Living Room Before & After (we moved in)

This particular room has seen a lot of changes since we moved in. Remember when I posted about our kitchen in this post that our entire house was decorated like oatmeal. Well, this room was no exception. In one word: Brown.

This is it when we bought the house:

And this is it the day we moved in: I had originally thought I wanted to change the accessory color to cool blues, but it just wasnt working in there so I stayed with the warm tones I already had.

So in an effort to bring some life to our new little house, I decided to go with another shade (dont laugh) of brown. Its a very nice color. Really. I promise. It looks even better now that we got all the trim painted a bright white to contrast. Here are the newest photos since we put our christmas tree up last night.

 There are still plenty of things I want to do to this room.

For starters:

• I desperately want to paint the mantle to match the trim. This is an area of eggshell-walking with John because (shocker) guys like brown. On wood. Its a man thing, that I cant describe. No matter how much I try to convince him that its outdated and ugly. One day he will come home to find the mantle a new shade to match. Sorry honey... kinda.
• The beige carpet is leaving. Gone. As soon as this spring comes its leaving. In its place will be beautiful hardwoods. I can't wait. I am hoping to get them to go up the stairs as well. We'll see what the budget allows.
• An area rug. Large enough to cover a good portion of the room, but not so large that you can't appreciate the new floors. But I want something so that when I or guests are sitting on the couch we wont get cold feet. I can't have cold feet. Uck. We have a large coffee table, so I'll have to work around that. I haven't found one for the price I like (which tends to be free). So it will wait.
• I want to re-stain the banister. Like a rich walnut, or espresso. Deep, deep brown. Getting rid of the oak stain.
• Curtains of some type. I've tried several different types there and I just cant seem to find some that I really like yet. Valance? Panels? I need opinions. Please feel free to leave them!

So Yes, our living room has seen some changes since we moved in. But there will be plenty more coming down the road! Stay Tuned to see what happens!