My Living Room and Kitchen Update...Long Overdue!

Well, the summer is keeping me busy with traveling and visiting friends....but that is not an excuse for my lack of posts the past couple of weeks:(  I have been busy with a few clients and I have also been busy with updating our living room and kitchen. It has been a lot of fun and I am loving the results so far. I hope you do to. It is always a lot easier to do designs for others than it is for yourself and we have changed our look a lot and both the hubby and I are really happy with it!

So here are some before shots of our living room. We recently moved back in, so these are photos we took the day we were moving back in, sorry for my lack of expertise......

Like in most older homes, the room is quite small and has low ceilings but we are trying to give the room an open feel and make it feel clutter free. That I have to say is really hard! But this quote from Leonardo Da Vinci reminds of why I love smaller rooms...

"Small 

rooms or 

dwellings 

discipline 

the mind, 

Large ones 

weaken it."

I made a design board like I do for all my clients and that is found here. We painted the walls Benjamin Moore's Revere Pewter and gave all the trim a fresh coat of Super White and it brought a fresh clean feeling that we were looking for. We are not quite done yet with wall decor and some other furnishings but I wanted to share some of what we have done so far! Do you like it?? I know it is not every one's taste but I love the neutral backdrop and the mix of metals and ceramic pieces together.

The other side of the room is not finished...so that will be coming soon. We did paint the built in and replaced the knobs with those great little ones from Anthropologie. A few more additions and tweaks and it should be done. Built ins are very hard to style and next week I am going to do a post on tips for putting them together.

Also, we did a couple of updates in the kitchen. We hung a small gallery wall of photos which used to be in another room. I set them quite high but I feel like it draws the eye upwards and gives a little more height to our 7 1/2 foot ceilings. Adding the upholstered chairs makes it feel a bit more formal and gives the table a presence. We picked up those goodies at Marshalls for $99.00 each, love it when you can find a good deal!

Then there is this small wall next to our front door that never gets used. So we set up this small table with some candles and pretty things that I love!

 When all is said and done....I will get professional photos taken and share the finished space! Thanks for reading today and for following.

I wanted to ask you my readers...

What is specific design challenge you are having in your home? Write to me about it and I will post some suggestions that all can benefit from especially me!!