My Plan for Our New Living Room

I’ve been working on my plan for the living room of the townhouse that we are under contract on, and I am so excited to get to work and decorate!  The house is still under construction and we hope to close on it in April once it is complete.  Since I can’t get in there and decorate quite yet, I’ve been working on some design boards to help me plan.  As I mentioned in my previous blog post about the house, I plan to use most of what we already have, but there are a few things that need to be painted or reupholstered, and there are a few things that will need to be purchased as well.  The main floor of the house includes the kitchen in the center, dining room on one side and the living room on the other.  There’s also a powder room and a coat closet, as well as stairs that lead downstairs to the garage and guest room/office, and upstairs to where the bedrooms are.

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A lot of the design choices I made when I first got into decorating were made in a vacuum.  Meaning, I focused on the one piece and didn’t really think about how it would work with other pieces in the room.  And I was in a Kate Spade phase so my choices were definitely on the bold side.  Turns out it’s hard to decorate a house cohesively if it includes a blue ikat sofa (still love this and it’ll be the statement maker of the whole room), pink wingback chairs (which will be reupholstered to look like the blue chair above), black and white striped chairs (which I have since sold), and other brightly colored things.  I’m really trying to be deliberate about my choices this time around so that we have a peaceful and cohesive look.  The color scheme for the entire main floor is blue, green, white, and natural textures.

I already own a pair of the blue aviary X-benches in the top left of the collage (c/o The Inside– a fantastic source for upholstered furniture), and I plan to possibly place them on the side of the coffee table opposite of the sofa, closer towards the fireplace.  These may end up at the foot of our bed though, so that’s still a possibility.  The table I plan to use is this vintage table:

I hope to strip and bleach it to lighten it up a bit.  I found it at a thrift store and hope that plan works!  More details in this blog post.

The framed piece of art at the top of the collage is actually a Samsung Frame TV, and the artwork is by Jordan Connelly.  We’ve purchased a 55 inch Samsung Frame television to go over our fireplace and got the slim teak frame to make it look more like a piece of art.  I plan to purchase Jordan Connelly’s Frame TV art jpegs, which allow you to use her beautiful artwork (all SC coastal scenes) on the tv when the tv isn’t actively in use.  Urban Garden Prints also has a $40 Grandmillennial set and a $40 coastal set of jpegs, and code STRIPES30 should still save you 30% on their site.

I love this wicker side table as a nice pop of natural texture.  I bought it about a year ago because it really is a beautiful piece at a fantastic price- only $119.  (It looks very similar to this Serena and Lily wicker table, which is $298.)

The wicker chandelier is a few years old from Target and we’ve had it in our past 2 homes.  This current one is quite similar!  If I don’t use this one I may try using the vintage tole (metal floral) chandelier that I recently found at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.  I need to have an electrician look at it to make sure it’s safe and will paint it too.  If I don’t use this one in the living room I’ll use it in the girls’ bedroom.

I’ll have a 41″ wide niche on either side of the fireplace.  One day I’d like to add built in bookcases, but for now I plan to tuck my antique marble top dresser in on one side and another piece of furniture on the other.

The two pink wingback chairs I currently have will be reupholstered in this Perennials Coastal Blue basketweave performance fabric, so they’ll look quite similar to the chair above.

I have an antique cane back chair that I had upholstered in 2013 in the same pink fabric that’s on the wingback chairs, and I plan to have that reupholstered in the green performance pinstripe fabric that’s included in the collage.

I need a neutral rug to anchor the space and not compete with the sofa, so I plan to purchase this jute rug.  Maggie York recently worked with the company that makes it (Revival) and I asked her if she thought it was soft enough to use in a family room and she said that it should be great.  Apparently it’s quite soft (as far as jute goes), it doesn’t shed and she’s been really impressed with it.  It’s not too expensive either and it gets great reviews online, so I’m hoping it’ll be a good option for us!

I have a rather extensive collection of ginger jars and blue and white porcelain, so those pieces will be sprinkled around the room and on top of the faux bamboo china cabinet.

I have the exact vintage faux bamboo china cabinet that’s pictured in the bottom right of the collage.  Mine is still brown, but I plan to paint it Grenada Green by Benjamin Moore.  (This green one was shared by Amy Studebaker and I adjusted the shade of green a bit to help me visualize it in my space.)  I’ll paint it once my parents bring it up from South Carolina.  This will likely go in the living room or perhaps the dining room.

Stay tuned for more posts with more of my plans for the rooms in the new house!

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Katie Vail

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