My New Living Room

I feel like we've been working on the living room for a really long time now.  We have been, though it's been a Go, then Stop process.  After so long, we are finally close to being done!

Stripping wallpaper is the worst thing ever.  If there is a Hell, you can be assured that will be one of chores one will be forced to do for a few hundred years.  Removing the paper itself was easy.  It's the leftover paint glue that makes everything so difficult.  The wallpaper here had a date on the back.  1978.  It was as old as I am.  Insert facepalm here.

So I stripped away the paper, and very slowly scrubbed every inch of wall.  John was very useful here, I tell you.  It's very hard for a 5'3 person to scrub the very top of her walls.  After scrubbing, and drying, paint went up.  This was a slow process.  I managed to get a small chunk of the room done back in March. And it was only last week that we did the rest.  Though, here's a guilty confession, I still need to do one more coat on one wall.

Stick to 2 shelves, or add more?

The room was instantly nicer with the paint.  It looks totally different, at least to me.  And I love the contrast that I created with the dark and light paint.  It really worked out well.  I painted the ugly wood paneling on the fire place wall with the darker brown, without smoothing out the lines.  It's a bit noticeable, but it looks so much better than that paneling.  I also added the shelves, which I just love.  Places to put things!  I'm still debating on adding another shelf.  I'd also love to add a wall sconce, plus our wall art.

I'm still deciding on painting the fireplace, and might consider getting new glass doors at some point.  I've also decided to make a fireplace cushion to fit over that stone bench there, though it's not needed at this point.  For our summer arrangement, we're putting our love seat back in the living room, and assembling our giant couch.

I love my corner shelf!

On the TV side of the room, I painted this corner shelf, and put it up.  It wasn't too hard to hang, though I wish the shelf was a bit better quality.  I wouldn't put anything too heavy on it, but it's perfect for little items that add of personality to the room.  John and I are still discussing TV stands- we are both considering eliminating the stand completely, and attaching the TV to the wall.  We think this is the best route, as it would help increase space, plus reduce the amount of fingerprints messy children fingers put on our screen.  However, wiring becomes an issue, as does mobility.

So that's what's been done so far.  I'm pretty happy about it all, and should have the rest of the painting and shelves done by the end of this week.  I'm crossing my fingers that maybe, just maybe I can get our wall decor up as well, and I'm hoping to find my cute curtain rod.  I bought a cute set of curtains, but they are hung on the wrong type of rod.  And I need plants now.  That's like the ultimate final touch, at least for me.