Living Room Makeover

According to my good friend, Gina, my old front room "felt like a cave."  We don't get a lot of sunlight in here, and our lamps didn't do a whole lot.  It never bothered me much.  It's cool in the summer time, and cozy in the winters and honestly--i'm just not one whose mood is really affected by the way a room looks.

Gina, however, is.  And she finally convinced me that some light paint, and (buying some and) raising the curtains would make a huge difference. She helped me find my "style"--which was no small task.  She went with me (and our 6 children) on numerous runs to Home Goods, Tuesday Mornings, Savers, GoodWill, garage sales, etc.  And finally things started to come together!  She's amazing!

Unfortunately for her, I'm unlike normal people who are perfectly capable of buying new things to decorate with--for me "decorating" apparently means "rescuing as many old things from the dumpster/Savers and giving them new life."  Bless Gina's heart for not abandoning me mid-way through the whole thing.  She's redone MANY a room, and I'm quite sure that all of them combined didn't take the amount of time that mine did!!

I don't really have many good "before pics."  here are a few from the past 2 years to give you an idea of what the room looked like.  Most of these are during Christmas time....

BEFORE:

before

AFTER:

My mantel--which i LOVE!  I painted/antiqued the green and blue frames and got the big white one from a garage sale. Pardon the birthday sign :)

The drum shade i made following this tutorial (the picture is crooked, not the shade)

Before and after of this sweet $8 chair I got from GoodWill.  My sister-in-law, Jana, helped reupholster this--it probably wouldn't have happened without her!

Before and after of the dresser we painted.  I decided to try to keep the same ugly drawer handles, which i actually love now!  the top left drawer now hinges down and houses our DVD player and remotes (Reid's contribution)

Still to come are pics of the reupholstered ottoman and the antique secretary desk i got. 

I do love my new living room.  I'm so glad Gina made me do it. I don't know if it's completely transformed the way I feel when I'm in it (which was Gina's biggest hope) but having a room that looks so nice motivates me to keep it clean...which makes my husband happy.  And when he's happy, i'm happy :)