My Living and Dining Room Makeover

I'm so excited to finally share this with you! Our home went through quite the transformation with the help of a lot of paint. First, lets go back to where we started! The walls were white (and dirty) and the trim was all wood.

The dining room was yellow. There wasn't anything wrong with the yellow but once everything else was painted, it stood out too much. Dining room before:

My starting point was a single picture from Eddie Ross. Isn't he amazing?! Anyway, I loved this pic of the white secretary against the gray walls. I knew this was going to be my color scheme.

I almost didn't post this week because of this.....my couch cushions are at the cleaners thanks to a little puppy named Tucker. I decided to post anyway because hey, this is supposed to be a real life blog. And in real life, I have a puppy that requires my cushions to go to the cleaners. At least I had these euro pillows to throw on there until the real ones come back.

And here is the living room! After many paint samples, the winner was Coventry Gray by Benjamin Moore. I will admit it is bluer than I expected but I really do love it! The ceilings are painted Wickham Gray, also Benjamin Moore. I'm really happy with how high it makes the ceiling feel. With the ceilings being a color, your eye doesn't have a stopping point. I was worried it would feel closed in but, in fact, the painted ceiling did the opposite.

View from the kitchen:

View up the stairs. I decided to do the spindles on the stair railing white and the banister black. It was hard to swipe that first bit of black on it but I'm so glad I did.

Upstairs hallway....

My family wall I'm still working on....

Ready to go back downstairs?

Now I have the perfect spot for my laptop. After having it in the kitchen for a while, it just wasn't working. I'm much happier at the secretary. My mom is embroidering birds for me to go on the wall there to the left. She'll have them done very soon, right mom? No pressure!

The armoire had faux tin panels in the front. It felt a bit too "country" for the room so I painted them white and did some antiquing of course.

I shopped around for a ceiling fan that deserved to be in this room. I wanted something white, functional but also pretty.

The new foyer chandelier is from Home Depot. My hubby had a great time putting all those little crystals on. ;)

These switch covers were a bit of a splurge but I think the little details are so important!

One of my favorite pics of my daughter Ella and our Sheltie when they were both much smaller...

It just wouldn't be my house without ceiling tiles hanging on the walls.

I'm still deciding if I want to paint the french doors or leave them alone.

This rocker is going to be painted white and recovered. I bought two fabrics because I can't make up my mind. Either this floral......

Or this solid that reminds me of linen. What do you think?

A small cake stand makes a great coaster next to the couch.

This armchair was my husband's find at a flea market. It's chipping and glued together in spots but we love it!

The window treatments were purchased at a high end retail store and cost a lot of money.

Did you believe me?? Naw, I didn't think so, you know me too well for that! They were purchased at Walmart. The roman shades are a jute and have a cute frayed edge and the sheers are from their Better Homes and Gardens collection.

For this empty wall at the bottom of the steps, I'm planning a coat rack made out of vintage doorknobs. I'm on the hunt for some locally so I don't have to pay shipping online.

Lets move on to the dining room!

Summer is upon us, what better way to celebrate than with sea shells?

That's the full tour, thank you so much for allowing me to show you around! There are still odds and ends to finish up but the house is so comfy now. I'm sure I'll find new treasures to fill it up but I don't want to rush it. Having the room a bit empty gives me something to look forward to....a summer full of yard sales and flea markets. Yay!