Living Room Before & After

I have a confession: I'm a terrible decorator. I try but I never get it right and I just don't pull rooms together well.  I had a hard time admitting this!  But I finally had to, I've wasted way too much money decorating rooms 3 times over.

My living room is the first room you see when you come into my house and I was tired of it being ugly. So I asked my girlfriend (who has more style in her pinky finger than I'll ever dream of having) to design it for me. I'm so glad she agreed!  I love it! She's so talented. Sara, you're fabulous! Rachel helped out too, she has impeccable taste, love you girl!

First, let me show you the inspiration and textiles.  (I feel so fancy saying textiles for some reason.) I loved the checks and Sara recommended some bold pops of color.

This room provided some inspiration as well.

via

I'm so embarrassed to show you a before but here it is, a hodge podge of hand me downs and stuff we didn't know what to do with.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

What we did:

• Moved the couch
• Replaced carpet with hardwood (my husband did this himself, so handy)
• Made drapes (I made those, thank you very much)
• Purchased a hide rug (copying Sara of course)
• New coffee table painted Graphite by Annie Sloan (my husband made the coffee table, I really wanted a round one and couldn't find one)
• Bought 2 new chairs from PD's in Franklin (locals love this place)
• New mirror (Home Goods)
• New lamps (Home Goods)
• Made throw pillow covers in chosen fabrics

I'm so happy with it y'all. I love to sit in this room with a hot cup of tea and read. It is also our family game room; I wanted a room that was pretty but also served our lifestyle. I still have to style the coffee table with some cute stuff and decide on artwork (and my family's antique piano is going in here at some point) but overall it's nearly finished!

What projects are y'all working on?

Linking to The House of Smiths, A Bowl Full of Lemons, DIY by Design