A Trip To The Rodeo: Living Room Painting

It’s really ironic writing this post right now.  A post about how we painted the living room, set it up like a living room, and gave it a little style and personality.  The ironic part?  That an hour ago I was wrecking the living room to bring in some Christmas decor.  But the living room sure did look good like this for the past couple of months since we finished painting her up.

The living room color before was a crisp, bright white that had turned super dingy, stained, and grimy looking after years of neglect.  I debated repainting the room white for a hot minute but the room tends to be a darker space.  Without a ton of light bouncing around the room, it would feel flat without a color on the wall to give it some life.  So a light, muddy neutral, Benjamin Moore’s Rodeo was my color of choice.

When it came to choosing a color for the room I went the easy route and picked the lightest shade on the paint strip from our media cabinet painting excursion.  The darkest color on the strip, Cabin Fever, is the color of the media cabinet, which I LOVE, and now the walls are the lightest color on the strip, Rodeo.  No question whether or not they go together!  Besides, I loved how the neutral looked up against the wood in this room.  The jury is still out on whether or not we’re going to paint the trim and windows in here.  The door definitely will stay wood.

So off came the picture molding used as crown molding.  Random side note, we’re saving all the picture molding we take down to eventually use as a base cap to beef up the baseboards in the house.

Then we moved all the furniture to the middle of the room and started all the cutting in.  It’s so weird seeing the pic below with the difference between white and Rodeo since after I finished painting, it still felt like the room was white.

Two coats of paint later and the most cutting in ever done in a 220 square foot space, I was hanging art and adding accessories.  We also hung a few Ikea curtain panels on the windows per our original plan for the living room space.  The curtains desperately need a good hemming since they’re currently paper-clipped to the correct length.  But that requires an Angie vs. the sewing machine throw-down of epic proportions.  Maybe after the holidays, we’ll bring you that match-up!

This past summer I had a ton of fun shopping at the Vermont flea markets.  They’re all new to me and there are so many great ones! The smaller set of antlers came from the Waterbury flea market for $20 as well as the mirror for $2 (it needs a few repairs).  When we bought this house, it was daunting to more than double our square footage, thinking about filling those spaces with furniture and decor.  But thanks to our local flea markets, thrift stores, and salvage yards we’re getting there affordably.  I love the collected over time look and decorating our home with the things that matter (my mantra these days).

Our living room truly is a mix of flea market finds (pouf, candle sticks, old books, mirror), Target impulse purchases (lamps, pillows, vases), and the things that really matter to us.  The coffee table is made of salvaged wood from a carrying beam in our old house that needed to be replaced.  The potato sack framed art is a legit potato sack from my hometown, an area in Maine known for its potato-growing prowess.  And the tapestry, which we robbed from the guest bedroom makeover, was passed down to Colby from his grandfather’s brother, who brought it back from overseas during World War 2.

Even on the mantle, there’s a trio of dried-up billy button flowers that were from our wedding.  We grew them ourselves to decorate the tables at our wedding over three years ago.  One of our shameless money-saving tricks.  The old books, including a cool old version of Treasure Island, all hailed from our local dump from the “free” pile.  One of the many reasons why I enjoy going to the dump every week to drop off our trash and recycling.  If it wasn’t for the free pile, dump duty would be a “Colby chore”.  It’s unbelievable what people drop off there!  I’ve been known to bring home more than we drop off from time to time.

Most of the sofa table decor came from flea markets and thrift stores, including a red floral painting with chipping paint that I scooped up at an antique store for $10.  I love it even more with its imperfections.

On the sofa table, I loved working in an old photo of Colby’s stepfather playing guitar with his band from back in his prime.  Colby is a great guitar player and a natural, don’t let him convince you otherwise, and I always love hearing the two of them talk guitar shop.  Then there’s the red Hawaiian dude with a barrel around his midsection, which was a souvenir Colby received from his cousins from their honeymoon.  In Emily Henderson’s style, he’s the touch of whimsy in this room.  Let’s just say he has an indecent side once his barrel is removed!

My favorite accessory in this room is the Goose.  He loves sunning himself on the chaise in the afternoon light and watching out for the UPS guy.  Goose loves/hates the UPS guy.  He can spot a brown truck a mile away.

Even though the room may not be perfect (the blue chair is driving me crazy!) or be making it into any style magazines anytime soon, I love this space the most in our house!  It’s filled with things that bring back memories and remind us of some of our favorite people.

We still have a few to-dos for the living room but we’re not pushing the projects.  I do want to paint the ceilings and replace the light fixtures.  The mantle could use a few repairs and a coat of poly.  I would love to clean up the hidden shelves behind the fireplace and use them for storage.  And I may or may not paint the trim in this room.  But we’re letting the room evolve over time and we’ll see where it goes.