Living Room and Dining Room - How It All Came Together

Warning: This is going to be a long one with as much detail as I can remember!

So, as you saw in this post, after almost three years of living in our home, we finally decorated!  And  boy does it feel good to 1) have it done and 2) be able to walk into your home and enjoy it.  It's frivolous, certainly, and wasn't something that we needed (heck, we do/buy a lot of things we don't need), but I'm glad we did it and it's done!  And, now we're already talking about our next projects.  Haha, I don't know what we'd do if we bought a house that didn't have projects... I guess we'd come up with some just to stay busy.

But, back to the matters at hand.  As I've mentioned time and time again, Capella Kincheloe was the brain child, and we just executed her master plan.  Since I'd worked with Capella before and we'd become friends, she had a good idea of my style and how far she could push it.  We gave her a budget, not a small number but also not too much when considering furnishing three rooms that included some big ticket items.  We splurged in some areas and saved in others.  She put together the plan and idea boards, and we got going.

The basic plan remained the same, but small things evolved along the way like pillows, accessories, paint colors, light fixtures, etc.  If you pin any of these photos, please credit Capella Kincheloe Interior Design!!



Capella Kincheloe Interior Design

Capella Kincheloe Interior Design



Capella Kincheloe Interior Design

Living Room Source List:
Paint - Benjamin Moore (I think we ended up using Sweet Caroline but I will have to check on that and edit as necessary... it's a light minty green)
Sofa - Pottery Barn Landon in Oatmeal Slubby Basketweave
Sofa pillows - ABC Home and Etsy (Suzani from seller Pillowcoversetc)
Ottoman - Crate & Barrel Willow Large Ottoman in Spruce (I don't see it on their website now) with trim added by moi
Woven ottomans - Crate & Barrel Samar Ottoman
Small Gold Side Table - Overstock
Chairs - craigslist
Sofa Table - Scott's Antique Market
Round Scalloped Side Table - craigslist
Lamps - Scott's Antique Market
Lamp Shades - lampsusa.com
Art - from our trip to Greece
Frames above Sofa - Ikea, painted champagne gold
Mirror installation above fireplace - Ikea Lots mirrors, trim painted BM Van Buren Brown (HC-70), decorative tacks where the corners of the mirrors meet (you can't see the tacks in the photos but you can see them in person)
Deer head candelabra - Scott's Antique Market
Accessories - West Elm, Scott's Antique Market, Goodwill, things already owned
Rug - Pottery Barn Malika (already owned)
Built-ins - Custom (Big Bear Construction in Atlanta), painted your basic white and the backs are BM Van Buren Brown, knobs are from Lee Valley

The built-ins were the most expensive thing in this room.  In fact, they were 33% of the total budget for all of the rooms, but they really needed to be redone.  We contemplated trying to retrofit our existing ones, but ultimately decided that we didn't want to do the work necessary for that and wanted to change them a bit more than retrofitting them would allow.  They were built for a mid-90s TV (i.e., deeper than we needed), and we knew we could gain a few extra inches by only making them deep enough for our TV components (DVD player, receiver, etc.).  We also made them wider and had them made to fit our TV perfectly, as Matt said we'd never get a bigger TV for that room (I think we have a 50").

The big DIY stuff was in this room.  When purchased, the lamps were originally tarnished brass or copper or something.  We cleaned them up, spray painted them keeping a little band of the brass showing for fun, put in new electrical components, and got the chocolate brown lamp shades.  The deer head candelabra is some sort of rough, heavy (dull) metal (maybe iron?), so I also cleaned that up and spray painted it.  I added the trim to the ottoman to make it a little more custom.  I spray painted the Ikea frames, and Matt and I hung them (some work trying to get 8 lined up perfectly... plus you have to put the hanging hardware on them yourself).  Capella doctored the photos in the frames to make them a bit more artsy (all ours from top L-R: Maddie, sunset in Santorini, our feet in the Pacific, walking down the aisle; bottom L-R: church where we were married, an engagement photo, Max, tree in a vineyard in Sonoma).  It will be fun to be able to change the photos out as we add to our family (the photos are 16x20).  We installed the mirrors over the fireplace (after a failed attempt to antique them) and trimmed them out (probably at a total cost of less than $60).  It might not sound like a lot of work, but as you know if you're a DIYer... these things take awhile, especially when you have full time jobs and other responsibilities too!

Now, onto the dining room...

 

Capella Kincheloe Interior Design

Capella Kincheloe Interior Design

Capella Kincheloe Interior Design



Capella Kincheloe Interior Design

(I like this last shot because you can see into the LR... if you were looking straight through that doorway, you'd be staring through the kitchen to the back door out to our screened-in patio... probably the next sprucing up project.)

Dining Room Source List:
Paint - BM Pacific Ocean Blue (this scared the crap out of me, but I trusted Capella and I'm glad I did)
Table - craigslist
Chairs - craigslist (from a restaurant furniture liquidation - $220 for 8!!!)
Shelves - French Shopkeeper Shelves from Wisteria
Rug - Crate and Barrel
Light fixture - Savoy House Forum Four Light Pendant in Gold Dust (purchased from Wayfair.com)
Curtains - West Elm Luxe Window Panels in Ivory
Accessories - Ikea, Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn, Container Store, things I already owned
Mirror - already owned (Ikea)
Frames - Pottery Barn
Art - Etsy (seller RSJakeGraphics)
Corbels (used as candle sconces) - http://crown-molding.com/Corbel-C8030-mantel-corbels.aspx

This room didn't require as much DIY.  We hung the mirror, curtains, light fixture, art, etc., which of course all takes time, but I didn't have to "create" anything for this room.  It came together pretty easily.  This room is small (11.5'x11.5'), so we had to play around with it to make it seat 6-8.  You can seat 6 comfortably at the table (and that's how we have it set up), but it's pretty small.  Eight is doable, but would be tight and would have to be a buffet set up because there wouldn't be any room for food on the table.  The shelves double as a bar, and we would use that to set up food if we entertained for a group.  The nice thing is that there's enough room for a small card table, so we could have a kids table in the future and all eat together.

The kitchen will be kept under wraps until after the magazine comes out, which probably won't be until Spring 2013.  The shoot went great and it was really fun to see the editor and photographer in action.  I can't wait to see the pictures!!  (And, I still can't believe my kitchen will be in a magazine... so funny.)