My Emergency REdesign

I guess it was time to practice what I preach and de-clutter BUT it’s hard when your husband’s an artist and painting crap is everywhere AND you had to give up your dinning room to house said crap. However, I have risen above all of that. After a 911 call to my mom, I have transformed my living room and office space (formerly known as a whirlwind of art supplies, formerly known as my dinning room) into a living room, dining room, and artist/office space.
Everybody loves a good before and after so here ya’ go, here’s the before…

And the after. Drum roll please… 
This is the view of our new living room/ dining room from the entryway/hallway. If you can’t tell already I love gray! It makes the perfect backdrop for all the eclectic pieces that we have. If I had to explain our style I wouldn’t know where to begin. My husband loves the whole Ralph Lauren classic Americana look with rich dark colors. I on the other hand, prefer a more French bohemian style where nothing quite matches but it all works together to make the room feel warm and inviting. So, I guess you could say our style is a mix of classic Americana and French bohemian, sounds odd saying it together but it works. Oh by the way, I’m not done hanging the rest of our artwork on that wall.
 The TV watching area  is now it’s own intimate space and with the chairs flanking either side, it’s the perfect conversation area as well. That built in bookcase might look like a dream come true, but don’t be fooled (so wish I could remove it) the shelves aren’t deep enough to hold anything. It just collects Land Rover model cars and it drives me crazy but hey, I guess that’s what compromise is all about.

Now, this is my new favorite piece in the living room. Actually it’s not really a “new” piece it used to live in the entryway stacked high as a bookcase. This stackable antique piece was given new life as a console table once we separated it and reconfigured it. Notice the old Polo flag is framed front and center and really shines flanked between the matching lamps (the polo flag stays for my husband). There it is, way off on in the distance…my old dining room that was once a disaster, now turned organized artist space. Ahhh organization makes me happy.

Welcome to our new dining room of sorts. Even though it no longer has it’s own room per say, it works as a fully functioning dining room. We’ve already put it to the test. There’s room to pull out the table from the wall and comfortably seat six just like before! Lighting is so key here. Without the help of the new light fixture above the table, it would it would just look like a table shoved against the wall with chairs. The light fixture really defines it as the  ”dining room” section of our large living room space. A mere $50 at ikea solved the problem. Here is is, the once disaster zone turned organized space, that granted I have to still pick up all the crap at the end of the day BUT now it has an organized place to live. What you can’t see is a cabinet (with doors!) to hold all of his supplies. If only I could explain the true joy I feel in having an organized, fully functioning living space once again! 

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that everything in the living room I’ve had. Only a few accessory pieces we purchased to fill in some gaps and to help make sense of the new layout.
I share all of this hoping to inspire some of you guys to suck it up and get rid of some crap you no longer use. And if your feeling really ambitious go ahead and switch some things around, organizing as you go (of course!). It’s always nice to freshen things up a bit!

Tagged as: artist space, dining room, living room, office space, organization, redecorate, redesign