Living Room Inspiration

I am once again finding myself searching for ways to keep up my blog - and keep it about 906 - without having constant projects to write about. Blogging about my adventures in cooking has been fun, and I certainly plan to continue it, but there's so much more to the house than just the kitchen! With that in mind, I turned to my new favorite blog This Young House for some design inspiration. Today's posting focuses on a living room makeover that is so drastically different from the starting point that it's hard to believe it's the same room. I immediately zoned in on the elements of the room that match my eventual hopes for my own living room - the breezy curtains across the huge window (something I love about our house but am constantly torn about what to do with), and the modern graphic rug, which pulls all of the room's colors together and adds a little fun for a completely cohesive final product.

I decided to take one of the photos of the "beachy" living room and throw in my own couch to see how it all matched up. I also replaced the bit of carpeting in the original photo with a google image of a hardwood floor, as we have. Finally, I threw in some pillows from Pillows and Throws to cover up the ugly pillows in the stock photo of the couch.


At first glance, I thought this rug might be a bit too much blue, seeing as our walls are a blueish gray, but this photo of a closely-colored dining room with the rug in place settled my thoughts on that right away.


While I'm pretty convinced that this rug is exactly what I've been looking for, it's definitely more expensive than I'd like - probably because it's from Pottery Barn, which has some decent sales but tends to still be out of my price range. Either way, I'm always on the hunt for pieces that I think will tie up a room and finally make it feel "finished", and this rug fits right in on that list!

As I mentioned before, my major dilemma tends to revolve around window treatments at the house. Because of this, we have plain white blinds in our bedroom and on the one kitchen window, and off-white roman shades in the extra bedroom and office. The living room and dining room are aching for some curtains, but I just can't seem to settle on any! I did get the navy blue panels for the dining room that I mentioned before, but without even hanging them I can already tell that they are going to need something more... and I'm not sure what that's going to be just yet. :) I spent some time thinking Ikea curtain panels were the answer to all my problems, but (as usual) changed my mind. Now I'm thinking some simple bamboo blinds and plain white panels like the living room makeover above might work perfectly!