From the moment we decided to put in an offer on this new house, I wanted to paint the living room pink.
My parents dislike that I keep calling it "pink." It's "rose," they say. Isn't rose pink? Am I the only one confused?
It took us weeks to find the right color. At one point, there were at least a dozen sample shades and brands on the wall.
Finally we decided to mix our own color using a mauve that was color-matched to a piece of Pigtail's Dwell bedding and Rouge from Restoration Hardware.
Before
After
I swear it's brighter and more "Miami!" in the photos than it is in real life.
The room is not done. We need to settle into it a bit more. But it's growing on me.
We bought a new couch for the living room. It was dark brown leather, the kind that will crinkle nicely over time. But the first few days after we moved in, nothing sat right with me in the room. I couldn't figure out why.
Then I sat straight up in bed at 1am with a revelation. I am famous for 1am revelations, just ask my sleepy husband. We needed to swap the new living room couch with the man-room couch, also new-ish. We made the swap in the morning, and suddenly both rooms worked better. Isn't that bizarre? Couches purchased for one specific purpose wouldn't work as intended, but when swapped they worked perfectly? You can't plan such weirdness.
We also swapped the coffee tables. At first, the glass Noguchi coffee table
Our design mantra is and has been for years: We're just going to collect pieces we love and the rest will fall into place.
So far so good!
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There are two chandeliers in the house that I love-y, love, love. The entry hall chandelier is by Jonathan Adler and I had my eye on it since my interior design friend pointed out his lighting to me about a year ago.
I thought it went perfectly with the house. My mom wrinkled her nose and called it "my style."
The front entry is too blank for me. There will be double doors that open into the living room and I want to add benches under the windows in some sort of loud color and with nailhead trim. I'm thinking an ikat pattern might be nice.
That rug is meant to be in the guest bedroom, but I wanted something in the entry in the meantime. It's such an important spot, I'm waiting until I find something just perfect.
We painted the walls with Behr's Vintage Linen.
Just for fun, here's a "before" shot of the entry.
I brought the dining room chandelier over from our old house.
(The color on the wall is Sweet Molasses by Behr. It's a deep brown. I am aware that there are enough chairs in this dining room for a state dinner. I do plan to remedy that.)
I bought it at HD Buttercup years ago for a very reasonable price, but it looked sort of funny. I added black & gold shades from Crate & Barrel and it got a little more interesting.
Here's a closeup.
There's one more chandelier I'm working on. It's in the stairwell. I'm going to tease you with hints of the Before & After, but this small project is not ready for the world to see just yet.
I can't believe we've been here almost two weeks. There is so much to do, and yet so much is getting done. I have such big plans for this house, and I love watching them come to fruition!
