Living room remodel

It's been a long time coming. We've been in our home for five years, and we've never liked our living room. Why'd it take five years to change something we've never liked, you ask?

We moved in in 2008 and started "trying". I got pregnant early 2009, had a baby late 2009 and since then I've either had a young kid (or two!) and/or nursing/pregnant.

Our living room shortly after we moved in. We had yet to buy a rug, new lamps, or even hang art above the couch.

It's crazy that five years ago it was just E and I and the kitties. We felt like our house was huge. Now with a family of four (and kitties) the house is filled to the top with love and joy and so many damn toys.

So, our living room. We wanted some color. Before it was beige, and I really detest beige. Plus, our fireplace was simple and ugly, and needed some major TLC.

Over the last five years I've been cataloguing ideas of what I wanted in our living room. E and I both decided that we'd love to have board and batten, where the top half of the room is a color and the bottom is white with a horizontal board and vertical boards under it.

We decided after a year of thinking that we'd tackle it ourselves.

We are so happy we did. It was crazy easy and the room is so so so much better.

And the paint color we chose? One that we've LOVED for years. Back in our condo days our bedroom was painted Behr Skipper. We adored it. It was gray and moody on dark days and light and dreamy on sunny days. Purplish in some lights, gray in others, and just stunning like the sea.

Here are some before and afters.

Beige and blah.

After.

I told the kiddos to stay out of the living room for a couple of minutes so I could take some photos. Of course they couldn't wait to run in all while Daddy was on hot pursuit.

We didn't remember to take any before shots, so this wide angle one from Juliet's first birthday will have to do.

After.

Our fireplace now. We gave the beige mantle a fresh coat of bright white paint, added some more crown moulding, and fished off the fireplace opening too. 

Looks so much better than it did before.

Two of my favorite belongings are housed in the living room. Once it was apparent that my Grandma was not moving back home again after her stroke, she decided to give some of her most treasured possessions to her grandchildren. I was lucky enough to receive the antique clock (above, on the mantle) and this snowy scene drawing that was done by my grandfather. I adore it.

James thought trying to run into each and every shot was hilarious.

We changed out the art above the couch, now there are four of our favorite woodblock prints by Japanese master Hasui Kawase.

Newish rug. When we first purchased a rug for the house we got this one. It never seemed to fit our style, so, we upgraded last year.

And while we adored our canvas wrapped family photos behind the front door, the fact that they didn't include Juliet made them feel outdated.

So the night after I took this photo (still my favorite photo of the two of them of all time), I ordered it on canvas. I ordered as big as I could afford, and it's perfection! I love those two sweet kiddos of mine.

And notice our desk and computer now in the living room? Since James moved to his big boy room almost two years ago, we've had the desk in the living room instead of the library (which is now his room).