Stinkerpants

Our House: Living Room

April 20, 2011 in Personal Projects • Our Home

Our living room is kind of weird. It has an awesome marble fireplace, but it's not in the center of the room, meaning everything felt a little bit lopsided. We had a hard time figuring out how to position our furniture and where to put the television. We spent a bunch of time moving furniture in our minds and trying to figure out what kind of couch we'd need to fit the space right.

Ultimately, we decided to hire a professional to mount the television on top of the fireplace. We've gotten some strange looks from people, but we are super happy with how it looks. 

Before photos...this is the living room as viewed from the hallway. The sliding door leads to a (very dirty) balcony, and the door on the left is the office.  Overall, it was very WHITE, and it had ZERO overhead lighting. Our main changes were paint color, lighting and crown moulding (which is everywhere but the bathrooms in the house, but seems to make a lot of impact in this room).

This railing is a logistical nightmare to baby-proof. To be honest, we're still a little clueless. Thus far our ideas include giant pieces of plexiglass, or a LOT of bubble wrap. ;)

View of the dining room from the living room:

After, same view.  We think the TV looks pretty slick. ;) Another big thing we did was have speakers mounted into the walls and ceiling. This was Y's idea, and I'm so glad we did it. Baby proofing is much easier now that we don't have to worry about speaker cables, and it looks great.

We bought the coffee table and bookshelves on Craigslist a few years ago. Allegedly they were overstock from Crate & Barrel, but they aren't very good quality, so I'm not sure if I buy it. ;) The fireplace set is also from Craigslist (what a find! It's super modern looking). The couch is custom made. Now, before you go thinking we have oodles of money, get this: the couch was cheaper than everything we found at Macy's. We had it custom-made from Home Plate Furnishings, and it cost $899. Not bad for a couch, huh?! The accent chairs are from World Market, and the rug is from Macy's. The rug has been a royal pain in my tuchas. As much as I love it, it bunches everywhere, even after I nailed it - yes, NAILED IT - to the floor.  Stupid thing. That's what you get for not wanting to spend $3k on a rug, I guess.  Note our Aimée Hoover painting of Lulu in its new home, too!

These walls are our second shade of gray (the first was in the hallway). My easel (which isn't used nearly as often now) and our second card catalog are in the corner. This card catalog is used for Stinkerpants' business samples and craft supplies.

That's it for the living room! Next stop is the office!