RenovationsLiving Room Progress October 5, 2015Happy Monday, friends! Nothing like a little reno progress to kick off your week, right? I know some of y’all have been asking and asking for reno updates. I really meant to share more sooner and with the fall tours, getting settled, and the new blog design, I’m just now getting to it. I am officially a crazy person for tackling so much at once….but y’all already knew that, right? I am so excited to share this little dose of our current reality. After the tours, y’all couldn’t believe how far we’d come for only living here a week (now three weeks)! While I do love putting on a pretty tour, I don’t want it to seem that I’m super woman and have a put together, fully-decorated house after a week. Notice I only shared certain areas? You can see the tour here, if you missed it. Today, you’re going to get a real picture of our life: dog beds, baby toys, boxes, unpainted sheet rock and all. One of you commented on the tour, “Man, I’ve lived in my house a year and still have boxes!” Ummm…..here’s where I’m blogging from today (snapped this morning)… Yes, this is the new office right off the kitchen. CHAOS…..but there is a narrow, winding path between the chaos to my desk, so I’m happy. So while we did get the boxes out of our main living areas, mostly, they found other homes for sure. And I apologize in advance for the semi-dark and grainy photos. September in South Carolina has turned us into Seattle and I decided to quit waiting for a sunny day to photograph because it may never come again! These are in-progress shots, after all, so you’ll still get the idea. Before we tour the current living room, if you missed earlier renovation posts, you might want to check them out first. We get asked now a lot if the beams are original or if the fireplace was already here and we just have to laugh remembering how little of the house now was here when we started! You can see the befores here, the renovation floor plan here, and the first two tours of this living and kitchen addition here and here. On to the living room. Gracie wasn’t interested in moving for any of these photos, which I’m fine with. She’s always lying in here, so that’s a realistic picture for sure! This room is still majorly unfinished, not to mention un-decorated, but we’re starting to change that! This view, while it may not seem like it yet, is really going to be the focal point of this room. The fireplace is just about to get some major changes and a big, beautiful chandelier will be hanging down centered in front of it very soon. If you look really closely, you can see where we’ve drawn trim plans onto the sheet rock and crossed some things out. I’m excited about the plans for this that I’ll share later this week! To give you a little picture now, we’re going fairly craftsman with lots of trim, a mantel, and some sconces that you can see the holes for. The living room design is far from finished, obviously. We’re really making do with things now like unmatched side tables and lamps. Some fun chairs are being delivered for this space later this week and I am DYING to see them! They’re really inspiring the rest of the design, so I’m holding off on any other finishes until they get here. We pulled the armchairs in from the porch for more seating until they arrive. One of my absolute favorite things about this space are the windows. It usually (when it hasn’t rained for one week straight) is really bright in here! I love the two narrow windows on either side of the fireplace and the two huge windows that overlook the backyard. While there has been much debate in our house, these windows will be getting curtains. My poor husband worked very hard on this craftsman trim and I feel bad to cover it up, but this space really needs to be softened to me. Nothing does that like curtains. Plus, since it’s open to the kitchen (the cabinets start right on the other side of the window), I think curtains will help define this as a separate space. I love curtains and we had so few windows in our last house, there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to use them. I’m going to make up for it here! I’m sorry, honey, truly I am. As you can see, there are a lot of unfinished little details like adding can lights and finishing the beams. To MAJORLY save cost, we did faux box beams similar to what we did in our last house. You can see one or two in these photos that aren’t finished. We went with a special rough-cut lumber to give it an older, more rustic look that we have to order and we ran out. We’ll be finishing these up soon, but I am loving the effect they give. If y’all remember from this post, we couldn’t decide what we wanted to do with the big, vaulted ceiling. We considered doing white planks with no beams or wood beams. While I would’ve loved to do a combination of the two, that was not in the budget. And now, I am so thankful we did wood beams. To me, they really define this space and contrast against the white. I love contrast, so for me personally, I don’t think I would’ve been 100% satisfied with an all-white ceiling in this space. Plus, I can’t have a room without some rustic influence, so these really bring that in. This little jut-out here is the pantry we decided to add. I know I’ve talked about it before, but a lot of you guys are new here after the tours. It does cut into the living room some, but we desperately needed it for storage. We’ll be adding wall-to-wall built-ins in this space left behind the pantry, so the jut-out won’t be as noticeable. The built-ins won’t be happening for awhile – there are too many things above them on the priority list, though they’ll be awesome when we get to it! This big pantry wall that goes all the way up to the ceiling is a major focal point when you’re sitting in the living room, so I’m making some plans to make it something pretty to look at! Later this week, I’ll share my design plan for this space including the fireplace! I am so excited about how I’m mixing colors and patterns in here. I think it may be my favorite design plan for this house yet! I’ll also be sharing a tour of the current kitchen later this week. It too is far from finished, but it’s still looking pretty! Here’s a little glimpse for you! *** And did y’all see Saturday’s news? I’m so excited to be joining with some other awesome bloggers for a Blogging 101 series starting this Wednesday! You can see details here.
Annie says October 5, 2015 at 12:29 pm I just found your blog after seeing the Blogging 101 pop up in some of the other IG feeds from your contributors. I spent a little bit but need to totally go through your site some more. I love your style! Love that you shared in-progress shots. It is seriously impressive. I have two little ones and getting anything “done” takes forever. I need to get better about sharing “in progress” shots because Pinterest worthy images don’t happen overnight. And I smiled when I saw your baby activity saucer in one shot because it is good to see other real people! Annie- All Things Big and Small Reply
Lindsay says October 5, 2015 at 1:05 pm Annie, I am so glad you found the blog! I love pretty finished rooms, but that’s not always real life around here 🙂 Glad you’re here!! Reply
kelly says October 5, 2015 at 1:04 pm Lindsey, What color did you go with on your kitchen cabinets? I’ve been so waiting to see what you go with? I”m in the process of repainting and I knew you said you were leaning towards a green and I’ve been thinking of going either blue or green? SO, I’m dyeing to know… Lol Reply
Lindsay says October 5, 2015 at 1:08 pm Benjamin Moore Hidden Falls! It’s the perfect dark green with plenty of color without being too black or too green…if that makes sense 🙂 I’ll share more shots and details later this week! Reply
Susan says October 5, 2015 at 4:49 pm the living room is making good progress! I just got my November issue of Country Living magazine and on page 79 you’ll see they did a window treatment that they called “split the difference curtains”. They hung the drapes from the center of the windows. They hang from the center to the floor. They did it to not block their views, but you could do it to not block your husband’s trim work. May be worth looking into. Reply
Lianna@theresnoplacelikehomemke says October 6, 2015 at 7:39 am I agree the beams help define the room – can’t wait to see the big chandelier too! Reply
Lindsay says October 6, 2015 at 12:06 pm Thanks so much, Lianna! We’re hanging it soon and I am DYING to see it and the finished fireplace. That was my first “vision” for this house and seeing it come to fruition will be so fun 🙂 Reply
Sheran says October 6, 2015 at 9:13 am It’s going to be gorgeous. I will admit, I am with your husband on the windows. Please don’t cover them with curtains. They are lovely just as they are! Reply
Lindsay says October 6, 2015 at 12:04 pm Sheran, I know 🙁 I just can’t not do curtains, but I do feel bad! Reply
shar y says October 6, 2015 at 10:05 am It is looking so good! And, all of these sneak peeks and hints will make me wait anxiously for more! I love your kitchen countertop. I assume you will give us the details on that when you do your kitchen post. Only thing missing from the above photos is little Miss Rosie!! Reply
Lindsay says October 6, 2015 at 12:05 pm Yes! I will definitely share the countertop source, green cabinets, and future plans…hint, hint, they’ve changed some! Reply
Shamrock says October 6, 2015 at 5:46 pm I just found your blog a few weeks ago and am now happily following you. I love your style – it is so close to mine. Reply
Lindsay says October 7, 2015 at 11:23 am Thank you so much, I am so glad you’re here! My style keeps evolving as life and I grow and change, but I do love the ride! Reply
Anita says October 16, 2015 at 11:24 am Oh my goodness, what an awesome space!! I just looked back at all the before and progress photos, and you must be totally enjoying this whole process:-) I love seeing an old house given new life with a vibrant young family… Reply