The Power of Paint in a Living Room
When we moved into our house one of the spaces I loved was the living room! It was bare but I saw the potential of this space and loved its high ceilings. But I didn’t love the blue paint! I knew the living room paint was going to be one of the most inexpensive dramatic transformations we could make with the space. But I knew it’d be a task with the height of the ceilings. This is what the space looked like when we looked at the home.
Before
New Lighting
There were a few things that weren’t my taste but one thing I didn’t love for this particular space was the industrial fan. I really wanted a more modern farmhouse styled chandelier. So the first thing we did was swap that out. Here’s what we went with.
Fireplace Glow Up
I really loved the look and feel like it warmed up the space. We aren’t really fan people anyways! Then, last year, we decided the fireplace needed a face-lift. You can check out the full fireplace reno here! We built a raised hearth, added Airstone to the face, and a wooden mantle. We have been so pleased with how it came out(even though it’s not quite finished just yet) we will be finishing the hearth top soon! Here it was when we first finished it and decorated for Christmas.
Living Room Paint
Finally ready to take on a big task, I decided it was time for paint. I am a firm believer that paint is one of the most power packing, cost effective renovations that someone can do! So I decided I’d climb up the 20 feet and tackle the living room paint job! I did 2 coats on 3 out of the 4 walls in a weekend!
Front Door Paint
Once I finished the 2nd coat and put all of the furniture and decor back, I realized it was still missing something. The front door felt washed out and dated. It made the room look old. I decided a fresh coat of paint there too was the impact the room needed. So I went with black and got to it!
This was after the 1st coat. I very quickly realized it needed several and that the TYPE of paint made all the difference in the world. The first coat I did was a semi-gloss paint but not specifically designed for doors. Then I went and purchased DOOR PAINT in tricorn black and wow what a difference! The plain semi gloss left a sticky finish and did not coat well at all! The door paint wasn’t sticky and left a nice even coat on the door.
Living Room Paint Reveal
And here is the complete room in all its painted glory!
Doesn’t that black door just make all the impact?! As you can see in this last photo, we chose to leave the last wall blue for now. This was not a design choice but rather a lack of ability. For me to paint this wall I would need to rent scaffolding. Behind the bookshelf are the stairs to the basement so really this wall is more like 35 feet tall with no good place to place a ladder. For my own safety I decided I was not comfortable attempting to paint this wall just yet so we chose to leave it blue FOR NOW!
That being said we have lots more plans for this space! Plans that are going to require a good contractor. Like removing some of that blue wall(it is load-bearing and will require a beam)then painting whats left of the wall, removing the bookshelf and replacing it with a beautiful rod iron rail, covering the popcorn with shiplap, and encasing the beam in wood for a faux beam look! But for now I am so pleased with the impact a coat of paint made! Stay tuned for more home renos coming soon!
