Wednesday, June 27, 2012

One Room Challenge, Week 1: The living room




I am excited to be doing the One Room Challenge again!  This time around I will be decorating my living room (and actually finishing it, unlike my dining room).  Since we moved a few months ago, this room was a blank slate.  Although I am decorating an entire room, the budget is small and I am reusing a number of items from our previous house.  In fact, I am using mostly fabric and paint to redo the room, as nearly all of the furniture in the room is already owned.  Also, we are renting, so I am limited in some of the changes I can make.  

We started off with this:



As you can see in the above picture, we have an unfortunate medium brown wall to wall high-pile shag carpet.  A 12 x 12 rug is not in the budget, so aside from vacuuming it twice a day, I am pretending this neutral-but-ugly carpeting doesn't exist.  We have a fake cement fireplace that I can't paint or improve.  We also have twelve foot high windows.  If you'll notice to the far left of the above picture, what looks like the last window is actually a pass-through into the dining room, and the window up top is actually in the dining room.  Like this:




When we first moved in, this room stood empty for a bit, because we put our (barely one year old) stained, beat-up sofa in the playroom and thus didn't have a place to sit in here. We bought the Petrie sofa in charcoal from Crate and Barrel.  It was not a great buying experience, and took a very long time, but we kept the sofa anyway.  




This moodboard is...hmm, well, I don't have a ton of OH MY GOD THAT CHANDY/RUG/$4000 KNICK-KNACK IS AWESOME moments in this room. This is the room that you see when you walk in the front door, and we spend a lot of time in this room. Its a cozy, warm, comfy, lived-in room. Or it will be when I'm done. 



I am hunting for an ottoman (six weeks to find a piece of furniture the Mister and I have "discussed" for three years, no pressure!). I would really like a round, tufted leather ottoman, but my guess is that with my budget I am going to have to either thrift or make something or do without.  Otherwise, all of the furniture we already own.

The new curtains will be made out of the Ikea Gullan Blom fabric.  In a later post I'll tell you how I am not mathematically inclined and accidentally bought seventeen extra yards of fabric.

I am using navy fabric (and some greek key trim!) in a number of places around the room, including a slipcover for the Expedit that our TV sits on.

The budget does not cover a $500+ massive piece of art for over the fireplace, so I will be making one of my own.

Those are the major highlights of the room.  Can't wait to show you the projects I've been working on!

UpdatedSee Week 1 (moodboard)Week 2 (curtains)Week Three Part 1 (art options), andWeek 3, Part 2 (splatter painting), and Week Four (bookshelves).  

You can follow along with a whole bunch of other One Room Challenges as well.


Lauren - The Cottage Mix
Lindsay - Everything LEB
Barbara - Hodge:Podge
Tiffany - Living Savvy
Jessie - Mix & Chic
Danylle - Nana Moon
Jennifer - The Pink Pagoda
Emily - Rue de Emily
Lindsay - Sadie + Stella







17 comments:

  1. oh girl. I am loving that couch and that trim. I want to see more more more!!!

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  2. Lisa, I can't wait to see what you do with the windows ... and LOVE the sofa. Hate the bad customer service, but fab sofa!

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  3. So exciting! Looking forward to seeing the challenge unfold.

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  4. Glad your move went well...looning forward to seeing all this unfold!

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  5. Fabulous inspirations! Love the sofa in gray. Enjoy the delightful day, Kellie xx

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  6. The couch is fab... as I had said before! I think that ottoman rocks... maybe a DIY? Good luck with the space it is going to be awesome!

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  7. I am moving into a rental soon so I'm hoping you'll inspire greatness on a small budget for me! I am sure once those vertical blinds are gone (I hope you can take those down!) the room will improve dramatically!

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  8. Seventeen extra yards? Did you have any math classes in Law School? You are going to bring it big on this one....I can just tell. The space is so light and bright...I love that part of it. The sofa does look great!

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  9. I love these challenges. Always so fun to follow along and see what everyone comes up with.

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  10. Nice space...busy house!! I love that ottoman too. I'll be root'in for ya!

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  11. I had no idea that round, leather, tufted ottomans existed, but now I want two!

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  12. Ok, I'm sorry, but I had to laugh a little that you got so much extra! I have the opposite problem. I always get about a third a yard to little...

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  13. Hi Lisa,

    I can't wait to see how you make a massive piece of art yourself. Because I need several of those and would love a tutorial! I also am looking for an ottoman. Ours is too little for all of us to use while we watch TV. But I need a rectangle. Can't wait to see your progress!

    Jennifer

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  14. can't wait to follow your process! this will be fun!

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  15. Hi I just discovered your blog by this series..yay :) Judging from your moodboard I love where your going with this. Can't wait to see it!

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  16. oooh, I love wear this is going! It is going to look amazing. I am excited to be working alongside you and the other fabulous bloggers in this challenge!

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  17. what a wonderful clean slate you get to use!!! cannot wait to see how it turns out :)

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