Before and After: The Living Room

During my last Before and After post, I shared photos from our bathroom remodel.  The changes we made to the living room weren't quite as dramatic, but it was still a significant improvement.  If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you'll have already seen the "after" photos, but the "before" photos will give you an idea of what we were working with.

Before

The wallpaper wasn't completely unbearable, but I am so not a fan of borders!  Or broken window treatments, for that matter.

One advantage in the living room (and also in the bedrooms, as you'll eventually see) is the gorgeous parquet floors.  A quick coat of Rejuvenate had them looking brand new.

During

Taking down the wallpaper in the living room was mercifully easy (unlike the master bedroom and the kitchen, but that's a story for another time!). After that we primed: 

Yes, that is a a stuffed Superman doll in the photo below. It used to belong to Glen, but now it belongs to Elvis. ;-) 

We painted the walls Senora Gray by Benjamin Moore: 

After
 

At first we just used our old couches from our apartment, which were tan and didn't really go well with the whole gray, red and espresso color scheme, but about a year ago we replaced them with gray ones that match the tone of the room much better: 

And even more recently, we gave the fireplace a facelift.  It's not terribly evident in these pictures, but the base color went from cream to bright white.  We also got rid of the embellishments on the front and painted the formerly-honey-colored trim black. 

We nearly originally planned to get ride of that recliner next to the fireplace because we never use it, but Elvis seems to like napping there, so it stayed.  Because contrary to what we like to believe, our dog is apparently the boss of us. 

And last, but not least, the fireplace, which did not work when we both the house nearly 3 years ago, got fixed just in time for this past Christmas:

Up next: the dining room!