I love the built-in bookshelves and fireplace that we installed in the living room last fall, but there was just one little thing that was really bugging me. So here’s the little change I made to our living room built-ins!
It’s little mistakes like these that just remind me that if you’re smart, you’ll hire a designer when you’re planning your larger home projects. It’s not that fixing this was a big issue, or costly at all, but it’s always a little disappointing when you realize that you don’t totally love something that you worked so hard on. I think it was kind of a “here we go again” kind of a moment for Chris because I just can’t seem to stop painting things white around here. 🙂 Luckily, I’m very happy with it now, so it will be staying like this for a good long time.
What I Got Wrong With the Built-Ins
So here’s how the built-ins looked when we first finished up this project.
And here’s how they look now:
Sconces | Coffee Table (similar) | Machine Washable Rug | Colorblock Vase | Beaches Book | LL Bean Book | Coastal Blues Book | Ralph Lauren Book | Lee Radziwill Book | Blue and White Chinoiserie Book: Elements of Family Style | Made for Living Book | Pale Blue Throw | Whale Paperweight | Rattan Plant Basket
Can you spot the difference?
The cabinets with the glass doors that we used for the bottom closed section of the built-ins had natural maple interiors. I thought it would be a nice detail to leave them the natural wood color.
It turns out that it was not and it just looked unfinished to me. Oops! You live, you learn.
So I decided to just go for it and paint the interiors recently and I’m so happy I did. I just looks so fresh and clean now, don’t you think? It’s a small change, but I feel like I’m finally fully happy with this wall.
A Few Summer Decor Updates
While we’re here, I thought I could share a few little things I’ve done in here to make things a bit more summery, just for fun.
My main focus was to bring in a few seagrass-colored pieces and then layer in even more rattan than I usually have in here. Those two things just say “summer” to me.
Sconces | Coffee Table (similar) | Machine Washable Rug | Colorblock Vase | Beaches Book | LL Bean Book | Coastal Blues Book | Ralph Lauren Book | Lee Radziwill Book | Blue and White Chinoiserie Book: Elements of Family Style | Made for Living Book | Pale Blue Throw | Whale Paperweight | Rattan Plant Basket
I found the Japanese fishing float on the shelf to the left a few years ago at an outdoor market and it reminded me of the floats that we used to see for sale everywhere when my Grandma used to take me to Haida Gwaii (which was called the Queen Charlotte Islands back then) in B.C. when I was growing up. So I love to bring that out every year for summer.
I scattered a few summery books out on the coffee table and clipped some giant hosta leaves from the garden for an easy, long-lasting arrangement, and suddenly it feels like summer. 🙂
Vase | Coastal Blues Book | Gray Malin Beaches Book | Similar Coffee Table (better deal)
Do you always go back and make changes to projects you do around the house, or do you just hire a designer and get it right the first time?
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- Our IKEA Farmhouse Sink – 5 Years Later
- Inexpensive Faux Board and Batten Wall
- Before and After: The Front Porch Project One Year Later
- The Creek Line House DIY and Renovating Archives
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.