Over the summer, things got a little hectic. Work was getting really busy and was encroaching on my free time. As I was managing that, my Lucy Dog injured her knee. Twice. Two surgeries. At least a dozen visits to the vet. She lived in a cone of shame for weeks, and wasn't allowed to jump, run, or do dog things for most of the summer. To try to preserve her other knee, the vet recommended that she not jump off of furniture any more. Not really that easy in practice. Between work demanding my time, and my dog demanding my pity, I was feeling the stress creep in.
Lucy's favorite spot in the house is looking out the front window.
The problem was, her old bench was too high for her now. So, add together my stress, my new couch and a new bench, and suddenly I'm redesigning the living room.
Here's what the living room looked like before.
Even though I really liked our floating shelves, they added some complications to the furniture layout, and also added a lot of visual noise. The picture above is maybe a little older; I had switched some of the decorations out to a neutral palette which helped, but I was really feeling the need to simplify. So, it was time for the shelves to go.
One way to simplify something visually but still keep things interesting is to add texture to a room. If you look at some of the designs of the great Joanna Gaines, you'll see that her color palette is very limited, but it's never boring because of the textural items that she puts into place. Cue the shiplap. Yes, shiplap. I had been thinking about putting it in the living room for a while, but talking myself out of it because it's trendy, and my taste might just change in a couple years and it will be a real pain to get rid of. Could shiplap make any sense outside of an old farmhouse and in a 1980's bi-level house (let's face it, they through design out the window when they built this house in the first place!)? Strangely enough, the thing that solidified the idea in my mind was a business trip to Vermont. The hotel had used shiplap in their conference rooms in a way that was clearly not "farmhouse", but looked modern and great, even in that setting. I wish I had taken a picture, but when you are literally the only woman at the conference and just about the only person younger than middle-aged, you just don't take photos of the pretty wall. You are already weird enough.
So, here's how the living room refresh went, starting with the new shiplap wall...
I found my shiplap in the project board/MDF section in Home Depot. I couldn't find it online, but this link is pretty similar.
If you don't want to fill your wall with nail holes, you can screw a few 2x4's onto your wall, and attach the shiplap to that. In my case, once I took the trim off of the wall, it looked like this, and the drywall was pretty much trashed anyway.
I tried to imagine my living room covered in this wallpaper that I uncovered along the way:
This really is simple to do; put down the bottom board so that the tongue sticks out at the top, and make sure it's level before nailing it in to the wall. One suggestion is to nail the shiplap on the tongue of the board, near the top where the next piece will cover it up. Only nail through the front of the board where you absolutely have to, and this way you will have very few nail holes to cover. By the way, this is a great use for a trim nail gun, if your excellent husband happened to have bought you one for Christmas... :) It's hard to see in the pictures, but I took the baseboard and crown molding off of the wall before I started and put them back on over the shiplap.
Here's what mine looked like just before the last board was put into place and the joints were filled/sanded and it was painted (Irish Mist by Behr):
And here's the shiplap wall, before any decorations were hung:
Next, new decorations...
I knew I wanted a large piece of art over the couch, and figured a large photo of mine would be pretty economical. To figure out which one to use, I had a few options printed in a smaller size (8x10), then held them up to see which I liked best:
The actual print is something like 28"x40", which professionally printed is about $100. These $3 8x10's really helped me see what the larger print would look like, and minimize the chance that I would be disappointed with the large print.
When I was ready for the real print, I took my file into the photo shop (Perfect Image for those of you local to Lancaster), and talked over the different paper options, and they also confirmed that the resolution of my print would be high enough for such a large photo.
I made a simple black frame, using this method.
Here's a shot of the finished room:
The art on the left, along with the wooden end table, is there to help balance out the wooden shelf on the right. It looks kind of smooshed in the corner from this angle, but in person it looks right! I also switched from a bold striped rug to one with a smaller pattern. I found that I could not keep the striped rug looking clean, and with such a defined pattern, any stains are really noticeable. The new one has an organic look to it, so it shows less stains, and should wear better over the long haul.
I think the new look is a little more simple and peaceful. I chose the end table to keep with the mid-century look of the couch, the bench is also in that style, and most importantly low enough for Lucy, and the new rug pulls the blues, greys and whites together with a small herringbone pattern.
Sources:
Ladder bookcase: made a loooong time ago
Coffee table: built using these plans
Couch: Reupholstered
Art (on left): by Michelle Miller Illustration, print available here (Frame linked above)
End Table
New Bench (similar)
Rug
Curtains
I have really been enjoying this new, simplified version of our living room. And of course Lucy has been enjoying her new bench! Fingers crossed that it does the trick and keeps her knee safe.
Have a good week!
~Amy
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