I cleaned this weekend, which is something of a rare event (heh), so I thought it would be a good time to take some pictures of the living room and do a little update about where I am in the decorating process. Things haven’t exactly been speeding along, but the basic bones of the room are mostly in place. First, let’s take a look back at the history of this space, shall we?
A year ago, this is what I was working with. My new couch had arrived (yay!), and I had my big piece of Marimekko fabric tacked up on the wall, trying to decide if I liked it there. The walls were the color of sadness and boredom.
Then I started thinking pink…
And then I actually went for it! I painted the whole room a deep pink and made a video about it with the indie paint company Yolo Colorhouse. I loved the look, but after living with the color for several months, I ultimately decided it was just too saturated. At many times of the day the walls appeared red rather than pink, which wasn’t what I was going for. So I decided to repaint.
After the video photo shoot, I had about three leftover gallons of Yolo tinted primer (this is the primer we used before painting the dark pink color). I decided to re-prime my walls with all the leftover primer before starting over with a whole new color, when lo and behold, once I got the primer up on my walls I realized that it was, in fact, the exact shade of pink I wanted!
So I just painted the whole room with the primer! Surprisingly, it looked fantastic. I thought maybe it would be too matte or otherwise just not have a nice finish, but it actually looks great, just like regular paint. I’m 100% happy with it! And I love that I was able to paint an entire room using leftover materials. It’s so green… yet so pink.
Thanks once again to Yolo for helping me paint this room! If you’re wondering what color this is exactly, that’s a bit tricky. Technically it’s whatever color primer the paint store mixes up if you ask for tinted primer to go with Yolo color Petal.04. But if the sales clerk looks at you like you’re crazy when you make that request, you can also ask them to use Benjamin Moore 2079-50 Rhododendron, which is just about the same color. (Did you know you can have any brand paint tinted with another brand’s colors? So, for example, if you want the environmentally-positive aspects of Yolo paint but in a Ben Moore color, you can do that. Crazy right?)
I’m feeling good about the walls in this room, but there’s still a lot to do with the other elements. For starters–this is a little crazy–I think I’m going to get a different couch. I love my current couch, it is a true beauty, but I’ve come to realize over the past year that it’s actually too small for the room. I’ve been having a heck of a time figuring out what additional seating to get, and one day it dawned on me that I just need a larger couch. I have this one picked out from Room & Board but I haven’t pulled the trigger just yet:
It’s the Jasper. It’s not a huge departure from my current sofa; same color, same basic lines. It’s just longer, and it has the chaise (yay snuggletime!), and the fabric won’t be velvet. As yummy as the current velvet sofa is, the truth is I worry about it way too much, and I just don’t want to live in a world where I have to be afraid of my own furniture. If you so much as look at the velvet the wrong way, it stains. And I’m not above admitting that my sofa often serves as my dining table and happy hour spot, so… yeah. I need a more durable fabric.
I’m cool with switching couches though. I’m not beating myself up over having made the “wrong” decision, I tried one thing and it wasn’t the best, so I’m just making the decision to change and move on. I’ll sell the old one on Craigslist and someone will love it to death, and everyone will be happy. Done and done.
Let’s see, what else is happening in this room. I love the way the new pink looks with the Marimekko hallway (but note to self I have to fix that straggling cable!)
I’m still loving the gold sideboard, but I’m rethinking it as a TV stand. It’s a bit deeper than I’d really like for the spot it’s in–it blocks the traffic flow a bit too much for my comfort. I’m thinking I may just move the sideboard elsewhere and mount the TV on the wall, which should really open up the room. It’s a little crowded now in between the coffee table and the TV.
This is the other side of the room, still quite empty as you can see. Maybe the sideboard will go on the far wall and I’ll find a cool little side chair for the corner, something ultra modern perhaps. And obviously, I need some wall art.
And this is the other side of the room. EEEK!! I have a very We Need To Talk About Kevin feeling about that diamond window. We Need To Talk About That Window. It’s trouble. It’s not right. Something must be done! I’ve decided I’m going to cover it up with a giant piece of artwork, which will do wonders I think. So that’s one of my upcoming projects. SOON, I hope, because, really, that thing has got to GO. The 1980′s called and they need it back.
Oh and the new curtains are actually from my grandma’s house–they’ve been in storage for decades but they used to hang in her house back in the fifties and sixties. My aunts found them in my grandma’s closet and pulled them out for me, thinking they would match my new living room. And they’re perfect! What are the chances? I want to lengthen them so they’ll reach to the floor (I have another matching panel which I can use for that)–so that’ll be another post. One of these days.
So that’s the scoop on my living room as of June 2012! In some ways I’m bummed that I’ve been here over a year and it’s still half empty, but what are you gonna do. I made a promise to myself to hold off and acquire nice pieces rather than just filling up my space with junk I don’t love, and that takes time. But after I switch out the couch, really all that’s left to do is a lot of accessorizing, so hopefully I will start to make some progress on that soon. I’ll keep you posted!
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Love it! It’s so nice!
I hope you make the artwork something that will benefit from being backlit! Glow during the day, subdued at night? How cool would that be.
I hope the new couch is there when I visit!!!!
Maybe I’m just being a guy, but that’s not a TV, that’s a computer monitor at best. It would look funky mounted on that big wall. Treat yourself to a 40″ (minimum) LED – maybe via a Craigslist swap for your couch. Better yet, reserve that wall for Art and position the flat screen . . . in front of the glass block diamond! How about setting it at an angle atop a custom scalene triangular corner shelving unit so that it covers only the diamond’s lower half, leaving a glass block triangle above that ties in with your triangle fabric art? Maybe hang the fabric art at 45 degree angles (diamonds rather than squares) on the little wall to the right – a diamonds and triangles TV corner!
I love reading your posts – from cooking to crafts to decorating. Pink has been my favorite color all my life and your updated living room walls are what I would love to have. Say – I don’t believe you’ve shown pictures of your craft room – how it’s organized (or unorganized). I wouldn’t let my neighbor in mine (it’s a cross between looking like it was ransacked and a tornado hit), but I’ll bet your followers would love to see yours!
Can’t wait till I see all this in person. See you next month….
Love the pink walls! And the walls off the hallway make me so happy!!
I’ve always had a pink room in my house up till the current one. One of my favorite paint colors is Cool Lava by Benjamin Moore.