Considering that it's been over two months since I made that first post about updating our home, I figured I'd better come up with something else to reveal! We've made a lot a changes in our bedroom and, at first, I thought I would write about that. But it's still missing one important detail so I decided to wait on sharing any before and after pictures of the master bedroom.

Instead, I have pictures of our living room. It's actually still a little incomplete in terms of furniture and artwork, but it will probably be a while before it's totally pulled together, so what the hell!

I am short on before pictures, as I didn't originally intend to blog about this, but here are a few photos to give you an idea of where we started. And actually, we didn't start with these pictures. These pictures were taken after we decided to sell everything we no longer loved or needed in a yard sale last May. So these pictures are really the interim pictures.

This is the view from what we call the entryway. I am basically standing in front of the front door.



These two are the view from the hallway (or squareway) leading to the bedrooms. You've seen the fireplace photo before.



This one is taken from the dinning area.



And this photo is the closest thing I have to an actual before shot. I think Stephen took it for a Craigslist listing. However, if you have read any of the 120 plus posts written before that infamous May yard sale, you should have a pretty good idea of what our living room looked like before.



But before I get to the after photos, I thought I should give you a quick rundown of exactly what I didn't care for and the other changes I felt were needed.

1. The sofa was broken (Stephen) and stained.
2. Three distinct paint colors were not creating a cohesive pulled together look, in my opinion.
3. The entryway had always felt like wasted space.
4. The fireplace wall had too much going on.
5. We needed more book storage and a home for the television.

Those are the biggies. There are lots of little details that I could share (for instance, that black mirror above the sofa is from the bedroom set I had in fifth grade. It started out some pale wood color, was stained a dark wood color and hung above our dining table in Missoula, and finally found itself spray painted black and in the living room--it had to go!), but I'll spare you.

Here is the new view from the entryway.



My grandmother sketched/painted that naked fellow. It's the one thing in my home that I've had professionally framed.



The only thing that really stayed the same in this space are the fruit box shelves. We found those on Craigslist two years ago this spring and bought a dozen at ten dollars a pop! I love them.



Here is picture of the entryway from the living room.



This is a view from the squareway. You can read more about the fireplace and the wall behind it here.



That branch above the entry to the dining area is from a 100 year-old sycamore tree in our backyard. It fell down during a wind storm a few years ago. Our house is filled with sticks and rocks collected from special places and adventures. There is also a small collection of rusted treasures Henry and Wyatt have dug up in our yard resting in the second fruit box from the top on the right side. You can see it if you scroll back up.



This is our new movie sofa from CB2 in steel. It is so incredibly comfortable. Stephen and I can sit side-by-side with our feet up and still have room to move. The mirror is from TJ Maxx and the lamp is from Target--we splurged on the sofa and had to go low-rent with everything else, which is totally cool because the lamp is already broken (Stephen). We've had that black ottoman for years. I still can't decide if it should stay or go, although it's staying for now. And the sheep skin across the back is from IKEA. They're actually two very small sheep skins that Zach picked up for us in Portland and mailed because, you may not know this, but there is a lot of stuff that IKEA doesn't sell online! Oh, and I made those yellow pillows!

And here are some views looking in from the dining area and near the fireplace.



That's a pachinko machine hanging on the wall near the fireplace. It's a Japanese slot machine. Stephanie was actually born in Japan and she and her mother have lots of cool stuff from their time there. No one is allowed to touch the pachinko machine for fear of breaking it (and because Grandma has this irrational fear that it might kill a small child should it fall). Plus, gambling is illegal in Idaho.



Stephen made that black shelving unit. It was actually inspired in part by something IKEA no longer sells online (lucky for us) and a shelf that Wes made for Melissa. Steeley helped Stephen make it, which is probably why it looks so awesome. Like store-bought from somewhere expensive. It also floats and was made to minimize the television. I think it does the trick.



My grandmother also made that sculpture of two people embracing--at least I think that is what they are doing. Stephen bought that charcoal drawing as gift for our second wedding anniversary. It's titled Two. At the time, I didn't much care for it, although it's grown on me and I framed it for our fifth anniversary. The only other time Stephen bought me art I gave it to Lars the very next day. He seemed more interested in displaying a photo of the death row shower in the Old Penitentiary than I did.



So that's our living room. Another long post. Maybe I'll come up with a different way to share the next big reveal, if you can call it that.

In case you are interested, we painted the walls a gray color called Moonshine. The fireplace wall and trim are painted with Olympic Base II. It's white. We totally copied the folks at YHL and I am super glad we did. Gray is my new favorite color. I want everything to be gray.

We still need some more seating. I am trying to sell Stephen on this Eames rocking chair, except I would be purchasing the one on Overstock listed for $300 less. And I want at big yellow armchair like this one from Crate and Barrel, only not this one for obvious price tag reasons. That chandelier thing hanging from the center of the room has to go. Maybe I'll replace it with this or something similar that Stephen could make. Also, I will probably rearrange and add to items on the black shelf. Something about it is not quite right, yet. That little basket sitting on the hearth is also bugging me after looking at all these pictures!

And one final note on what is bound to be my longest post ever!!! If you should ever find yourself at my house, please use the pretty yellow flower hooks to hang up your stuff. That's what they're there for but no one seems to notice them. I don't like it when things are untidy. It makes it hard for me to relax. For real.