There are only a few items left on the Living Room Makeover List, but I’ve kind of lost steam on it. I’m so easily distracted, and lately my eye has been on the Breakfast Room. I mean, it is where we have most every meal, so I’ve had many opportunities to study it. It’s the last major part of the Kitchen that remains undone, and that’s easily remedied. Let’s retrace the steps of the Breakfast Room evolution so far, and start at the beginning.
I hate to spring these images on you, but you have to see the brutally honest ‘Befores’ in order to fully appreciate the ‘Afters’! Here’s the previous owner’s room before we moved in…
Yeah, 1980s all up in here! Then we came in and painted the walls, cleaned up the cabinets and simplified the decor.
We lived with it like this for five loooooong years. We are a family of fruit punch lovers, so you can guess the condition of the sweet white formica! Even Mr. Clean can’t touch red rings. So we finally saved our pennies and prepped for the remodel. Here’s the dreary shot of the dark Breakfast Room, with a too-big table and chairs, and blinged out light fixture.
After the renovation, things were definitely looking better!
We took this wasted half-wall,
and added a bar and chairs for a more useful space.
The table and chairs were updated, but had to be shifted over to accommodate the new bar. Which made the light fixture awkwardly off-center.
When the contractor came to move it over, we had him switch it out with a simplified DIY drum shade. (Do you guys want a tutorial on it?) We inherited the Windsor chairs, so we added them to the table to break up the set.
I like how the curved backs soften all the straight lines in the room. And while adding drapes to the large window was an improvement, these were much too short. The room also felt too dark with the muddy wall color.
The most recent change was painting the walls Farrow & Ball ‘Skylight’, which brightened the room and opened everything up.
And here we are today….brighter room, centered light fixture, and partially updated chairs.
And naked window and floor.
I seem to work much better with a list, and publishing it here keeps me accountable to it. It’s a pretty short one, so I should be able to accomplish it quickly and easily, thus finally completing the full Kitchen Makeover. Then maybe I’ll finish the Living Room List. Yeah, right.
