Living Room Updates // Coffee Table + Curtains

Before Christmas we checked off 2 more boxes on the living room front, making this space one giant step closer to D O N E.

At this point I'd say it's safe to assume the other rooms in our house are definitely starting to give the living room the side eye. Ok, on to the details....Up first....

A Coffee Table

A coffee table had been high up on our priority list from day one. The coffee table we had purchased from Scott's Antique for our last house was not big enough for the new living room set-up, so we sold it on Craigslist and kept our eyes open for a new one. Trouble was, with every option we saw, we became less and less inspired. We had either seen it a thousand times or it was too sharp (Croix), fragile (couldn't use it as a table when we eat our dinner in the den for fear of spills) or it was the wrong size. We know how we live and we didn't want to invest in a piece that would feel too fancy or too dangerous or too run of the mill.  In addition, with a new tiny, mobile family member to consider now we wanted to be mindful of a selection that would be pretty, functional and safe-ish. So, as is typical right around the time we stopped talking/looking for a coffee table we found one without even trying.

One Saturday afternoon before a UGA game we ran over to Publix to grab some homemade pizza ingredients (yes, the pizza oven is up and running...more on that later....) and popped into Nadeau, a furniture store in the same strip. We were casually perusing around when we came upon the coffee table.

I'm not going to say it was definitely the donut detailing that stopped me in my tracks, but this detail didn't hurt. Not only did we like the color and details but it was the right size and the right price so we bought it, loaded it and Croix has been walking around it, knocking anything and everything off of it from that day forward.

Curtains

There are a lot of windows in our living room. Two high ones on either side of the fireplace and then an entire wall of windows/doors with glass that looks out to the patio. We love all of the natural light but in the late afternoon the sun that streams through is so intense that it makes it uncomfortable to sit in there, especially to watch TV. So, curtains have also been high up on the priority list for sometime. Trouble is, it's real hard to pick curtain fabric when you don't have much direction for the overall vibe of the space. I didn't want to commit to curtains and then box myself in to bringing the rest of the room together around them. So, we kind of sat back and let the room organically evolve and then by late Fall the room was really starting to come together with our new built-in doors + succulent wall and giant art for over the couch so I felt comfortable moving forward with curtains. 

We headed to several fabric stores and hung up our favorite swatches on the walls around the windows to see which one would be the winner. 

In true "us" fashion those swatches hung there for um....months. Ugh, yes months. BUT finally we narrowed down our favorite and our in-family seamstress  (Brent's Mom, Cindy) got busy making them for us. 

We planned to use the metal rod hardware we had used for our living room curtains at our first house, however when we went to install them we quickly figured out that wouldn't work. The span was too long and the weight of the curtains was literally pulling the brackets out of the wall! Oooooh the joys of home improvement projects. At the end of the day it was the fact that 3-4 smaller rods had to be screwed together to achieve the length we needed. We ended up finding a wood rod that is a lot more sturdy because it's broken up into only two pieces that meet in the middle.

We ended up going with a nubby rough cotton weave. The color is very similar to that of the walls so the curtains add layers of texture and interest without overwhelming the room with another statement.   The ceilings in this room are 10' high so in order accentuate the height we hung the curtains right under the crown moulding for a little drama. We also ordered enough fabric so the curtains could actually close all the way. This is especially nice in the late afternoon when that sun is pouring into the room.

Slowly but surely this 2nd house of ours is coming together. As much as I sometimes wish I could just blink and it would be all done it's pretty fun watching it take shape, layer by layer, piece by piece.

All photos are my own. 

We've Got the Whole World....In Our Living Room

Y'all we are making moves and have actually started nailing some art to the wall! 

I've talked before about the extreme difference in scale between our 1st house and our 2nd. Not only is our current house bigger, with more rooms, baths, etc..but everything is bigger scale wise. For example our kitchen table in house #1 is now the entry table in the foyer of house #2. The couch that was in the living room of house #1 is in our master bedroom in house #2. The size/scale difference is not a problem per say, it has just taken some time to re-think/find places for the the pieces we have and then try to figure out how to fill some of the bigger walls with new pieces of the proper scale. One wall that has been in particularly trying is the ginormous wall behind the couch in our living room.

This wall:

At 20 feet long and 10 feet tall we have really struggled to figure out what to do with this huge space. As the room as been slowly coming together we have been tossing around options and keeping an eye out for the perfect solution.

A gallery wall? A series of large mirrors? Picture ledges? We thought and thought, but nothing felt quite right. Then, a few weekends ago we were in Chattanooga for our annual 4th quarter birthday celebration and stopped in one of my favorite stores - Southeastern Salvage. It's one of those places you just pop in, never knowing what you might find. As we were perusing the isles Brent happened upon a map of the world broken up into 4 large, individually framed pieces. He pulled me over to take a look and I was instantly interested. The green and blue coloring + antique mirror detailing were really striking plus we had a feeling the scale was perfect for our XL wall in our living room. Plus, Brent and I both love to travel and have always liked the idea of incorporating a world map into our home in some way.

Each panel is 24 1/2" wide x 60" high. The plan was for the art to hang over the couch and because we didn't have the exact dimensions of the couch with us we were a little skeptical the pieces would be too large. However, Southeastern Salvage is not the kind of place you leave something you might be interested in with plans to come back, because it is almost always long gone by the time you figure out it's perfect. So, we talked to the associates and found out we could return the pieces if they didn't work within 30 days, so we decided to take a chance and bring them home to try. 

Well, guess what..........

They fit like a glove. The colors bring all of the elements in the space together - from the olive green bolster pillows I had made last year to the blue hues from the ocean painting over the left built-in. It's crazy what a full wall of color, texture and interest can do to make a room feel so much more complete. As much positive impact as some of the elements we had previously added (rug, couch/pouf/pendant lights and new built-in doors) to the space have contributed to this rooms overall vibe, nothing holds a candle to the way these framed pieces make this room feel equal parts cozy and refined. 

All photos are my own.