Living Room and Front Playroom Update

 

 

This is our second Christmas in this house and I am finally feeling much better about our living room and front room/toy storage room just in time for Christmas.  The rooms never were exactly what I envisioned and never seemed cozy to me.

 

My first issue with the living room was our old couch that I really hated moving into this house but we had other expenses at the time.  The couch has faded and was extremely uncomfortable.  The curtains were never my favorite because it made the room look too busy.  I knew I wanted to get bookcases eventually.  I also struggled with the open floor plan and limited wall space.    

 

 

We purchased a new couch and recliner which I fell in love with.  It is very comfortable and really fits in the room well.  I moved around the end tables which may go away in the near future.  I also think I may purchase new lamp shades.  I am thinking about buying a round shade.  We found curtains at Ikea while we were there and also purchased an ottoman cover for only $20.00!  I was nervous about white but you can remove and wash it.

 

 

The curtains actually stay open and allow a lot of natural sunlight in.  The old curtains were rod pockets and were constantly moving.  Don't worry I reused these curtains in another room and gave some to my sister as well. 

  

 

Our next project in this room is painting the fireplace.  We were thinking about painting it before Christmas but decided we rather wait and focus on the upcoming holiday and relaxing a little.



 

 

This is the front room where we store a lot of toys.  I wasn't sure what color I wanted to paint this room so it was one of the last ones to get painted when we moved in.  This was also the only room my rose painting fit well in.  Our last living room was red and the painting was the focal point.  The loveseat made its way into this room during the move (so ugly and gross).  And we had minimal storage for the toys in here. 

  

 

This is the room now.  It looks so different!  The paint color looks about the same in the picture but it actually has more of a violet tint to it than the other room.  You can see I moved a set of the curtains to this room.  We purchased the media stand and it contains baskets of toys as well as some other bigger toys that I hate sitting out.  Once the tree goes, I would really like to get some chairs to go in front of the window.

 

Here is the view from the living room.  We did a DIY magnet board that is a big hit with our 1 year old.  Instead of magnets all over the refrigerator and her under my feet when I am cooking (which scares me to death), she can play safely in the toy room.



 



Bar Update

I love the bar cart trend!  It is very Mad Men.  What a crazy and stylish era.  When we moved into our first house we saw a bar at Crate and Barrel and fell in love with it.  I found a similar bar at Sears for about $800 less than Crate and Barrel so we decided to purchase it as a gift for each other one Christmas.  We have accumulated items for this bar and I haven’t done a good job of keeping it organized.

 

 

I never realized how many different types of glasses I had for our bar or the fun stuff we had that I couldn’t get to easily.  I took everything out and gave it a good dusting and I wiped out all of the glasses.  I took a few of each type of glass that we use frequently and placed them back inside.  I took the rest and put them in the cabinet above the fridge.  I figured this would be a good place to store them since I wouldn’t probably use them unless I was setting a formal table or having a party and I have a hard time accessing anything above the refrigerator.  I also thought this would be a place they wouldn’t get broken by accident. 

 

 

I then pulled out the liquor that we tend to use frequently and placed it on a tray on top of the bar.  The others I placed back inside and made sure you could easily access all of them.  We have a drawer that housed the many beer cozies that we own along with some other fun things like our pocket guides and drink markers.  I ended up putting the cozies in the door so we could access them easier and they were shoved in the little drawer.  I may end up doing something else with these down the road like placing in a basket on top because we use them a lot but we will see how this goes first.  I put the cocktail napkins where you can actually access them and I placed our drink markers, bottle openers and wine stoppers in there too.  I added our candy dish and a cute little candle to the top as well.  When we have company I will probably flip the bar out and add a few other things to the top like cans of pop for mixing and some lemons and limes for garnish.  I saw a really neat garnish tray that was constructed from a votive holder and I may have to add that for my next party. 

 

 

The same blog post had a neat sign with the recipe for the signature drink.  I think I may try that during our next party as well.  We did a Bloody “Merry” Bar at Christmas and I am thinking about doing one again this year.  If that is the case, I could probably do a few drinks that morning now that I have room!  I already have a festive poinsettia in a vase ready to go on top and a few ornaments in one of the wine glasses.