Since our new house is much bigger than our old apartment, I immediately started a Pinterest board and my brain wouldn't shut off for at least three weeks. I had grand plans of adding board & batten wainscoting, painting every wall, (except for the ones I wanted to knock down), installing new flooring, and buying all sorts of new furniture and decor. Except all of those things require lots of time and even more money, neither of which were in great supply at the time.
So, I decided to start small, and take it one room at a time. When even that felt like too much, I took it one piece of furniture at a time. I had a yard sale before moving to get rid of everything I knew we didn't need or want anymore. I got rid of a lot of clutter and junk and a couple of furniture pieces like a baker's rack, some side/accent tables, book shelves, that kind of thing. We kept almost all of our major furniture pieces and decided to start just by seeing how everything fit in the new space.
We were really fortunate that most of our old furniture worked perfectly in the new spaces, so I didn't have to make many huge changes. But in a new house, it's just nice to have some new things to make it all feel fresh. The living room was the first space I tackled and I decided to keep it simple with only minor decor pieces that were meant to pull the room together. I still haven't put any paint on the walls, but there's enough color in all the furniture that the beige walls and carpet aren't all that terrible.
Here's the room when we bought the house:
This room is easily twice the size of our old living room, which was really exciting at first. But then the thought of filling it appropriately seemed a bit daunting. I mentioned in my last post that I had to re-vamp the color scheme I'd planned upon hearing how much my husband loved the color of my piano:
(Side note: When your professional piano movers flake out and no-show, you call your super strong, body-building, weight-lifting friends and they help you out!)
And the best part is that it meant one less painting project since the piano could stay the same bold, beautiful turquoise blue!
So, with boring beige walls, boring beige floors, and even a boring, beige sofa, I set about pulling the room together with all different shades of turquoise and teal, all inspired by and centered around that blue piano. I figured the key was in the texture and pattern mixture. I've never been afraid to mix pattern and print, and I'm really happy with how it all turned out from the curtains to the throw pillows, to the mix of old and new (to us) pieces. I say "new to us" because I rarely purchase anything brand new when it comes to furniture and decor. This is for two reasons:
1.) I'm super cheap.
2.) It's so much more FUN to take someone else's cast-offs and breathe new life into them to make them your own and to make them work in your space. Whether it's adding accessories, or an entirely new coat of paint or upholstery, there's a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that comes with this approach versus just pulling out the credit card at the nearby furniture store. Yes, it's hard work at times, but it's SO worth it!
Anyway... here's the nearly-finished living room- all it's missing is a little more art on the walls (waiting on some canvases of our wedding photos to come in) and possibly a new paint color. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see.
This room is absolutely FULL of re-purposed, up-cycled, second-hand, DIY'd, inexpensive but impactful things and I adore how it all turned out. Let's break it down:
The piano, coffee table, turquoise table, sofa and lamps all came from the old apartment. The faux marble/gold end tables, grey cane chairs, and most of the throw pillows, plants and accessories are new-ish.
The wall behind the sofa will be getting some beautiful artwork in the form of large-ish canvas prints from our wedding. Can't wait until they're up! I love love love our wedding photos.
Anyway, let's start with the first project I did in this room- the pillows. Like I said in the beginning, when a project feels big, just start small. Baby steps. I knew that in order to make bright turquoise feel sophisticated and grown-up, I needed to add some luxe around it. But at the same time, it's not exactly a fancy house, so it needed balance to the textures. I found myself saying, "What Would Tim Woodward Do?" Tim is a friend of mine from high school who has great taste and a flair for decorating and I'm always impressed with what he comes up with. Anyway, Tim would likely have told me to go to the Christmas Tree Store. So that's what I did. It's probably not the first place you would think of- most people might start at Home Goods or Target. But the thing is, The Christmas Tree Store has a surprisingly decent selection of kind of everything, including amazing throw pillows. For around $50, I walked away with SO many in a huge range of texture and color. Once I got home and put them all on the sofa, I realized it was good, but not quite finished. It needed one more color and one more texture.
That's what I pulled out a sweater that my mom had knit for me over 10 years ago. She was a pretty good knitter and attempted a really complex Irish knit pattern. The cardigan was beautiful, but the wool wasn't the softest so I found that after 10 years I'd almost never worn it. Yet its sentimental value was enough for me to keep it. After checking with my mom to make sure she was ok with it, I took a pair of scissors to the sweater and made myself a pair of throw pillows.
For anyone looking to take on a project like this, it's incredibly simple. I started with an old pair of throw pillows and removed their covers. I measured the insert and then cut the sweater to be slightly larger by about half an inch all around. Since the sweater wasn't big enough to make two pillows front AND back, I used an old fleece pullover for the backs.
If you're cutting up a knitted garment, it's a good idea to "stay stitch" the edges to avoid the "fabric" fraying and falling apart as you put it together. Stay stitching just means running a stabilizing stitch along the edge. Super easy. After that, you just put the right-sides of the fabric together and using your sewing machine (or hand stitching if you don't have one), you sew up three sides and most of the 4th side. On the 4th side, you just want to leave an opening big enough to stuff in the insert- about 5 or 6 inches at most.
Once you've sewn the edges, the new cover will be inside out. Flip it right-side out and be careful to push the corners out from the inside. Then you can put the insert back in and using a needle and matching thread, hand stitch the opening you left. Boom. Done! Soooooo easy! I love how these turned out- they add a soft, cozy touch to the room and the texture is fantastic, too.
You can do this type of project in just about any size using just about any garment you have. I love the idea of using your grandfather's old flannel shirt or the baby blanket your kid no longer uses. Making a small throw pillow out of a something sentimental allows you to actually USE that item so much longer. And if you're the kind of person who likes to purge clutter but also likes a little nostalgia in their life, this is a great way to mix those two tendencies together.
So, what do you think of my living room? Next time I'll tell you all about the end tables and how crazy EASY and QUICK it was to glam them up. Thanks for reading! Leave a comment letting me know if you think I should paint the walls and if so WHAT COLOR?!?!?!
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