"It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

I love this time of year. We lived in Hawaii and Savannah, GA during the holidays, and nothing beats the holiday season in New England. As I write this, Damon and Casey are curled up on our new wool rug in front of my decorated fireplace. (They're exhausted, we just finished watching the New England Patriots destroy the Chicago Bears)! It took me a year to get this living room just the way I wanted it, a few paint jobs, several runs to IKEA & various Homegoods stores, but I'm finally happy with the way it turned out. Here's a look at what the room looked like a year ago when we bought it....(lime green walls, dark brown curtains that looked and felt horrible, a nasty area rug covering up the original 60-yr old hardwood floors that were in decent shape.)



AFTER:
When I first saw the space I knew I wanted the fireplace to remain the focal point of the room, but the room also had to be our TV room as well. Mounting the TV over the fireplace would have been a big undertaking since our house is 60 years old and I didn't want to start drilling holes everywhere in the plaster walls. So I decided to house our flat screen TV on our Target TV console cabinet directly across from the fireplace wall so when you first walk into our living room you can't tell that there's a TV in the room. Your eye is drawn immediately to the fireplace and mantel which I wanted.

• WALLS - Painted the walls twice and ended up with "Studio Taupe" by Behr (Primer & Paint in one, fantastic product found at Home Depot)
• FLOORING - Original hardwood floors are in decent shape. I added an 8' x 10' wool rug I found at a local Homegoods store for $300! One of my favorite pieces in the room
• WINDOW TREATMENTS - I had blue and brown faux silk draperies in this room originally but they made the room feel very dark since I don't get much direct sunlight in this room, so I decided to brighten things up. I didn't want to splurge on new window treatmentS, so I went to IKEA and Jo-Ann Fabrics. 
• I bought standard off-white cotton draperies from IKEA and used their no-sew hem kit that comes with the curtains (2 panels per pack which is great)
• Then I bought chocolate brown grosgrain ribbon from Jo-Ann Fabrics and added the ribbon to the inside edge of the panels using no-sew adhesive tape. The whole project took me about 3 hours to hem the curtains and add the ribbon, but well worth it!
• FURNISHINGS - I bought the sofa at Macy's and the two chocolate brown chairs at a local discount furniture store. I think they work well together and are neutral enough if I ever decide to change my overall color palette, the furniture will still work. The faux leather ottoman is from our old house. The white end table is an old IKEA bedside table and the round wood side table is from Overstock.com (I love that website, great deals and everything ships for under $3). The small desk in the corner was from my in-laws. I had a yard sale over the summer and they tried to sell this table. It was turquoise at the time. I took it and painted it a high gloss brown paint. All the lighting in the room are Homegoods finds. The bookcases are Billy Bookcases from IKEA and we mounted downlights at the top of the shelves.
• ARTWORK/WALL ACCESSORIES - Above the mantel, I hung up IKEA wood mirrors, total project cost, $18. The black and white wall art above my desk I created in Photoshop and had it printed on canvas through winkflash.com for about $50. It lists all the places we've visited or lived since we met.

I love this room!...so what do you think?