house progress: the living room

After 26 days of being in this house, I finally feel excited about one of the rooms. I've been excited about the potential for every single space in this house, but the to-do lists and paint buckets and unpacked boxes have gotten in the way a little bit. But we're making progress, people!

First, let me tell you a story about paint.

I picked out paint colors weeks ago and when Andrew's parents came to help with the move, they got the first coat up in the living room. Shoreline by Valspar. A lovely buttercream color that just made me feel so happy as it was going up.

Notice the fireplace because it got a makeover, too.

But then it dried. And it just felt off. There was a touch of green to it that I didn't like. Even after the second coat, it just wasn't working for me. And so, after two weeks of trying to make it work, I finally gave myself the permission to repaint. Hooray!

Six samples later, I landed on the perfect color. Faint Maple by Valspar, lightened by 25%. I'm picky, no? Luckily, they were able to adjust the formula in a gallon of Shoreline I had leftover, so I only had to buy one more gallon. Hooray again!

I tell you this so that you can appreciate all the work that went into this room. And now I'll show you the quick picture I took today. This particular styling includes unhung pictures, two drinks on the coffee table, a dog toy, a bag of candy on the end table and a folded up highchair against the wall. That's real life, y'all.

There's still a lot to do, but I finally love the direction this room is headed. And I am in love with the white fireplace. LOVE.

Here's a little breakdown of what's what (in black) and a few to-dos we have left for this room (in red):

We're getting there, people! I think it's going to look so great once we get some art on the walls and find some house plants to liven up those two corners. And we're thinking of DIY-ing a new coffee table, kind of like this one. Although that feels a little bit like a baby death trap, what with the sharp corners and stuff, so we'll see.

Until then, I would like to never paint again and I would like to go find that bag of candy. Amen.