Shades of Blue - ORC Week 2-Living Room Makeover

We are on week 2 of our journey to a redesigned living room. I am a guest participant in the One Room Challenge presented by Calling It Home and House Beautiful. It happens twice a year once, Fall and Spring.  There are 20 featured designers and bloggers who present their room makeovers over a 6 week period. You are able to see the progress every Wednesday and on Thursday the guest participants join in for the fun! You can view the progress on all the rooms by visiting the link, and following the hashtag, #oneroomchallenge. 

​Here is the room we started with on this challenge. The space is more appropriately referred to as a family room, it’s is where we spend most of our time. It also holds guitars and amps, my corner office and the puppy toys. The space has been defined. What stays? Blue denim sleeper sofa, TV placement, and corner office space. Next question: What I don’t like about the space? Layout is off balance. Curtains are too low, and curtain rod is sagging. Two oversized bulky chairs, a large TV cabinet that no longer holds the large TV. (It actually holds my fax/printer machine and lots of old paperwork. Yeah, more de-cluttering!) The ottoman has leather that is falling off and I temporarily (3 years later) fixed the eye sore by covering it with fabric. The green paint on wall is 15 years old, it needed a fresh and new color. 

​How I decided on wall color? Sample swatches! I really wanted to avoid buying sample paints and putting paint colors all over the wall. Sherwin Williams for Pros, allows us to get 8x10 samples of all of their colors. So I narrowed my color selections to neutral gray-blues, and bold dark blue options, and ordered the large paint samples. I proceeded to tape them to each wall and observe it day and night to see how it worked in the space.  I never pick out paint color in the store; you have to see the color in your home. I really like the Sea Salt SW color and also Silvermist. I would have liked to use Sea Salt for most of the walls, but I was out voted in the family huddle;/ Silvermist was used on most of the walls, with Sea Salt on the sliding door wall and inside the arch ways, my husband’s idea. Compromise always!

​While painting the walls, I noticed that the previous painter covered portion of the ceiling with the green. Knowing we wanted to add crown molding at some point we figured adding it now would fix that issue;) So after painting all the walls, the crown molding was installed with primer and caulk, thus requiring me to paint again. Also the installation did not include the semi-gloss coats. A must when you’re having crown molding installed, they must paint it also! Painting crown molding is a daunting 2-coat, neck aching task! Up, down, move ladder, repeat, 20 times! Recommended highly, that crown molding installation includes painting. It does make a significant difference in the space though.

The new slidong door was installed. The previous door lost the screen years ago and was very difficult to open. The installation team who installed our door, also installed the crown molding. While installing the door, he sold his other services to us. Happy to use local small businesses;)

​Sneak peak: I have a feature wall that I am working on in the space. I can do whatever I want to the wall as long as I keep the mirror. So after many pins on pinterest for options, I decided on a dark blue for top half wall and removable wallpaper on the bottom. Eventually I would like to do cement tile and an electric fireplace, in the future. I found a great pattern that seems to go well in the space and the white background of the wall paper will lighten the area. I have always wanted a mantel so I am attempting to float a wood mantel in the middle. Using my wall samples this is the intended outcome. Progressing to a lovable space!