Living Room Make-Over

Living room Status Update:

For the last few months I've been focusing my attention on adding a more personal touch to my living room.  It's the room we spend most of our time in watching movies, playing with little dude, watching t.v., folding laundry, and storing things that have no other home.  The whole storing things with no home in the living room is not going to continue...eventually everything will have a home (or at least I keep telling myself that).  I really want my living room to be comfortable, uncluttered and to feel pulled together.  Due to budget constraints we will be keeping the key pieces of furniture in the room and I'm kind of excited about that.  It means I get to put my creative juices to work to figure out how to make them work and to look fabulous.  Eventually, the plan is to ditch the massive corner t.v. cabinet and replace the whole thing with a wall-mounted flat screen t.v.  That will give me so many more options for arranging the furniture because it isn't dictated by the t.v. in the corner.  Until then, this is what we've got to work with and I think it will work out great.

When I start to think about a decorating project I usually like to take stock of what I've got to work with before I get started.  This way, I can start crossing things off my list right away and I can also see where I'm going to need to focus my resources.  Here's what's going on in my living room.

This couch doesn't look like much but it's so comfy.  We don't have the money to replace them so we are happy to use them.  I think eventually I'd like to make slip covers for them but that may be later on down the road.










Furniture & accessories in the room:

- two really comfy brown chenille couches
- 8 throw pillows (that came with the couches but are losing their fluff)
- 1 upholstered rectangular ottoman in desperate need of recovering
- 1 piano
- 1 book shelf
- 1 giant buffet/storage piece

Lighting:
- it's pretty HORRIBLE and dark - YUCK!
- 1 ugly ceiling fan with lights
- 1 table lamp complete with yellowed shade

We need storage help!

Other Challenges:
- the living room is a walk-through to get from one side of the house to the other so there needs to be a clear path
- the lighting is HORRIBLE...did I already mention that?!
- we would like to have as much seating as possible
- zero storage (except for the buffet but that holds all of my dining room type stuff)
- all of the wood furniture, wait, ALL of the furniture is dark.  Add that to a dark room and sometimes my living room feels like a cave.  I'd like it to feel more like an open oasis.

So there you have it - the good, the bad and the ugly.  I'm not really sure how this is going to work out but I'm excited to put my creativity to work for us and to make our dream a reality.