A couple of months ago I shared with everyone our greige and blue living room moodboard. I am happy to report that we have actually made some progress on our big plans.
Right before Christmas Kevin and I decided to paint the entire living room! Note to self: never try to paint a main room in the house prior to having a party. Amazingly enough, we were able to get it done and celebrate Christmas on time (we were definitely down to the wire though).
Kevin and I selected two shades of greige Benjamin Moore paint off the same paint chip.
I really thought they were going to look more beige based on the tiny sample (and oddly enough this photo looks quite beige), but once they dried on the wall they look pretty gray. No biggie. The end result is beautiful and we are happy with it, especially since our new sofa is gray! Yes, we finally bought a new sofa! I feel like I have been talking about the Martha Stewart Saybridge Sofa forever. The day after Thanksgiving I finally bit the bullet and ordered this velvety dream…
(is it just me, or does the paint look blue now? It’s definitely not blue!)
Our new sofa survived Christmas without getting any red wine or eggnog spilled on it. And it has even survived a month or so of Stewie not sitting on it (and let me tell you, that is a miracle!).
We still have quite a few things to finish and get for the living room, but that will probably take us a while (we are about to buy a new car which wasn’t exactly part of our plans!). One thing that will probably get done sooner than later is an update to the mirror we had hanging over the fireplace. Here is a peak at an older pic of the fireplace:
It was previously painted tan and the off white mirror looked great. We went ahead and painted the fireplace white, and obviously the wall above it is now greige…
I love that mirror, but I am not loving the off white color. I plan on painting it a distressed white to better match the fireplace and woodwork. What do you think? yay? or nay? a different color? Can you see another difference in the two pics? Kevin painted the dirty grout (in the center of the bricks) with a grout paint marker. It worked pretty well and made it look a bit fresher!
Other things we have planned for the room are:
- Adding wood details to the fireplace and updating the tile. We are undecided if we should tile over the bricks or just paint them at this point. Any opinions on that?
- Buy coffee table and sofa table.
- Buy a new area rug.
- Purchase and hang art or photos.
- Find additional seating. I have my heart set on a particular love seat from Pier 1, but we’ll see how long it takes for us get around to buying it! I’d love to try reupholstering a chair or two if I can find some wingback chairs that are in decent shape.
- Get new window treatments! This is a major one that I almost forgot. The blinds in this room have got to go…and if you read my blog regularly, you already know that Kevin hates curtains, so new blinds it is!
I am sure there is a ton more that I am forgetting, but this is a start. I still have my rugsusa groupon so hopefully I can cross something off that list soon. Speaking of which, it expires on the 23rd so I better get on that!
Oooh – I love that couch (and really anything Martha)! I desperately want a new couch but it’s not in the cards for us right now. When we were shopping, we found & ordered a couch we loved but then our first apartment told us that their freight elevator was really their regular elevator (and the couch wouldn’t fit). We had to run back to the store and quickly pick another. Womp womp.
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Painting the brick can really make a huge difference in terms of updating your fireplace. With ours, we couldn’t afford to do anything with the brick, or the tile in front of it, so we painted both…and love the results. We are eventually going to retile the front, but for now, the paint works. Check out our before and after…it might help to see the difference.
http://retroranchrenovation.blogspot.com/2011/12/freshened-up-fireplace.html
Good luck!
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I am not usually a fan of painting brick but I think it would look good in your case. That reddish color is not the best brick. Hey if you don’t like the painted brick when you are done you can always tile it. I love that couch! Since I am going to try my own chairs I vote for reupholstering so you can let me know how to do it!
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Love the new colour! The couch looks great in there too. I say try painting the brick, if it doesn’t work just tile over it!
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LOVE the couch!!! It goes really well with the paint color too. And I think a distressed white mirror would be very cool
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I love the paint colors you selected and the new couch looks great! Your fireplace will look so awesome with some more decorative trim. And grout marker, what? Who knew that existed! Awesome job!
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Loving the new couch! And yay for no spills! And I had no idea they made grout markers, but now I know what our tub was painted with haha!
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OMG! I’m in love with the couch and both colours you picked for the walls! I think the mirror would look great in a distressed white!
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Holy moly that couch makes me drool. I’m not kidding; it’s gorgeous! And the colors you picked are soft and airy…I can tell they’re not blue so no worries there! I am thinking the mirror would look great in the same tone as the fireplace as well!!
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Gorgeous! I love the chair rail! And that couch… beautiful!
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What color did you order your sofa?
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cornerofmain Reply:
March 7th, 2013 at 6:01 pm
Hi Mechelle, we got it in Storm, and we just love it! The color is very pretty =)
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Hi! I was wondering if you are still loving your sofa? when I sat on it in the store it seemed really firm. Does it get any softer?
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