Living Room - Paint Mock-ups

Last week I posted some of our favorite Mid-Century Modern Couches & asked if you could guess which one we chose. Here is the beauty we bought ~



I was worried it might be a shade too green, but in person it definitely is not. It could stand to be a little greener, actually!

We also purchased this lovely loveseat to go alongside it ~



The color is *so off* on this one though, it ended up being a big disappointment. Instead of the vibrant, mustard yellow pictured, we ended up with a very muted, pale yellow. (The color is much closer to the "French Yellow" linen settee by the same brand.) Here are the two couches together ~



We considered going through the hassle & cost of returning the yellow couch, but I couldn't find anything similar that I liked in the same price range. And the shipping boxes had already been cut, colored, & turned into play houses, haha! I thought I would come to terms with the pale yellow, but I hate it enough that I think I'm going to have to get a little crafty & 'fix' it myself.

But for now I'm having fun with some mock-ups of wall paint colors!

For the pics I also tweaked the color of the yellow couch (a little brighter, with a touch of orange) and threw in a few other items we are considering buying. After many tests, here are our three favorite combinations ~



I love the cheery yellow walls above, & this was originally my favorite combo. But the more I look at it, the more I feel like the colors just don't work.



Above is Justin's favorite, but the room is a bit dim, so I want to use a light color on the upper wall to keep things bright.



And this is what we are currently leaning towards. I had originally nixed the double teal because I thought it was too much blue, but once I saw it with the yellow accents mixed in I liked it.

Which one do you like?

Living Room Inspiration

While I've got plans for each room, the living room has definitely been our main decorating focus for the new house.  Nearly everything in our old living room was free or a gift, 10+ years old, and starting to fall apart. It was long past time to replace some things! We decided to ditch the red & black and start over with a drastically different color scheme and all new furniture & decorations.

You probably gathered from the last post that we're using teal, yellow, and gray for the color scheme. I thought the combination might be too crazy, but found some great inspiration pictures through Pinterest. (Click on the pics for their original posts)

I was originally thinking there would just be touches of yellow like these, but then we found so many pretty yellow things!





A pretty mix, but a little pale for us...



And my favorites below! (Just nix the red & exposed wood)

Mid-Century Modern Couches

I've always been a fan of "modern" decor, but recently started noticing how a lot of the furniture reminded me of the 50's, 60's, or 70's. That's when I discovered "mid-century modern", which was basically the modern style of the 30's-60's, but it has remained so popular that it is still a big influence on what we consider modern design today.

For our new couch I was really leaning towards a tufted modern style. Here were some of my top picks, all between $630-$1,100 ~













I don't think that these two qualify as mid-century modern, but they do have a similar tufted look ~




I was only searching for tufted couches in teal, yellow, or gray, but if you want an awesome list of mid-century couches in all colors & styles, check out this site. 240 couches under $2000!



And we did buy one of the couches above. Can you guess which one?

Funky Modern Couches

While we were in the process of buying the new house, one of the first things I started shopping around for was a new couch. Or two. We'd been living with a hand-me-down pink couch for 10 years that was falling apart, and we weren't loving our black leather couch much either.

I would love to own a really crazy modern couch, but they are mostly way out of our price range (or the work of a designer & not for sale). I found some beauties while I was searching though & wanted to share the love. I wasn't able to find info for all of these, but will link the pics to what I could find. Enjoy!

Empty House Tour, Pt. 2

Ok! So in the last post we circled around the yard, walked through the front playrooms, kitchen, and dining room. I should have tacked this pic at the end ~ this is the small bathroom just past the dining room that I mentioned.



Walking out from the dining room & kitchen you enter the living room. We couldn't figure out the light in here until later that day, so the room is a bit dim. Straight ahead is the door to the front entrance (on the left), and the hallway to the bedrooms (right).



Here's another living room shot from the front entrance.



Through the door by the fireplace we have the screened-in sunroom...



And the back porch. I love that they both have shade & ceiling fans!



The dining room, sunroom, and back deck were all built onto the original house. Underneath the dining room is an indoor storage area (you have to duck a little bit), and under the other two is covered outdoor storage (surrounded by lattice & padlocked).

OK! Back through the living room, heading down the hallway now...



Behind the door is a linen closet, and to the right you have the door to the basement and a bathroom.



Past the linen closet we have Orson's room on the left. It's even larger than his last one!



Here's the back left view. The three bedrooms all have the same sliding door closets.



And past his room is Pandora's. The poor girl once again gets the tiny bedroom with no ceiling fan.



Across from her room is the master bedroom.



We have the sliding door closet...



As well as this odd slanted one over the stairs.



At the back right is our super tiny bathroom.



The shower has a handicapped bench built in, making it somewhat hard to get in & out. Originally we wanted to rip it out, but I've become a fan!



Back down the hall & heading downstairs...



To the basement! We plan on putting a couch in this room, lots of old video games, and using the big closet for board games & puzzles. I'm also pushing for an elliptical.



Turn around and there is a small room with a door leading outside...



And my future craft room!



Back in the main room, beside the stairs there is a hallway...



There is a little nook under the stairs that Justin thinks would be fun hangout/clubhouse for the kids. The previous owner kept her cat box there, which is not a bad idea.



And we end the tour with the currently-not-so-inviting guest room. The fancy door leads to the crawlspace!



This is the one room of the house that is *not* painted off white (kind of a golden, light brown). I'm not sure why you would want to darken the one room with no windows, but I bet we can improve things in here.



And that's the end! At some point we will need to start painting, and considering we don't really like plain wood & white walls, there is a *ton* of work ahead of us. There is also some wallpaper to remove & lots of redecorating, but I've got loads of ideas & and I'll update along the way!