Living Room Do-over

We have more exciting things to share on the home redo front! The living room has been transformed quite a bit and is now just waiting for a rug... but I couldn't wait to show you guys.

So, this is how the previous owners had it:



The first thing we did just before moving in was have the floors sanded and stained so they would lose that yellow cast, and so that the nails used to hold down the planks weren't so highly visible:



But still, the room was sort of dark and cave-like, and felt smaller than it really was. Can you guess what we decided to do?



Besides painting the fireplace - which, honestly, came out so good that I still can't get over it a month later! - I updated the hardware on the built-in cabinets, spray painted the fireplace accessories a textured nickel color so they wouldn't be as sharply contrasting with the white, painted the windowsills white to match the rest of the house (why were they that odd brown color to begin with?), mounted the TV lower, and removed that very bulky and oversized mantle. I'm thinking a narrow (like 5-6 inches tops) square-edged white mantle might look good in the future... although I like it without one also? Thoughts?



Brighter, airier, bigger, better lit - we're totally thrilled.