Oh Make Me Over!

So this is my first post ever...and I've been thinking about creating a blog for awhile now but have been a little chicken to do it. I have been a fan of so many other blogs for so long and when I met Holly from http://www.inthefunlane.com/ (whose blog I absolutely adore) she gave me that extra confidence I needed to take the leap (thank you Holly!). It wasn't my lack of computer skills (which I really do lack) that was holding me back so much as the worry that I don't think my life is interesting enough that anyone will want to read about it! Ha!

For my first post I thought I'd share our living room makeover. Here is the story of how our living room came to be:

This is our first house which we bought almost a year ago last August 15th. The living room was pretty much absent of any style or decor when we moved in, so I thought what better than a blank slate for me to decorate my first room!

I got to work and painted the walls Behr Chinchilla Gray. It was a little dark but I loved the Gray walls. I was already searching online and saving for a set of Ikea Ektorp couches (I really was looking forward to having slipcovers with all the paw prints and fluff around here).



Then, to my surprise, my Dad called me and told me he was sending a moving van out from Victoria (we live in Edmonton) full of furniture for us!!!

When the moving van arrived I was very excited to see that he had gifted us two newer leather couches....except...they were BURGUNDY. I know everyone is different but this really is NOT one of my favorite colors. And once I put them up against the Chinchilla Gray walls, the walls appeared purple and the couches looked quite red. This was not the look I was going for.

Off I went to Benjamin Moore to try and find the perfect color to offset the burgundy. Alas...I had found a perfect option! I brought home a can of Alexandria Beige and repainted the whole room this lovely shade of taupe.

Still quite dark for my tastes... but after all that work, I had to work with it. Then my only issue was the room seemed too dark. So I purchased MANY white accessories (mostly from Home Sense) and two bamboo end tables on sale for $60 each at Pier One (they were lime green so I repainted them BM Mascarpone). The Final touches were a new Chandelier from Home Depot which I got on sale for $19 (regular almost $200), LONG white window panels from Jysk, and I also painted the dark mahogany coffee table my Dad gave me Creamy White by Benjamin Moore. The art behind the couch is an ikea print of a two cows which I cut in half, cropped and framed with two Ikea frames.

And Voila!

Hope you like it! Let me know what you think!