Of all the ugly rooms in our house, our living room is probably the least ugly right now. That being said, Spring time seems to do something to me that makes me itch to make my living room just a little better, brighter, and fresher feeling. Not that it’s Spring yet, at all, but Spring thoughts are starting to creep into my head for sure!
A few weeks ago I had the idea to paint out a square of a khaki color above my fantel to kind of hint at the idea of faux architectural detailing. I loved it so much that I added a few more squares on to some other walls in the room and now I love it even more.
Here’s the room about a year ago:
Not quite the same angle, but you get the idea.
Here’s the room closer to when we moved in:
And here’s now!
It’s kind of amazing what you can do with what you already have around the house when you put a little thought into it.
They say that paint and lighting are the most dramatic changes you can make to a room. By painting just the little sections of the walls, it really cut the time down. Maybe an hour total for that portion of it including drying time between coats. When I painted the lampshade, it completely changed the way the light was directed in that corner of the room and really changed the feel.
I brought together a bunch of the pieces from my blue and white collection to tie this area in with the rest of the room.
Adding stuff to the walls really helps to make the whole area feel more like an actual home and less like people are just squatting in here until they get around to doing a “real” renovation in 10 years or so.
I just grabbed a few things out of my cupboards leftover from the old house and hot glued them right to the wall. Same as I always do!
Adding a few clearance flowers from the grocery store never hurts either!
Don’t walk by those clearance flowers! I bought these for $3 and they’re still looking good 13 days later. I’d say that’s a pretty good deal.
Do you have a space that could benefit from a little paint and some hot glue?
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.