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Our Living Room Reveal

Our Living Room Reveal

You guys here is our living room all done!!! It has quickly surpassed the studio as my favorite room in the house. I just love, love, love the space. Matt and I were sitting in here the other night and we both agreed this is the living room we’ve always dreamt of and now it’s here and we get to enjoy it. I mean… pinch me. Eeeek. I’m sharing a complete tour below with all the products linked including my favorite article furniture pieces that we used in the master bedroom as well, and a few DIY ideas we worked into the space.

Since I know we have so many new readers every month, here’s a bit of a recap of the work we’ve done so far on our #FestiveHome.

And before I get ahead of myself, let’s all remember how far this space has come…

LIving room before & after

Here was the living room as we moved into it and our festive home demo photos. This space served as both the living and dinning room for the former residents and was way too small for either space for our lively family who loves to entertain. We moved the dining to the other side of the kitchen (that reveal coming this spring as well), and busted down the dividing wall to make one living space that totally fits our family’s needs.

Sven Sofa

The first thing I need to discuss is the SOFA!!! We worked with what is now my favorite living brand Article to bring the sofa, rug and coffee table into the space. Last year during the original demo we traded in my beloved green sofa of 10 years for a mid-century modern green one that while pretty, felt less than comfortable. Okay, in all actuality it felt like sitting on a log. OUCH! For the last year I have bemoaned the giving away of my ragged old and super comfy sofa. I’d like to say I spoke my disappointment kindly but really… I whined that I did not have a comfy place to fall into at the end of the day.

Then we opened up the SVEN sectional, in Cascadia Blue velvet!

Oh boy…

This velvet is my dream fabric. It provides both a pretty high-shine glam look and a promise to hide all the imperfections that a sofa with kids has to be ready to make disappear. The best of all worlds. Since it is sometimes hard to tell from photos online, let me just review the fact that this sofa has medium-firm seat cushions for support and medium-soft back cushions for comfort – making it our new favorite sofa for end of day lounging. This sofa is everything I missed about our old one, but made modern and so much better.

Wallpaper + Molding

Our Living Room Reveal

Because the living room is a long rectangular space, we decided to divide it up into sections. It works great for party seating and also for weekend evenings at home when one kid wants to read, one wants to play a game on the coffee table, and someone else is watching the game. I love having the space to set up mini-vignettes to make space for everyone’s different relaxing style.

For our sofa lounge area we used the TEXA rug which is like a sweater for our plank wood floors. The rug is sophisticated, soft wool in a timeless neutral it will go with every redesign we may do to the space and it’s an easy spot for the kids to sit and play.

We also replaced a faux marble coffee table we had gotten last year with the much nicer MARA coffee table. Although, I am forever a fan of faux everything – This is one area where I will say get the real thing! Although faux marble sounds nice and is super cheap… for a coffee table it chipped easily and in a matter of months we were left with a table that looked more like broken wood than marble. This coffee table from Article doesn’t even cost that much more than my faux version, but as a real slab it is classy, timeless and on-trend. It won’t chip and provides the perfect place for all those board games, book readings and even my photo flat-lays!

Sconces

sconce love

One of the bigger projects we did was install these three sconces across the sofa wall. In every living room we’ve lived in, light by the sofa is an issue. We are all avid readers and having good overhead light for whatever reason doesn’t ever seem to be big on any builders hit list, ever! Have you noticed this? Builders are like… one little light in the center and we are done. Why!!?!

We had a friend who knew what he was doing come over and help us with this project – it involved going up into the attic and running new cords to this part of the wall. It was one of those projects I was super nervous about, but it was actually fairly simple to do and now we know how to do it – so expect sconces on every wall, everywhere moving forward! ;)

That’s the thing about a lot of home improvement projects, they aren’t normally that difficult as long as you know what you are doing. Trading work with friends has been a huge way we’ve been able to accomplish so much of this renovation on our own.

Faux marble bunny

Along the wall we also created a faux molding using 1×3 wood planks and a small shelf at top for resting artwork and other necessities. I’m already imagining how pretty this will be with strands of garland during the holidays. We followed this tutorial pretty much to a T for installing the molding on the wall, leaving out the top square for simplicity. It is one of the easiest projects we’ve done yet and makes a huge statement on the wall. We measured, had the wood cut and nailed it into the wall. I knew I wanted a big graphic wall paper on top, thankfully the texture/pattern combo really makes the room spring to life.

The wallpaper we chose is this PALMS print from Chasing Paper. It is removable which makes it an easy switch if our style changes and we want to replace it someday, or if we ever decide to sell the house. I’ve now put up all 3 types of wallpaper in this house and it’s been a fun experiment working with all three: water based, glue based and this temporary version which goes on as easy as contact paper (remember how we made our own wallpaper from contact paper?). Let me assure you… this one looks much, much nicer. I was surprised by the thickness and awesome quality coming from something non-permanent.

If you’d like to try your hand at hanging the wallpaper Chasing Paper is offering my readers a discount code 10% off any style on their site. So nice! Just use code ASR for 10% off when checking out.

Chasing paper palm print wallpaper

The graphic punch this wallpaper brings is great fun and really sets the stage for a space that looks complete! All without the age old (what to hang above the sofa???) issue.

Livingroom love

Although, I did still find something little to hang. I mean a marble bunny head, how could you not? ;)

Rocket chairs

Record & rocket chair love

chairs

The entrance to our house opens almost directly into this space so we wanted to keep the first section ruggless and free for kiddos to play and purses to be swung down. We received one of these rocket chairs to try out and we loved it so much we quickly purchased another. They are equal parts comfortable and firm, and they’re a great spot to sit and listen to a record or read a book while the kids play below.

PINK fireplace

And now onto the fireplace!!!! OMG. You guys, I have a pink fireplace (and I drop the mic right there on my home dreams forever!).

When we initially purchased the house this fireplace butted up to a wall and had a gas stove in it and was really sad looking. Last year I had the gas stove removed, because wood burning fireplaces are everything cozy during our crazy winter snow storms and we have central heat so the stove wasn’t serving a very functional purpose. Since the brick was already painted white, I had no qualms with painting over it and we may paint it again someday, but right now the rose pink is a fun detail and makes the space feel happy and fresh.

We also updated the mantel with a concrete finish. Since the living room opens right into our kitchen where we have concrete counters it helps the spaces flow together to repeat this material here. Since laying the diy concrete countertops was a crazy huge project, we have no plans to do it again anytime soon! Instead, I loved this idea of using a faux finish so we tried it out.DIY Concrete Mantel

To make a similar mantel you will need:

 

The great thing about this type of mantel is that you don’t need to get a solid piece of wood for the top, purchasing a hollow design is lighter to hang and the seams won’t be noticeable at all when covered with concrete, this saves a lot of money on the finished piece.

1. Once the mantel is cleaned and ready, mix the concrete per package instructions.

2. Put the concrete onto the mantel and allow to dry. The Instagram story above we shot showing the super easy process.

3. Once the concrete is set, sand and seal. Note, in these photos the mantel has not been sealed yet, we are planning on sealing it when we re-seal our countertops later this month.

Pink balloon filled fireplace - LOVE

DIY Concrete Fireplace Mantel

This is how the fireplace looks on a non-balloon filled day. Love this fireplace screen we found last year. It makes having a fire safe with the kids, but isn’t ugly. It is surprising to me how hard of a bar that is to set with fireplace screens. Have you noticed that? This one does the trick though.

PINK fireplace

Although, filing a fireplace with balloons is obviously better than burning wood.

Stay Awhile

I love that this room is finally finished and ready for us to stay awhile relaxing in. This space was so fun to create! xoxo

Living Room Sources: Sofa / Coffee Table / Large grey rug / Animal print rug / Mantel wood base / Mantel concrete finish / Palms wall paper (use code: ASR for 10% off) / Rocket Chair / Record Player / Hot pink recordFireplace screen / Woven basket / Stay awhile poster / Mini-globe / Sconces / Overhead light / Pillows on chairs / Curtains / Triangle vase hanging

(Photography ©A Subtle Revelry by Ashlyn Savannah Photo).

4 Comments

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  1. Fantastic it’s very creatively I’m really love sofa look nice and matching with the background ,
    Really appreciate thanks for sharing the value post !!!!

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