Living Room Design Plan

Five months in, I am finally feeling motivated to start attacking the house. The only problem is that I have had too many ideas floating around in my head, and couldn't decide where to start. One thing I have known for sure since before we moved was that I wanted to go neutral in the living room and dining room, and tie them together with the same color. Decor style is going to move toward casual modern cottage, with lots of black and white and pops of blue and green. I'll add in leather and wicker for natural elements, and also to avoid upholstery for our kids with dust mite allergies. Easy to wipe off, as opposed to our current furniture.

Now step one is complete! After painting eight different Benjamin Moore "greige" (grey/beige) colors on poster board, and moving them about the house in various lighting, I went with "Classic Gray." Home Depot mixed up the perfect color match in a flat non-VOC interior paint, and after three days of painting, the dining room and living rooms are complete! Why flat? The walls are super imperfect, so flat with hide the flaws, vs something with more of a sheen that would highlight them. 

I say three days of painting . . . but day #1 went something like this:

"I'm finally motivated to paint! Time to pick a color and get going. We'll head to the store right after chores and breakfast, I'll patch holes when we get back, and then can get the rooms cut out before lunch and roll them tonight."

Then Jude started puking, and my day suddenly revolved around making sure Netflix kept running endless episodes of Zoboomafoo and Angelina (yes, both the kids love Andgelina), and serving up ginger ale and crackers in 15 minute intervals.

End of Day #1 of painting found me checking out of Home Depot at 9 p.m., with grand plans for the next day. 

Day's 2 & 3 went pretty much according to plan, except instead of one day of painting it was 2 days and 2 coats. Which I should have expected, as I tend to underestimate by half the time it will take me to do any DIY.  Especially when Dawson is going thru a clingy phase and is only happy when being held. Which you can imagine does not speed painting along.  

And after telling you that the painting is done, any reasonable human would expect to then see Before and After pictures. But I still don't have any. So instead, I decided to give you a teaser of the design plan I have been working on for the living room. Keep in mind that it doesn't show the wall artwork I have planned, and looks a little bland as it also doesn't show some of the other pieces that will add in more color. And it wouldn't be our space it it didn't have COLOR. 

At any rate, here is a preliminary peek, and I'll be back with B&A's as well as a breakdown of how I plan to get this living room for under $1K, because I am on a tight budget for this house! Lot's of craigslisting and creativity needed. Plus buying my ideal rug at 75-90% off.