Living Room Make-over Part 1

After 3 long, crusty years of carpet, we were finally able to get hardwood floors installed in our living room. This inspired me to redo the rest of the room. For as little $ as possible.  We live in a middle unit town home which is nice for the utility bills but light is minimal. One of my goals was to lighten the room up. And I am no way a photographer so these photos are not the best example of how the room was lightened up by the changes we made so when I do an update post after we are done, I will make sure to take photos in better light and with a "real" camera, instead of my iPhone.We still need to paint, which I think will make a difference, but we are on our way...

Panoramic view from the awesome panorama camera option on the iPhone

Avery's play area

And here are the before and afters:

Before                                                                                            After

Before                                                                                           After

We still need to do:
- Paint the walls & trim
- Stencil the wall behind the couch
- Area rug for sitting area
- trim & paint Mantle
- Organize bookshelves
- Artwork & photos for walls.

So stay tuned for another update when it is all done (HA!)....


Where we got it:

- Floors - Home Depot $2500 (material + installation)
- Couch - repurposed from den, Ikea Ektorp, New cover
- Chair and ottoman - re-purposed from den, Ikea Ektorp, New covers
- Chair and ottoman - New from Ikea, Ektorp
- Media table - New from Ikea, Hemnes $160
- Lamps - HomeGoods - $40/pc
- Desk - repurposed from guest room - Pottery Barn Bedford collection, husband found on Craigslist a few years ago
- Sitting area rug - Still in need.

- Built-in bookcases - found on Pinterest from this blog. 3 11" depth (the original blog says 15" ones, but our Ikea was out of them and I was too impatient to wait, which I am glad I didn't because 15" would be too much) Billy bookcases = $59.99/pc = $190 and trim from Home Depot $60. Total: awesome built-ins for under $300!
*I do have to say while this was not too hard to do, with a lot of help from my talented woodworking brother and hardworking husband, it was not as easy as the original blog made it seem. But I still love it all the same.
- New light fixture - (to replace the outdated chandelier when it was our "dining" area) Allen + Roth at Lowes - $58
- Area rug - Lowes - $74
- Toy Chest - made with love from my once again talented brother - from scratch, I might add.
- Fireplace door - Home Deport $269
*See my Pinterest Living Rooom Redo Board here.