Media Cabinet Remix

Alas, football has returned to my life.  And with football comes two things…one Fantasy Football.  I’m hooked and especially fond of beating my husband in Campbell vs. Campbell the third installment in just a few weeks.  Second…also comes the return of blogging and writing more.  There is nothing I enjoy more than parking my butt on the couch on a Sunday afternoon, watching various NFL games, cursing over my fantasy team’s performance, and editing photos for blog posts.  It’s weird, I know.  It’s right up there with my affinity for watching Red Sox games while crocheting.

Last month, we talked about a little makeover plan for the living room and we’re going full steam ahead on making that happen starting with the media cabinet paint job.

Remember what it used to look like?  The bright, sea foam green color may have been adorable in our Maine home, a cottage-style home, but it just looked so out of place in our circa 1781, Vermont country home.

So I spent twenty bucks on a quart of Benjamin Moore’s Cabin Fever and a couple evenings of painting which made a big difference in the living room.  The muddy green color just fits in this house.  I feel an old, historical home needs more muted and muddy tones.  Especially one surrounded by fields and farms in the Vermont countryside.

Even with the paint job, the cabinet may not be a forever cabinet.  It’s looking a little worse for wear these days and it’s just a smidge too big for the space (it’s just a little too close to the fireplace for comfort) but it’s definitely working for now.

Here’s a closeup of the color.  You’ll definitely be seeing this color, or similar muddy dark greens, throughout our house as we paint and paint and paint some more.  Painting the media cabinet was actually a test drive for the kitchen cabinets.  I’m seriously debating painting them this color or maybe just a little bit darker with Benjamin Moore’s River Rock.  The jury is still out on that one.

We even (sarcastically) splurged on some fresh curtain panels for the living room.  They’re the IKEA Gulspoore curtain panels at a whopping $16.99 per pair.  They’re a bit long and could stand some hemming but that requires an epic battle of Angie vs. the sewing machine.  We do not get along although we’re trying to make amends.

The next project on the living room makeover list is painting the walls.  We’re going with Rodeo for the walls which is the lightest color on the same swatch as the Cabin Fever paint color that’s on the cabinet.  It looks great with the wood trim and there’s no arguing about whether or not it goes with the cabinet paint color.

Have we ever talked about the potato sack art that’s currently hanging out behind the sofa?  I came across the potato sack last summer at a Maine antique store.  It’s an Aroostook County Maine potato sack otherwise known as my homeland and the place I grew up.  Aroostook County, the northernmost county in Maine, is known as potato country with only Idaho rivaling “the county” in potato generation.  I couldn’t resist the sack and turned it into an art piece by building a scrap wood frame for it and stretching the sack over a thin piece of plywood.  It is by far one of my favorite possessions in our home and one of the things that matter.

Also in other did-we-ever-talk-about-this news, the sofa tables.  We had built a trio of sofa tables for our old house’s living room.  They were custom-fit to wrap around the couch and also fit between windows.  They’re just simple framing lumber tables.  When we tried them in the new space, we were so lucky that two of them screwed together were a perfect sofa table size for the couch’s new location.

We’re loving the little updates to the living room so far and it’s starting to feel like a refreshed version of the living room in our first house.  We’re hoping to finish up the refresh (paint and a few more decor projects) before Christmas because…you know…that fireplace!  We didn’t have a fireplace in our first house and was something that we’ve missed especially for Christmas decor and stockings.

In case you missed the original living room plan post you can catch up on it here.  Spoiler alert…we’ve almost finished painting the room and oh goodness is Rodeo a gorgeous color!  Stay tuned.  And if you’re just joining us you can catch up on our new house with a backstory on the Campbell Compound, a floor plan of the house, an interior tour, and an exterior tour.