A Few Touch-Ups

Okay, okay.  I know I said I wasn't going to Keep Up with the Jones', but I have to admit that I've been preoccupied with home-improvement the past couple days.  I blame a lot of it on Pinterest.  The little voice of reason in my head who questions, "Do you really need that?" is getting drowned out by all my excited thoughts of various projects.

We don't have a lot of money to spend, so we can only do so much.  For instance, our living room faces north.  It's really dark in there, especially compared to our sunny yellow south-facing kitchen with patio doors.  The previous owners had painted the room a beige color, which we're fine with, except they painted one wall and the connecting corridor a terra cotta reddish-brown.  It really added to the weight of the room.

The red-brown wall, as seen from standing in our bright yellow kitchen.  The beige walls are in the background.

We both hated that accent wall.  Luckily, the previous owners left the cans of paint, and there was plenty more beige.  After Emmie went to bed one night, Bruce easily changed the color.

Bye, bye, accent wall!

We didn't have enough tape to do the corridor, but the living room itself feels spacier and is brighter now!

The other factor in the darkness of the room is the heavy, hunter green microfiber Roman shades hanging over the windows, also left by the previous owners.  During the day I would only pull them open about one-quarter of the way, because the front of our house is very close to the neighbor's driveway, and I don't like people being able to see in.

Yesterday, we used a store credit we had at our local hardware store to buy sheer white curtains and a curtain rod.  Bruce hung the curtains right over the shades, so now I can pull the shades open all the way during the day, and the curtains let in plenty of light while still managing our privacy.  The soft, billowy effect of the curtains also makes the room feel airier.

Eventually, we want to paint all the wood trim in our house white, to update and soften it, but that's for another time.  My next project is to paint our awful, hand-me-down, 1980's oak coffee table white and distress it to look shabby chic!  We are trying to do what we can with what we have.  I'd love to get a new couch cover (ours is blue right now - ew!), or better yet, a new couch, but it's not in the budget right now.

One step at a time.  We want to throw a housewarming party next month, so there are several things I'd like to do before that.  Otherwise, I'm trying to remind myself that we have a whole lifetime to renovate this house!