New House Tour: Living Room

Long time no see! I share a lot on Instagram, but I miss blogging and sharing more details here. I thought I'd start 2020 blog posts with a house update. I shared what our house looked like when we bought it back in August (we moved in September). We've done a TON of work since then. Still have more to do, but it's getting there. I love house projects, so I don't think it will ever really be "done." (I know Kevin will LOVE hearing that haha). I'm going to try to share one room every week or two on here. What it looked like before, what we've done, and what we still have left to do. 

Let's start with the living room. Here's what it looked like when we bought it:

This is our front living room, and the room we spend the most time in. It has our TV and our "comfy" furniture. We also have a family room, but that's used less often. (I'll share that room soon.) This living room isn't big, and it's also where our front door is, so I wanted to make a little entry area, which was challenging with a small space. Finley also has her little chair and lots of toys and books in this room, so we had to make it work for all of us. 

Here's what we did:

+ Hired flooring contractor to remove old floors and install vinyl plank flooring.

+ Painted all of the walls and trim (with help from family).

+ My dad replaced all of the outlets and light switches (they were all painted over).

+ New furniture (all sources listed at the end of this post).
+ New double curtain rod and curtains (and raised it).

goodbye ugly brown wall!

You can really see how not white the trim is in this picture.

The trim was painted the same color as the walls. Took several coats of white to cover that dark trim!

Goodbye carpet, hello new floors!

And here's what it currently looks like:

This room is so much brighter with the new paint on the walls and trim! I love it. It's small, but cozy, and perfect for us.

Since we don't have a coat closet by the front door, I added a runner rug and some coat hooks. I wanted guests to have a place to leave their shoes and hang coats or bags. We enter through the garage, so this is basically used when people come over.

Here's what I still want to do in this room:

+ Spray paint the vent covers so they match the trim color - I plan to do this in the spring so I can do it outside.

+ Add more to the gallery wall. 

+ New pillow covers. These are the pillows that came with our couch. They are fine, but don't really fit my style. I like the idea of new pillow covers so I can take them off and wash them (because a toddler + a dog = messes).
+ New TV stand
+ I'd love to add some board & batten to the front entry wall and do some more coat hooks
+ paint front door
+ get another lamp

I love seeing before & afters, so just for fun, here's a couple of side-by-side comparisons:

Sources:
+ floors: LifeProof Vinyl Plank in Tupelo Oak from Home Depot

+ wall color: Dolphin Fin Grey by Behr (same color I had in our old house)

+ couch and recliner: Art Van

+ end tables: Amazon - one holds Finley's toys in the bottom and one holds our magazines

+ living rug: Target I have the 7'x10' size

+ entry jute runner rug: Wayfair

+ coat hook: Marshalls

+ curtains: Amazon (sheer curtains + tan curtains)

+ double curtain rod: Bed, Bath, & Beyond

+ tv stand: old from Walmart