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Weekly Focus Room: Living Room

September 16, 2014 by Sarah

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced a concept called my weekly focus room.
{Click HERE, HERE, and HERE to see the rooms I’ve tackled so far and why I came up with the idea of weekly focus rooms in the first place.}
I’ve been stuck on this room for a lot longer than a week and I really wish I had more to report. 
Even though I didn’t get as much accomplished as I would have liked, I was glad to get a few things done before finally moving on to another room!
My Fourth Room:  Living Room

 Since we don’t have a den or family room, our living room gets lots and lots of use and as you can imagine gets very dirty.  Aside from the normal deep cleaning I wanted to do, I was hoping to complete some unfinished projects and maybe even tackle a project that I’ve been contemplating for a while now.
Here are some before pictures.

Since we don’t have a hall closet near the entryway, this bench and the hooks oftentimes acts as our “dumping grounds” when we walk in the front door.  It needed some tidying up and the picture on the bench needed to hung.

You can’t see it from the pictures, but the lampshades on either side of the couch are were cracked and needed to be replaced.  They were damaged when they were in storage while we lived with my grandmother in between our moves 2 years ago.  They have annoyed me the entire time.  There were also some paint touch ups in the corner that never happened before we moved in, but you can’t really see them in this picture either.

I didn’t take pictures of this, but the baseboards under the window had a crack between the wall and the wood from back in the winter when the wood contracted.  The gap wasn’t a huge deal, but it was there and something I wanted to fill in with caulk at some point.

Just another view of the room.  The stairway behind the door never got a second before we moved in and was in desperate need.  I hate unfinished projects!

 I chose the living room for this most recent focus room because of some of the leftover projects that I was anxious to complete.  We spend a lot of time in this room and I guess the nesting in me was just ready to get some things done and marked off the project list!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get as much done as I’d have liked, but did get some things marked off my “to-do list.”
Here are the after pictures.

Since this area gets lots of wear and tear, I did some paint touch ups in the corner {which you can’t tell in the pictures} which made it look “cleaner.”  I didn’t realize how dirty the cushions were until I took these after photos.  I’ll have to tackle that next time!  
I also finally hung the picture that had been sitting on the bench for quite a while.  We were babies on those pictures!!  
I cleaned behind the couch and did some paint touch ups where the couch had rubbed up against the wall and then some in the corner that had been sitting there since before we moved in.  
I also replaced the cracked lampshades with these new ones from Target.  They were on clearance for $13.98!  
My saga with the TV armoire continues and probably will until the spring since the baby is due next month.  I decided that I do want to convert it from an armoire to a TV stand {by basically cutting the top off}, but I just haven’t had a weekend or the manpower to help me make it happen.  You can check out what I’m planning to do HERE.  I did, however, go through the DVDs that are in the storage cabinet so we could get rid of the ones we don’t ever watch.  

I also caulked the baseboards in order to fill in the gap and painted them with some leftover paint.  You have to love old houses with walls that aren’t flush and wood that swells and contracts!

This is just another view of the area as you enter the front door.  Again, it’s not visible in the pictures, but I did finally get around to doing the second coat of paint up the stairway.  It looks so much better.  At some point, I’ll make the stairway a weekly focus room and work on it some more.

I did some basic cleaning, but wasn’t as thorough as I would have liked.  I dusted some of the room, but neglected the TV armoire which probably needed it the most.  Oops!  I was pleased with some of the progress, but was bummed I wasn’t able to tackle the TV armoire like I had hoped.  It’s a big project though and the timing just hasn’t worked out yet.  We’ll get to it eventually.

There is still a lot more I’d like to do in the living room.  The window in the front still needs a curtain and I’d like to do a gallery wall of family pictures too.  I’d also love to spruce up the area where the bench and hooks are located.  I’m thinking maybe add some paneling/bead board/board & batten wainscoting/etc. and then have hooks all around that little corner area so we have more places to hang coats and bags.  And I’ve also been dreaming of some sort of shoe storage solution that could be pulled out of the wall {since there is just dead space underneath the stairs}, but that is way over our heads and would cost and arm and a leg!  Baby steps…          

This week’s focus room:  Office
I’ll report back next Monday to show you how it went.
* * * * * *

Do you have any unfinished painting touch ups that have sat for 2 years?


Linking up with:
Cindy for Made By You Monday
Sarah for Homemade Monday
Kristi for Inspiration Monday
Emily for Create Link Inspire
Kathy for Titus 2 Tuesday
Leslie for Twirl & Take A Bow Party
Kelly for Whimsy Wednesdays
Rachel for Wednesday Whatsits
Ruth for Thrifty Thursday
Carrie for Think Tank Thursday
Allison for Handmade Hangout
Wendy for Frugal Friday
Cheryl for I’m Lovin It
Jerri for Friday Favorites Linky Party
Jen for Link Party Palooza
Sarah for Frugal Friday Link Up Party
Melanie for Skip the Housework Saturday
Six Sisters for Strut Your Stuff Saturday

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Filed Under: DIY & Decorating, Simple Home Tagged With: Living Room

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Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    September 18, 2014 at 2:04 am

    I love those red and white chairs! Do you know where I could buy some like them? Thanks

    • steddins@hotmail.com says

      September 18, 2014 at 4:37 am

      Thank you so much. We actually purchased them from a local furniture store in town about 7 years ago. They are made by Fairfield and we picked the fabric – if that helps!! 🙂

    • girly prissy says

      November 15, 2014 at 2:11 pm

      This looks horrible and cheap. Having a tight budget doesn't have to look like this.

    • steddins@hotmail.com says

      November 15, 2014 at 2:24 pm

      Sorry you feel this way, but I think you may have missed my purpose behind the post. It's certainly not to show how beautiful my house is. I'm just sharing my progress as I work on a specific room each week.

Meet Sarah

Hey, I'm Sarah (a.k.a. The Teacher's Wife)! Wife to a history teacher and mom of 5 kids (2 in heaven). I'm a coffee addict, budget nerd, who's obsessed with good chips and salsa. I love finding ways to organize & manage my home and life...all on a budget! I'm thrilled you stopped by and I hope you'll find something inspiring! Read More…

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