I spent yesterday filling nail holes with wood putty, sanding, caulking gaps, washing, taping off the floor, priming, and painting. I have one more coat to go today on one half of the room, and then the trim in the living room will be done! After that I’ll begin the task of making our house look less like a disaster.
I’ve been meaning to get around to painting the trim in the living room for quite some time now. It was on my 30 Before Thirty list, but it was one of the handful of things I didn’t accomplish (because I was pregnant and had no energy). So I rolled it onto my Lovely life List, and I decided it’s finally a good time to check that one off.
Painting projects (or any projects, really) happen so much more slowly now with two young kids underfoot. I let Eleanor help paint for the first time, and then she wanted to look through the fan decks to pick paint colors for the house. Did you know the exterior should be green? With sparkles? So it has been decreed.
I’ve only painted half of the room so far. There’s a door between the living room and the entry, and soon I’ll move on to the front entry itself. I haven’t decided if I’ll be painting both doors there, and if so, which colors. I’ll probably leave the front door unpainted, at least for now. White is an obvious choice for the other, but I do like the look of black interior doors. What do you think?
p.s. Here’s a refresher on why I’m painting all of this wood trim in the first place.
Yes, yes, yes. The new table looks awesome.
I got mine for a song (15% off, plus some store credit), but a couple of people pointed out this excellent alternative yesterday. The carved pattern is a little different (though still nice), and it’s a little more affordable.
Now I really want to finish painting the trim in the living room. And if I were feeling fancy I’d stage the table with pretty decorative objects and fresh flowers, but the reality is that it will be soon have coloring books and action figures on top, no doubt.
I was a big fan of this coffee table when it came out and I wrote about it here, but I decided it was too low (and potentially tippy) for our living room. The new side table version, however?
It may just be perfect next to the crazy floral chair. I still love the little table that we have there, but it’s too spindly (and tippy!), and I’ve been looking for something with more presence. I think I have some store credit too which, as we all know, is essentially free money. (Never mind that I did actually spend that money once upon a time.)
What do you think?
'F' for Furniture, Filing Cabinet, Living Room • 29 Comments • January 3, 2012
I had written earlier this year about how the living room had stayed fairly consistent over the last five years. I still like the room, but I had been feeling the need to shake things up a bit. So I’ve been making some changes.
I got my hipster Chia pets. (Local friends, Carriage Flower Shop here in Oak Park has them.)
I sold the orange chair (fare thee well, sweet orange chair!), and I have the floral chair floor sample that I repaired in its place. I was able to almost pay for the new chair with the old, and the chair paired with a floor lamp makes a nice reading corner.
You may recognize the pillows in the room from yesterday’s post. I should point out that August gave me that red/orange pillow for my birthday last week. Didn’t he do a great job picking it out? I suspect Brandon helped him, but good job all around.
The rocking chair is upstairs (because I am lazy sometimes and don’t like to cart it upstairs and back down for August’s monthly photo), so we brought back the other Eames chair and the elephant. It is possible that I have too much of an affinity for Eames furniture, but they’re classic investment pieces that I don’t tire of. Plus they’re sentimental for us. We got the LCW when we were married, the rocking chair when we were expecting, and the elephant for our first Christmas as new parents.
There are still some things I’d like to do in the living room. I took down the silhouette quilt above the sofa. It was funny to have that many heads in one space now that the busts are on the side tables! So we need some different art. Or a mirror? Not sure.
I’d also like to switch out the side table next to the floral chair. It’s cute, but the spindle doesn’t play well with the floor lamp behind it and something chunkier would look better. Oh, and I keep putting it off but I need to paint the trim white. I’m always too busy, but I don’t think there will be a time when I’m not busy, so I really should just force myself to tackle it.
What else? Maybe one more pillow. Maybe different curtains (maybe). Not much… the room if feeling pretty good now.
