The Epic Carsons: Living Room Reveal!!!

Remember what the old living room looked like?

Yup. Sky blue. The fake fireplace was about 3 different shades of off white. It just looked... well... not like a living room. Tim and I didn't want to spend much and we'd already spent $70 on 2 gallons of paint for the dining room. But I researched a little and found that Walmart has "Colorplace" paint for a whopping $10.94 per gallon (for flat paint). We decided to risk $22 and got a lovely pale green called Desert Aloe. Well, it was lovely until we got it home and painted a sample on the wall. NEON GREEN. Oh no! We'd already gotten 2 gallons and we weren't about to blow another $22. THANKFULLY, my friend Mary and Joanna were coming into town that night and they had the brilliant idea to tint the paint to a better shade of green. Mary poured both paint buckets together into a bigger bucket and then added red paint left over from the dining room. A few minutes later we had a *gorgeous* shade of pale green. What would I do without friends?! Anyways, so here is the new living room!!!

Isn't it lovely?! I already had the brown couch and giant ottoman and Tim had the pull-out sofa that we reupholstered back when we were dating.

Tim already had that end table with attached lamp and he spray painted the shade in stripes. Isn't he crafty? =D Those picture frames are perhaps my favorite part of the room because they are so meaningful. Here's a closer look:

Yup, it spells CARSON out of nature and the best part was that Tim took all of the pictures when we were hiking in Acadia National Park on our honeymoon in Maine. It was so fun looking for the letters in nature - like a scavenger hunt of letters!

But, the pictures didn't always look so cute. My new decorating motto is Don't be afraid to fail. Here's my first attempt at hanging the CARSON pictures:

I had this idea to use kitchen knobs that I'd spray painted and tulle to hang mismatched frames I'd gotten at Goodwill and painted black. Well... I mean... I guess it worked, but it wasn't really the UMPH I had wanted. And Tim (who has only been completely complimentary about ALL of my decorating) nicely suggested that we should maybe splurge on bigger frames with mattings. I agreed and wasn't too heartbroken because I'd only spent $3.51 on the 6 frames. So we snagged some lovely BIG frames with mattings at Walmart for only $3 each. But that meant taking down all the knobs that I'd put so carefully into the wall with screws and anchors and everything! Oh well. Taking out the screws and anchors left big holes:

That's okay, though. Hammered it flat, then filled the hole with some drywall spackling. My favorite is the kind that goes on pink and dries to white when it's time to sand it.

Once it was dry, I sanded it a little and painted it green and and voila! Like it never even happened.

Don't be afraid to fail.

Anyways, I think the new frames look SO much better. Hooray! Here's the rest of the room:

I had this lovely wrought iron piece above my bed at my old house (on clearance at Hobby Lobby that was black and I had spray painted white a few years ago).

These were my matching bedside tables from my old house (half off at TJ Maxx because the corners were scuffed). And the matching buffet lamps I got for $15 each at a consignment shop here in Milledgeville. And I found that bucket in our shed - after a thorough washing and a satin bow, it's perfect for holding remotes.

Our TV sits in front of the fake fireplace (which I painted white-white), and above it is a mirror that I had already (I bought it black, spray painted it silver for my old house, and then spray painted it bronze for this house with leftover paint from the kickplate on the front door).

And the built-in bookshelf look so much better all white. Hanging beside it is the lovely chalkboard frame that a new sister-in-law made for our wedding. So gorgeous, Angie!!!