Finishing the Living Room OR The World's Easiest DIY Project

A while ago, I blogged about putting together the decor for the living room, using my bright turquoise blue piano as the focal point. I decided to do this by incorporating all different shades of blue and teal along with neutrals like grey and champagne and little pops of other accent colors like yellow and green.

While planning the room decor, I shopped a lot on Facebook Marketplace and Craig's List. I love finding super cheap furniture and making it over. I saw a set of cane chairs that were so cool, but at the time I was leaning towards a soft color palette (this was prior to Sam admitting he loves the bold color of my piano), and I thought the style of the chairs was perfect, but the colors were a little too bold. I kept looking. I also emailed a friend who is a master of second-hand and thrift-store/estate sale/antique store shopping and asked her to keep an eye out for that style of chairs. A week or so later she found a gorgeous pair of similar cane-back chairs at an estate sale. The pair was selling for just $60. Seemed like a bargain, so I told her to buy them. The were pretty dirty, but otherwise still in great shape, and I figured I'd probably paint and reupholster them anyway.

How cute are they? I figured that if they cleaned up ok, I would leave them in the neutral palette, but if not, I could have them painted and reupholstered. Well, after buying them, that was when Sam dropped the BOMB on me that he wanted me to leave our piano bright blue. It reminded me of the original cane chairs I'd seen a month or so earlier. I decided to see if they were still available because if I left the piano bright blue, the chairs I'd seen online would have actually been PERFECT. 

As luck would have it, the chairs were still available and the seller was even willing to drop the price on them. I picked them up the very next day for just $220 for the pair. Yes, a lot more than the $60 estate sale chairs, but their color and print worked so much better with the piano and the other elements in the living room. Also, re-upholsering these chairs myself would be a lot harder than the dining room Parsons chairs, so I'd looked into have a professional do it. I got a quote of about $250 per chair. At $220 for the set, I was already ahead. 

So, when I titled this post "The World's Easiest DIY Project," you can see why! All I had to do was pick them up! And they're so fabulous!

Once I had the chairs, the living room really started to come together. I finished the room off with a few potted plants and now I'm doing my best not to kill them. I have been known to have a black thumb. Wish me luck! 

Meanwhile, the estate sale chairs cleaned up pretty well, so they're hanging out in the corners of my dining room. Not sure if I'll keep them or re-sell them or what. Time will tell, I suppose. 

Anyway, thanks for reading! It's so fun sharing my journey and I hope you enjoy it, too! 

XOXO