All Through the House

Once the Halloween party was over, I must admit I took a bit of a break with posting anything new. That bash definitely wore me out, although I didn't just take it easy. Once I put away all the Halloween decorations, I was left with a unique opportunity in many of our rooms. There was nothing up on the walls. The floors and walls and everything needed a thorough cleaning, so I decided it was a good time for some updates.

My first task was the bathroom, where I repainted and put new hardware on the cabinet. I meant to put up pictures, but well ...

Hopefully sometime soon.

But this past week, I finally made it to my biggest undertaking: the living room. My mom and I had painted this room right after Chris and I moved in 5 years ago, and it was ready for a fresh coat of paint. Here's what it looked like after all the decorations came down.

I thought I wanted to paint it blue-grey, but once I got some paint samples up on the wall, I realized I don't actually like blue-grey. I guess I just like the idea of it. So I got more samples, and well, thus we have the picture below.

I went with Benjamin Moore's "Revere Pewter." It's a greige color, sort of a taupe. Mostly grey with a beige undertone. Here's a blurry in-progress picture so you can see the color change.

In the end, I have to say, I love it. It's a very popular color, and I actually found out about it on Pinterest because tons of people use it in living rooms. I probably wouldn't have picked it out on my own. On the paint chip it looks beige, and I don't like beige. But on the walls, it's beautiful. Very rich and sophisticated looking. Definitely a grown up color (says the woman watching A Christmas Story while she paints).

I also took time to caulk all the trim at the ceiling and baseboards. You can see gaps between the trim and the ceiling if you scroll us. But after a little caulk and some paint touch-ups, voila! No more gaps or cracks. Instantly made this room look a lot less dated.

Here's a shot I took the morning after I painted so you can see it in natural light. I was worried it would blend in too much with the couch, but it's actually just enough contrast that it works but is also very calm and cozy.

I waited a few days for the paint to cure before hanging some pictures over the couch. I decided to continue the warm and cozy look for the holidays.

Ok, so the giant octopus is neither warm nor cozy, but come on, I can't get too sappy with my arrangement. Gotta have a little personality ...

Oh, also, the "Be Merry" sign on the bottom left is just a gift bag I found at Target and hung with a push pin. I thought it rounded out the grouping for the holidays and was cheap and will be easy to swap out after Christmas.

I was waiting to put this post up so I could also share pictures of our Christmas tree in our freshly painted living room. Chris, Ripley and I made the trek up to Beckwith's Family Christmas Tree Farm to cut down a beauty. We do this every year and it's a favorite tradition of ours, and we were excited to share it with the pooch.

As luck would have it, today was also the day of the North Syracuse Christmas Parade, so we took a break from decorating the tree to enjoy the festivities.

But we eventually got back to it and ended up with this beautiful tree. The tree skirt is new this year. I found it at Christmas Tree Shop and I'm really hoping the cats don't ruin it. We tried to keep the ornaments up a little higher this year to help pooch resist the temptation to pull them down and chew them. So fingers crossed. 

Once again, we don't have a single generic bulb or ornament on the tree. Every ornament was given to us or we bought together as part of our holiday traditions. It's so nice to see a tree full of so many happy memories. And so many of the ornaments remind us of our family, which is awesome.

Hopefully my next post will be coming a lot sooner than this one did. We're still working on Christmas decorations and I have yet to overhaul the kitchen and some other rooms in the house, so there should be lots to show you!

But in case I don't write again until December 25th, Merry Christmas everyone!