It had been a while since our living room had seen any love and it was in need of a little attention. The last time I posted about it on here was in our November House Tour, and although it had come a long way from these previous posts about it (getting our couch, getting our loveseat/rearranging/drop cloth drapes/adding a lamp & tv stand, adding a living room gallery wall, adding our painting) it was still a little lackluster, in my opinion.

Here it was then (as of November 2012):

There were just a few little things that bothered me that needed tweaking:

• I was tired of the pink pillows on the couch (I love deeper raspberry pinks, but I’m kind-of over hot/Barbie-like pinks right now). Not that Drew really cares that much about what I put in the house (and I don’t think he ever gave a second thought to our couch pillows), but I wanted something that maybe he would be inspired by/excited about as well (and that wasn’t going to happen with the pink floral print). Overall, I thought our previous pillow situation just looked a little mis-matched and not all that inspiring together.
• Decorating around our crazy green couches can be a little difficult (how I wish they were a warm grey linen color!) and the previous color scheme of the room altogether just wasn’t doing it for me. I wanted a little more specific color direction in here.
• The bookshelves needed just a little tweaking, re-arranging of things and adding in a little more art and personality.
• The coffee table! Our coffee table I’ve had since I was in high school, it used to be in my bedroom in my parents house. I found it for $15 at a used furniture store close to my hometown and it was probably my very first home related DIY project. I had my dad’s friend cut the legs down to make it a little shorter (I wanted to be able to sit on the floor and use it to work on art/school projects) and then I painted it black (don’t ask me why, I had questionable taste back then). After 6+ years, it was looking a little gross — the paint was chipped and it never fully cured correctly and always stayed a little tacky (anytime you put a magazine or anything on it, it would stick to the table!). It was in desperate need of a makeover, to say the least.

So, in short, that was the list of things that needed to be addressed. Drew and I are on Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover so we didn’t have much of a budget to spend on this room, so most of the above issues were addressed with a little DIY and elbow grease. I made some new pillows, brought in more of my own art for the bookshelves (fabric paintings from my BA Exhibition) and paint-stripped down our old coffee table. For just a little bit of money (on some pillow supplies and paint-stripper) we ended up with this:

I love the pops of the pretty blues! Teal and turquoise are really trendy colors right now and I’m so in love with them! My favorite skinny jeans are teal and it is our branding color for our business. It is a color that works really well with a lot of the other rooms in our house (not that your whole house has to match exactly, but I think it is nice when rooms flow into each other and all have a cohesive feeling/design aesthetic), our laundry room has a blue tile floor and teal curtains (the same ones from my freshman college dorm room) and there are pops of it in our foyer (you can’t see it in the pictures, but that big plant in the corner is planted in a huge teal planter pot) and my office (painting taboret, bowl/books/yarn on the white cabinet) as well. Overall I think it gives the room a more clean, simple and fresh look. It just seems like such a happier room now!

The two largest pillows (the turquoise velvet ones) are from World Market and the other two (the patterned ones and the smaller teal ones) I made out of World Market cloth napkins (these and these). Cloth napkins are a great way to find just the right amount of fabric for pillows like this! Usually they are pretty inexpensive and you can find some great patterns! I didn’t spend a ton of money on these pillows, but I think they really make a big difference in the room!

As for the coffee table, I paint stripped all the black paint off, then sanded it down. I decided to just use some coconut oil (I already had on hand) on it for now. I love how much brighter the wood tone feels in the room compared to the black! Eventually I’ll give it another sanding to get the rest of the paint out of the little cracks and then perhaps stain/oil/seal it better, but I wanted to live with it as is for now to get a better idea of exactly what I wanted to do with it. (My original thought was to leave the top wood and then paint the base gold, but after spending so much time getting the old paint off, I don’t want to put any more paint on it until I’m 100% sure about it!)

The overall changes in the room are pretty small, but I think they make a big difference! Here are some side-by-side comparisons:

What colors are you crushing on right now? I’m so into teal and gold!

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Couch and loveseat are from Compass Furniture in New Orleans, television/media cabinet is from Target, coffee table was thrifted years ago (it used to be in my bedroom in my parent’s house when I was in high school), white bookcase is from IKEA, painting was a wedding gift from my sister and her husband (by New Orleans artist Adam Hall), gallery wall photos were taken by me, curtains I made out of drop-cloths, big turquoise velvet couch pillows are from World Market, teal and patterned pillows I made from World Market cloth napkins (these and these), light blue pedestal side table from Nadeau in New Orleans, cream and white damask throw, wire basket (filled with yarn on bookshelf), and wooden @ symbol from TJ Maxx, floor lamp is from Lowe’s, silver table lamp is from Compass Furniture (scored it for $15 with a Living Social Deal!),  8×10 area rug from Lowe’s (scored it for $15!), glass candy dish, basket (on the floor at the end of the loveseat), wooden ladder and quilts were thrifted, basket (with magazines in it behind the french doors) was a wedding gift, landscape painting on the bookshelf was a wedding gift (painted my Drew’s mom’s good friend and my 8th grade teacher!), globe was mine from when I was little bought for me by my Mamaw, the chalkboard message board was from our wedding (originally from here), and the two abstract paintings and ceramic artichoke were made by me.