How I Made My Dark Living Room Bright

My living room has always felt wrong to me. When I moved in I wasn't able to place my furniture the way I wanted to because of a sagging floor.  It took two years to get to it, but the floor was repaired last summer and I never thought to move the furniture.   Sigh.  Too many things on the go all the time!

Well, I finally got the urge to move everything on Friday night.  OMG what a difference.  The room feels huge and happy and I love it.

Here's the before (like when I moved in before):

So dark and depressing...

Here's what it looks like now:

Holy this room looks BIG now!  I was aiming for a Shabby Chic meets Industrial look cause I'm a confused eclectic kinda girl.  I think I got it!   What do you think of my gallery wall?  ps notice I got rid of my area rug?  It made the room seem much smaller.  Now the light  bounces off the floor and there's nothing to stop the eye from moving across the space.

I struggled with the gallery wall, let me tell you.  There are more nail holes in that wall than I care to admit to, but I love the final look.  The scraggly plant really made the difference.  LOL  What I really love about the gallery wall is that the TV doesn't stand out like a sore thumb.  I think it works because I chose frames and pictures that matched in colour so that it blends together.

I love the bookcases against the far wall.  Somehow having them where the TV is now made the room so small and yet the dresser that the TV is on is much deeper.  Weird.

I didn't want to disturb sleeping beauty to style the sofa so this is what you get!  This is what my house usually looks like anyway.  The quilt on my leather ottoman?  Oh that's there because Maggie decided the leather made a nice scratching post and I came home one day to find it almost in tatters.  What's up with THAT?!  Cats... good thing I love them!

So most of the furniture and the trim got painted in between when I moved in and when I took the after photos and I created an industrial table a couple of weeks ago for my sofa side table.  If you want to see the transformations, click on the links below:

Industrial Look Side Table

The Turquoise Door

The Bookcase Odyssey

I painted my 1930s Trim

A Console Table and A Duck

Painting the trim and the paneling definitely opened up the space. It's much brighter with the light colours instead of all the dark wood.  The lighter pillows, the throw and the lack of a rug keeps it light and bright.  The new furniture placement makes the space seem huge.  It's amazing what can be done with just paint and rearranging things.

Have you swapped your furniture around lately?  Doesn't it feel make your room feel better?!

Have a great week!

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Sharing with: That DIY Party     Monday Funday Pretty Things     Give me the Goods     Mod Mix Monday Nifty Thrifty Tuesday Project Inspired     Inspire Me Tuesday     Show me what ya got Wow us Wednesdays     Home(Work) Tuesdays Treasures     Inspiration Exchange Sizzle into Summer

How My Garden Grows

I've been working on my landscaping as much as I can with all the rain we've been having.  It's excellent for all the planting I'm doing, not so much fun for digging new beds!

Anyway, enough with the chatter!  Here are some photos of my new beds, progress on what was done last year and some of my favourite early summer flowers.  Enjoy!

Azalea

My patio garden is starting to come together!  The thyme-and-stone patio is blooming and I managed to weed most of the gravel.  I plan to keep adding stones and thyme until the whole thing is a mass of sweet smelling thyme.

This bed was recently expanded.

I've started growing veggies and herbs in galvanized tubs - love this look!!

This area still needs TLC but it is beginning to come together.  

The fence needs replacing...  but not this year!

My tomatoes grew so well in the greenhouse last year that I needed to increase the height.  Unfortunately I broke one of the window panes while I was working on the new roof last fall and cut my leg to the tune of 13 stitches.  This was the best I could manage with my leg out of commission, but I plan to make it beautiful this summer!   If you want to see how to build this greenhouse click HERE

I'm so in love with pansies this year!!

Irises and poppies just love this sun baked stretch of garden.

My Sensation lilac is about to burst into bloom.

My latest garden bed is up against my deck.  I hope the vines grow quickly and give me some shade and privacy from my neighbours.  The plant hooks are my temporary garden hose guards.  I am forever knocking the flower heads off with that hose!

More lovely pansies!  This was taken with my brand new Nikon D5200!!  So excited to finally have a decent camera.

Purple and gold are such a gorgeous combo, don't you think?  

My only shade garden.  Some of the plants are not doing well due to the ginormous spruce tree that is shading this bed.  More plant moving is in my future...

Oh and my lilac bloomed as I was writing this post!

in case you missed it, I built a potting bench a couple of weeks ago.  You can check out the how to build it post HERE

Hope you enjoyed the tour!  I'm so happy to be playing in the dirt again.  I've been gardening ever since I was 7 years old and had a little flower bed all my own to play with.  Foxgloves were my favourite back then.  I still love playing in the garden just as much now.

Cheerio!

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Potting Bench Mania!! Finding Inspiration on Hometalk

I'm having such a blast on Hometalk.  I find all kinds of inspiration while I'm scrolling through all the pretty photos and this week, I was asked to curate a clipboard on potting benches!   Well, you don't have to ask me twice!!!

I got busy fast, searched through all the fabulous ideas to bring you a wide range of pretty options.  Here's a sampling of what I found:

To see all the benches I clipped, click HERE

Plus I just built my own potting bench last weekend, if you haven't see it yet click HERE.

Did you know that Hometalk is the largest online home and garden hub? It’s fueled by the firsthand experience & advice of hundreds of thousands of home enthusiasts and professionals. You don’t have to be a blogger to participate. Just set up an account and clip ideas or ask questions or just socialize. It’s such a blast! There are professionals who participate as well - interior design, landscapers, contractors, garden gurus, and so many more.

If you haven't joined up yet, you really need to check it out!!

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