A Done-ish Sitting Room & Bookcase Sneak Peek

Operation Home For The Holidays is finishing strong, my friends. I powered through and finished painting our front sitting room just in time for company this weekend. And while it's not 100% done because we still need to unpack a few boxes that never made their way out of there, hang drapes and add some pillows and such to the sofas and chairs, it's so close to being done. And we had our first fire in the fireplace this weekend with company - it was so nice to actually enjoy the space for the first time since moving in.

Oh, and we're seriously in need of some tables in here. But anyhoo, here's what we did.

So, it's not perfect yet, but it's a vast improvement, yes?

In my last post I touched on the issue I had with the original paint color I chose, which ended up looking really pink against the gray stone fireplace. I actually had to laugh at myself because shortly after moving in, I painted swatches of a lot of warm beige colors all over our entryway, two living rooms, stairway landing and upstairs hallways because I was convinced I had to use the same color in all these spaces. I spent a lot of time deciding which color worked well in all these spaces, in all the different lighting throughout the day, only to go with a completely different color. A color that was only a shade or two different than the one already on the walls. But, I'm actually kind of obsessed with it. So much so that I've already started to paint our living room with it. The color we chose for these two rooms is called Wood Ash by Benjamin Moore, and it's the most lovely, warm, but also a little gray and, well ... ashy, cream that still allows our trim color to pop nicely. It's very crisp, but also still homey and cozy. It's perfection. And I'm surprised this color isn't more popular.

To paint the room, I had Josh take down all of the moulding for me so I could paint that separately from the walls - fewer cut-ins made the whole process go by so much faster. And also made it look more professional. We still don't have all the ceiling trim up, but piece by piece, we're getting there. And the trim color is the same one we've used everywhere in the house, Bavarian Cream by Ben Moore.

We also updated the mantel in this room. We're so thankful that the same friends* who gave us the beam for our living room had another piece of the same beam to give us. So this guy is the brother of our living room beam. Yay!

Not the most dramatic makeover ever, but I sure do like it.

I've also finished the other side of our build-in bookcases in our living room - yessssssssss. I don't have everything organized and set-up yet, but I did start a little, and here's a sneak peek.

*My very talented and kind friend recently changed the name of her blog. And it's wonderful! You must go visit Honestly Maggie.