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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Living Room Inspiration

I am in a constant struggle between my minimalist ideals and finishing decorating my condo. My surroundings are very important to me. I don't want clutter or a lot of tchotkes and I don't have collections. However, I am a home body and want to look around me and see beautiful things that inspire me. I want to feel cozy and want others who visit our home to feel that way too.

I am not looking to spend inordinate amounts of money and would prefer to repurpose as much as possible. Repurposing makes sense to me as it's great on my wallet and someones else's trash becomes my treasure. I just love the idea of it. My dogs bed is an old suitcase of my grandmothers. My coffee table is my Grandfathers WWII army trunk. A lot of my furniture I bought at the thrift store and put my own "stamp" on it.

I do tend to have Cavier tastes on a Beans n' Weanies budget. That is where creativity and my sewing machine, knitting needles and paint brushes come in handy! This is also where all you bloggers and sites like Junkmarket are so inspirational.

The living room at my place is the room we spend the most time in. It's also the most challenging in that fact that on one wall we have a sliding glass door and on the connecting wall we have a fireplace angled at 45 degrees. Our dining room and hallway also open up to this room. We have no over head lighting but have to plug in torchiers. Right now we have one couch that can fit four people if it needs to. My goal is to mount our 50" flat screen over the fireplace to free up more space to get a couple comfortable chairs to go with the couch and finish the mantle and hearth project that seems to have taken forever.

I am not above finding chairs at the thrift store. I have big plans for our couch (a thrift store find for $30). I am working on a slipcover for it.

Here is some inspiration for my room. Burlap curtains to replace the ones I accidentally shrunk.

The wall color will be a neutral that goes with the grey we are putting in the dining room. My husband wants to make the walls look like leather. I would love to recover two matching chairs in a brown and cream houndstooth like the chair below.

A large art piece is in the works. Recently my husband and I were able to get some old movie reels for free and I would love to have a large map like the one below.



Followed by a little accent of paisley and leopard

.

These sepia and black tones are really neutral but I love them!

5 comments:

Beth E-R said...

You have a sophisticated but comfortable vision for your living room. I look forward to seeing more of the transformation. For the leathery walls, I think I saw this idea in the latest Country Living mag - brown kraft paper wallpapered to the walls with a clear sealer. I loved the look and the texture. And great idea using a vintage suitcase for a dog bed!

paisley penguin said...

Thanks Beth! This weekend is all about getting the dining room painted but I really hope to have both the dining and living done by Halloween. Cross fingers!

Rachel Elizabeth said...

I feel the same way. I want to finish decorating my house but I feel like we have so much stuff already.

paisley penguin said...

Rachel~
I know, seems to take forever to get anything done. :)

Caroline @ The Feminist Housewife said...

Burlap curtains are SUCH a great idea! Inexpensive, gorgeous, and they will add so much texture to the room. Can't wait to see how everything turns out!