“Before” Pics of the Large and Very Brown Living Room

Greetings all!  I hope your week is treating you right :)  I thought I’d post some “before” pics of the downstairs, large living room.  I’ve been up to my elbows in paint and now almost the entire first floor is has fresh paint.  It’s a lovely feeling.  Let’s have a look-y, shall we?

This is the downstairs, large living room.  Before buying this house, I knew right away that this living room would be made over.  It’s not bad, but it’s the only room in the house that has crown molding (if you could call it that…kinda looked like trim on the top of the wall) and painted the baseboard trim dark brown.  The rest of the house has white trim and no crown molding, so it was kind of odd to me.  But, to each their own…whatever floats your boat :)  I’m totally a believer in making a house your own…no judging here :)  The brown just doesn’t fit with our lifestyle.

You can see the paint samples on the wall to the left.  This room is not our main tv room and it houses a lot of the kids’ toys.  We don’t have basements here in the desert, so this is where some of the toys are stored.  If I lived in the Midwest, I’d totally hide all of them down there…toys, not the kids.

All of the furniture is somewhat mis-matched, but I have a partial plan for it.  All things made of wood better watch out because I’m pretty sure you don’t stand a chance in a fight against me with my paintbrush.  I’m in the painting mood and transformations are coming – yey!

Here is the other side of this room.  Looks like Toys R’ Us threw up in here.

I know this pic is blurry, but I thought I’d show you what the crown molding looked like.  I have since taken it down and it’s laying in my garage.  I was going to get rid of it, but think I’ll wait a bit because I might use some of it to frame a mirror upstairs.  Time will tell.  I’ll probably change my mind 10x before deciding what to do with it.

Here is the baseboard trim.  Of course I want to replace it with white trim, but eventually we’d like to put hardwood floors in this room…maybe.  I’m not keen on it right now because I’d like the baby to have carpet when he first starts walking.  Also, the funds just aren’t there.  Such is life :)

I bought this dresser off CL and painted it gray/white and added some fancy knobs to it.  I’d love to keep it, but I’m not sure at this point if I’ll need it for this room.  I REALLY want to put it in my daughter’s room and sell her white dresser/changing table, but she HATES change.  I mean HATES it.  She cries when I get rid of anything.  She’s voiced her concern that I will try and sell her stuff once she starts school this Fall.  Apparently, I must buy/sell stuff too much.  Poor girl :(

I CAN’T WAIT to show you the “after” pics, but I have yet to hang anything on the walls.  Hopefully this weekend?  It is a 3-day weekend, so maybe???

On another note, I’ve had this little blog for a year now.  Crazy!  I haven’t posted as much since having the 3rd bambino, but that’s to be expected.  My goal is to do some updates and change things up a bit.  I have some ideas bouncing around in my head, so hopefully I can figure them out and get it done soon!

Also, it’s Memorial Day weekend.  May we remember that freedom isn’t free, remember those who lost their lives protecting ours.  Memorial Day…A time to honor America’s Heroes!