It took a few months to complete my living room make-over, but it is finally ready for sharing:
Click above to see a larger image.
My living room was previously styled in turquoise (my favorite color) but I decided a change was needed. This makeover was primarily accomplished by updating existing accessories and furniture. Come take a look at how I turned my living room/home office into a peaceful yet enjoyable place with a neutral color scheme.
Welcome to the final leg of my living room makeover: the “entertainment center.” It’s not an entertainment center unit per se, but it’s where I have all my books, my TV and electronic toys. Click on the photo to zoom in.
I’ve been a lazy blogger lately. Part of that is due to slacking and the other part is due to working on a project: once again, I’m redecorating my living room. (Newsflash of the year, LOL). And of course, I’ve rearranged the room as I always do when the season changes.
I finally decided to make over my living room with a neutral color scheme. A neutral scheme allows me to easily update the colors with small changes like accessories whenever I decided a change was needed. I still love the turquoise & teal but they now serve as accent colors. Here’s a sneak peek into some of the changes I’ve already implemented…
Even though the wooden room divider/screen was a bust, I used the leftover pieces to paint large wall decor. I also sewed new pillow covers and am working on more. (They’ve got to be the EASIEST way to change up your decor, I swear.) Here’s a tease of the new sitting area:
I love going to the fabric store, even when I don’t need any fabric. I love perusing all the different patterns and touching the fabrics. Last week, I had a motive to go: to create new wall decor.
I’ve contemplated how to decorate the space around my television for some time now. I googled articles and found a great way to have the TV blend into the room was to create a gallery wall behind it (Houzz.com has a great article with images here). I just wasn’t entirely sold on the idea of finding many things to frame. Sure, I have lots of paintings to choose from in my inventory, but most don’t match with the room’s color scheme. So I set out to find a great pattern/print I could instead use for wall decor.
Most of the fabric in turquoise and aquas was too bright for my liking & nothing grabbed me like it should. I’ve learned it’s best to spend money on things that really wow you, be it clothing or decor.
I spotted this fabric a while ago at Joann’s & love the classic, modern pattern. The print wowed me, but I wasn’t entirely sold with it being black and white. And then I had one of the creative epiphanies I love: customize the fabric with markers.
One of my projects for Transformation Turquoise was to create a large piece of art for the living room. I’d considered painting bamboo blinds a while ago when I decided to take down the generic vertical blinds that came with this place. I bought matchstick bamboo blinds at Big Lots for fairly cheap—$5 for 36″ wide?— and hung three of them over my large living room window. (I decided not to paint a design on those.) I’ve also used a set of these blinds in a wall cut-out between the kitchen and living room.
They are matchstick blinds, so they provide sheer coverage since there is more space between the “slats” vs. typical blinds. Because of this and because the matchsticks are rounded, this wasn’t the easiest painting project. For the image to appear more dimensional, I also had to paint my design in between the matchsticks. I was a bit impatient and didn’t want to give in to perfectionism, so I didn’t get too technical with this part of the painting.
As an artist, I prefer to create my own style of decorating and accessories. One of the ways I accomplished this recently was the creation of fabric wall art. I’d love to just paint my walls to add color to my rooms, but as a renter, this is either not allowed or would entail too much work to paint it back. So instead I created some fabric wall art for the new color and design scheme I chose in my living room.
I’ve been furious in my quest for redecorating my apartment lately. I’m revising the color scheme a bit in the living room and have finally determined what to match with this funky countertop I was blessed with in the kitchen:
