Reviving Pine Drive
Hello friends! I have been working on our living room off and on for the last few months. But with being in the midst of COVID and kids home, along with doing exterior work, it has come along slowly. I am certainly not finished with the decorating aspect of it all. (There are so many blank walls still 😂) But I didn’t want to wait any longer to show you what was done! Mostly - german schmear, ohh the fireplace!!!
Here is what it looked like before. Apparently I forgot to take an actual before photo. This one is from a few years ago. We had painted the walls on each side of the fireplace a dark gray in attempts to center it. I don’t like that they built the fireplace this way, but that’s not something I could really change.
In this room, there is also the entryway. You can see what it looks like before and after on this post. Here is what it looks like now.
I also painted the fan in the living room. You can read all about that here.
All the walls were painted in Magnolia Locally Sown. It’s a wonderful light grey, white, cream that I am carrying through the main parts of the house. And I continued to paint the trim in Sherwin Williams Alabaster. I moved the couch from the window so I could have the most light possible coming in.
And even since I took this photo above I have rearranged a bit. This space is still evolving for me. Mostly because I don’t love how the furniture fits in it, but don’t want to buy new right now.
But did you spot the amazing cabinet the tv sits on?!? My Dad found that cabinet and brought it to me a few years back. It was waiting to be turned into a kitchen island, but fit so perfectly into the void, that I had to put it there! I have a piece of architectural salvage that I plan to hang above the television also.
Now onto the biggest change, the fireplace & cabinets. I always wanted a big fireplace to decorate, and we love burning wood fires in the winter time, but I just never seemed to be able to decorate well with the dark wood cabinets and dark brick. I felt like stuff never stood off in the right way. Here is what it looked like before, when I was in the process of moving stuff around.
I struggled with what to paint the cabinets, as I didn’t just want to paint them white. I painted them a few different Annie Sloan colors, in different paint techniques, but it was never quite right. In the end, the interior portions of the cabinets are Annie Sloan Country Grey and the exterior part of the cabinets is our trim color, Sherwin Williams Alabaster.
Here you can also see the brick. I German Schmeared it! I didn’t make a tutorial on how to do it, because I was just learning myself. But I can tell you now it was cheap to do, but a bit more work then I thought it would be. I believe the brick took me about 10 hours, but that includes figuring out what I liked. Once I got my technique down, it went faster.
Meet Truman, our old, wonderful pup!
I decorated during quarantine, so I just used what I had on hand. Although, I do think it turned out fine. The light colors really helped. I’m very excited to change it all up for fall!
Oh and for the last bit of fun, I bought an old trunk and turned it into a blanket chest. I’m in love ❤️
As I continue, to decorate, I will update this post. I will be putting a huge old window above the couch... if I can get it hung, lol!
Hope you guys enjoyed this peek!
You can find the supplies & tools I use at my Amazon store and order Annie Sloan paint directly from me at this website. Also, check out the YouTube channel for tons of video tutorials!
Penny, thank you so much for your kind words! I love the direction this room is going. Light and bright ❤️
I am so in love with this look. I have been struggling with what to do with my ugly brick on the fireplace. This is perfect. And your entry way is beautiful. I feel like you are doing a version of my house. Lol Absolutely beautiful!!!
Awww thanks so much Andrea! It has been a bit of a crazy life... but this is always why the kids rooms are trashed too!
It looks amazing! I'm continually impressed by how much you get done with those boys running around.