelves spray painted gold).  It's probably not a great solution for something that's getting a lot of use, but these serve only one purpose: to look pretty.

The shelves hold all kinds of goodies.  Some highlights are my grandfather's books; Justin's grandfather's books; an antique print from a Paris trip; some other vintage finds, and of course, some Target gems.








It took us three tries, but we finally nailed the rug.  Surprisingly, this was really the only element in the room Justin had a strong opinion on.  He was definitely on board with the leopard, but he was pretty picky with the look of the leopard print.  Thankfully, he has excellent taste, and we found a carpet that we both loved and had them cut it to specific dimensions for the room.  It totally makes the room.



While I was taking pictures of the room, my two favorite helpers/modelers were assisting.



When we moved in, this room had no overhead lighting.  We added 4 recessed lights and a center fixture by Visual Comfort, which I have loved for a long time.  The overhead lighting makes such a huge difference in the space.


So, I think that's about it.  Did I miss anything?  One thing is for dang sure . . . this room has come along way from the floral couches it started with!  

30 comments:

  1. Stunning!! Love this room. Your talent in every area of your life, mothering, clothing, decorating, etc makes you such a fun blog to follow! My friend and I even talk about you...all good of course!!

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  2. SIMPLY beautiful!!!! love the rug and paint~!!!!

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  3. The room is gorgeous! Love the wall color.

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  4. Emily! It's all so beautiful! Everything came together perfectly! I'm inspired.

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  5. Amazing job. The last time I saw the room it was a "holding" area. Great transformation. I need the name of your upholstery place-the chairs look amazing. Hope to see it in person soon.

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  6. AMAAAAAZING! Love it love it love it. Come style my bookshelves!

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  7. I need the 2 prints above the sofa! Were they an e-bay find?

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  8. this looks fabulous! I love the paint color and the vittsjo and the furniture and the rug :-) It flows together so nicely!

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  9. It looks amazing!!! I cant believe you got those brass lamps so cheap!!

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  10. That is such a wow room! The colour looks amazing...and I'm not one for a lot of colour on walls, that is just nice and deep and works so well! I love the bold pattern and mix of colours throughout the room. Well done, you!

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  11. Emily! You did such an amazing job with this room! What a fabulous transformation. Love how you mixed all of the color and pattern... well done, you!

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  12. Wowza! You never cease to amaze me! I can see why this is your favorite room in the house. The wall color is gorgeous and works so well against the lighter furniture. I love those IKEA shelf hacks! They end up looking so high end! Love, love!

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  13. Have I ever told you how lucky you are to have a hubby with fantastic taste??? I'm pretty sure mine was trying to convince me to buy a huge camo recliner at BassPro last week...wahhh, wahhh, waaaaaahhhhhhh. This room is completely gorgeous and I'm thinking about stealing your pillow collection. So if you come downstairs and all your pillows are gone, it wasn't me (c;

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  14. I love love love that wall color! This room looks amazing!

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  15. Amazing! I love it. That room is so gorgeous, friend. And I love your bathroom wallpaper. I am showing your bedroom from your previous home tomorrow!!!

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  16. Holy smokes, I love! This room is all over the blog world, friend, you nailed it! : ) And look at you with that sassy leopard rug!

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  17. I am down right ASHAMED that I haven't been by in so long!! But I love love love this space and think you did an awesome job! The color of the walls is perfection!!

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  18. Beautiful!!! I love this room!! Can u let me know where the floral pillows are from? I'vr been searching and can't find them. Thanks:)

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    1. Thanks! I ordered the floal pillows from this Etsy seller: https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhitlockandCo.

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  20. Looks beautiful! Do you mind telling me the fabric for the floral pillows? I found those on Etsy earlier this year and wanted to purchase two pillow covers in that fabric, but by the time I made the commitment, they were sold out and it didn't provide a fabric name. I've been in search ever since and then I just saw them here! .... Also love the look of those shelves!

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  21. SO gorgeous - loved your feature at A Thoughtful Place!

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