Downstairs Progress

Hi there!  Well this has taken me way longer than I wanted to share the other rooms downstairs progress, but I found the chance today to take some pictures. Yay!  Our house was somewhat put together, and Weston was able to come home early this morning before going back in for another call shift this afternoon/tonight.  So he played with Hannah's Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals upstairs (we're big into Pooh in this house right now), and I could hear them having a tea party while I snapped some pictures.  I love hearing them play.  Daddy is the best at pretend play.

And I would just like to say here that the keyword is progress.  It's mostly for myself that I let you know that.  I have yet to get the pictures, art, pillows, side tables, lamps, and all the things that will make these rooms instantly ours and homey.  The main improvement was the painting.  Like I said in the other post, I have painted every piece of trim in the rooms we've painted.  And you can't tell in pictures how badly they needed it, but it's a huge improvement in person to me.

In the living room, I ordered online these mix of modern and traditional wing back chairs from One Kings Lane.  And the rug I ordered online as well from Joss and Main.  For a natural woven rug, it's pretty comfortable underfoot.  And Hannah loves to be on it for some reason.

The other things for the living room I'd like to do are these:

• Add more color and pattern with pillows on the couch and chairs
• Gallery of wall art with pictures and meaningful pieces to our family
• Floor lamp
• Console table for the one sidewall at the stairs
• Circular upholstered ottoman with a tray to serve as a coffee table or foot rest
• Small table or garden stool between the two winged back chairs

And finally here is the family room's progress!  We hired professional painters to tackle this room and our tall, narrow stairwell.  They knocked this out in a half day.  Something that would have atleast taken Weston and I a whole weekend.  Plus there's no risk of us breaking our necks.  It was a win/win y'all.  The color we continued with in this room and the stairwell is Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter.

Progress

Before

So in addition to the paint, we've hung curtains and raised our new curtain rods.  Those rods that were in the before picture were left by the previous owner.  They were mismatched and too low and small scaled in my opinion.  We also found a mirror that Weston calls our "Game of Thrones" mirror from Kirklands.  I originally ordered panels for this room from JC Penney's, but they were not what I was looking for when I saw them in person.  So I found these through Country Curtains, and these are beautiful in person.  They're called a Soft Tweed fabric, and they're lined and everything.  It may be one of my favorite purchases for the house so far.  Always worth it to take something back and hold out for exactly what you want.

We have also ordered some swivel chairs to go on the other side of the coffee table from the couch.  We'll move that little slipper chair on the right upstairs to the guest room for now.  The chairs should be coming in before the holidays, and you'll never believe where we ended up ordering them from...the local baby store.  When we were looking at the furniture stores, it was difficult finding smaller scaled swivel chairs that looked good and comfortable plus not costing a fortune.  I told Weston I love our swivel, rocker in Hannah's nursery.  It was a Best brand chair, and I knew the quality and price was good.  So we headed over one morning to USA baby, and less than an hour later, we left with two chairs ordered!

The fireplace has already been nice to use several times this year!  Can't believe how quickly it's turned to winter.  The fireplace screen was ordered from Ballard Designs.

Progress

  

Before

The other items we'd like to accomplish in this room would be:

• Sofa table behind couch
• End tables
• Larger rug
• Different throw pillows for the couch and new throw pillows for the swivel chairs
• Maybe new barstools 
• New drum lampshade

And then we have the kitchen which hasn't changed much other than the paint.  It is actually a different color than the rest of the living space downstairs.  It looks very similar in certain light, but it actually a couple shades darker.  I went with Benjamin Moore's Silver Fox.  This room Weston and I painted one day.  The trim and cutting in for a kitchen was not fun in the least, but it's done.

Progress

 

Before

 

Progress

 

Before

 

Not a significant change, but we like the new color.  The tan clashed with the adjoining family room when we had it painted.  So it bumped up how quickly we painted the kitchen.  Other items down the road would be these:

• Rug for under the sink
• New rug for eat in kitchen area
• New table and chairs that aren't barstool height
• New backsplash
• Maybe update cabinets in a few years

Thanks for taking a look at what I've been working on!  It's really fun to share, and I love the feedback  and ideas you share.