Living room re-do

When we first moved in, our living dining room was a boring box. It drove me crazy! I knew this house was meant to have character, as it was originally built in the 20's, but it had all been stripped out.

When we added our furniture, it just felt dark and old lady-ish because we had so much wood and antique stuff. I worked on Charlie for AGES to re-do the living room (he doesn't like change) and finally he was on board. We're almost done, but this is it so far:

• Painted walls 'Delaware Putty' and trim 'Dune White' (Benjamin Moore)
• Added wooden shutters to windows
• Removed pre-fab banister and had one custom made, true to the era of the house
• Added a foyer, with a stained glass transom, circa 1890 something
• Found a great vintage fireplace (A Matter of Time on Jones), also from the 20's and then sourced a time appropriate tile surround from an architectural salvage (The Door Store)
• Changed all the lighting
• Replaced all of the furniture, mixing high and low, new and old
• We got the living room chairs from a cool retro store in Dundas, ON (Charlie's find!!)
• The cabinet in the dining area is from an antique fair - it's an old wash stand
• The couch and pillows are Crate and barrel and the dining room table is Ikea
• The dining chairs are from the Queen street antique shop and originated from an old school auditorium in Toronto
• The little bird I got in Stockholm
• The dining room photo was a gift from our friends Sanjay and Nicole (taken by Sanjay)
• We replaced the hideous cut glass front door insert with a simple frosted glass pane

Next we're adding a big piece of art to the dining room wall and a few more odds and ends...all fun and all worth the work!

Oh, and we funded some of it by selling our old furniture on Craigslist!!! Love Craigslist.

The pics are a bit mixed up, but the before ones are the ones with no furniture. It's funny, it looks brighter before, but I think that's due to the time of day...