Okay, back to the living room! This was my absolute FAVORITE part of the home renovations we've done to date because it's where we spend all of our time. And it was such a huge transformation for us. And, to be perfectly honest, there were some tears and some regret mixed in. We've hated this room for so long and realizing that we could have had these beautiful hardwood floors all along really filled us with a lot of regret. We almost decided not to sell the house this year simply so we could enjoy these floors. That didn't last for more than a little bit, though. :)
So, here's some photos!
Let me remind you how the room looked before. Once again, I'm totally kicking myself for not taking before and after photos of the rooms. We just didn't think we would be renovating so much. Anyway, all I have to show you for before photos are whatever candids I could find on my computer. As you can see below, the carpeting was just totally trashed. When we moved in, the carpets were almost white. In this photo, not so much white left. The entire carpet was tan. Which matched the yucky tan walls and yucky tan trim. It was all just dirty and blah and the furniture and toys were very dominant againt all the dirty tan.
Here's another photo that shows you the stained carpeting. Look at the bottom of the photo and you'll see all the stains on the floor. And, as you can also see, the walls and the carpeting and the ceiling were all so blah that I had put up dark drapes to try and bring some life to the room. Unfortunately, all it did was make the room darker and smaller. By the way, I love this photo of the girls and their cousin playing Wii last year. :)
So, here's some afters. Again, here's the floors we found after we cleaned them. I had already painted the ceiling, the walls, and all the trim, so when we pulled up the carpeting, all we really had left to do was clean the floor and put the room back together.
And, even though we didn't have to pay for the wall-to-wall carpeting, we did have to buy a very large (HUGE) area rug. I really struggled with choosing a color. Our furniture was red, our woods were mahogany tones, but this room is open to the dining room and that rug is black. I was also worried about a dark rug making the room feel small again. But, in the end, I simply had to choose a burgundy rug. And I really like what it added to the room. It grounds it. And that's what I wanted. And Maggie seems to like it, too.
I also really liked redecorating the room using pieces we already had. We reused most everything just in different vignettes. This is one of my favorite prints of all time (it's pencil sketch of the circle in Indianapolis and I grew up playing around this monument) and I love the way it looks in this corner. And the lighter drapes look soooooo much better than the dark drapes!
We did have to buy one new lamp for this room but that was about the only new thing.
Oh, and I did buy a couple of plants, too.
And here's the whole room looking from the foyer. :)
And did I ever show you the photo of the foyer? That was part of the hallway and I forgot to post this photo. I LOVE having a white door. Love it!
And remember how the room looked from the dining room BEFORE?
Here's the after from the same angle.
It's still a small house and it's still cramped for a family of 5 but it feels like we doubled the size of it by getting rid of that carpeting. The transformation still shocks me everytime I walk in there!
And now for the budget. This is where a lot of it went. Well, here and the kitchen. I'll post the kitchen details later this week.
Cost breakdown: The area rug was $258, the paint cost approximately $70, the floor cleaning supplies cost $40, the drapes are from Target and were only $34, the drapery rod was also from Target and was $45, the plants were on clearance for $4.99 each and I bought 2 for a total of $10, the pots for the plants were $35, the lamp was $25, a small frame from Target was $10, and a small organizer for our Wii supplies was $45.
Total cost for the living room: $572
Total cost so far: $838
