Putting the Livingroom Back Together - Part II

After the mud and sanding was all finished we prepped with walls with Kilz before we had them textured.

Living room primed and ready for texture

 Another view...

 And another view...

Fortunate for us Dustin had a friend with a texture gun who came over to spray the texture on the walls and ceiling.  We chose to do an orange peel texture on the walls because that is what was done in the bedrooms, and in the hallway leading to the bedrooms.  For the ceilings we chose to do a knock down texture.  Unfortunately I forgot to get photos of the texture being sprayed in the living room.

Once the texture dried we rolled on Kilz again over the texture so the mud would not absorb extra paint.  I always get excited for a good deal, so when I saw that Home Depot had a close-out clearance on VOC-free paint priced to sell at $10 a gallon (normally $39 a gallon), I got really excited.  The only downside was that there was a limited selection of colors to chose from and then the color Dustin and I agreed on took a paint color which happened to require a Base I (a lighter base than a Base II - both white, but made to mix with light and dark colors respectively).  However there was not enough Base I for the color we chose (Waves of Grain), but we tried mixing the paint with Base II.  The color turned out slightly darker with a bit more yellow than the paint swatch, but this ended up being a great thing as it coordinated better with our furniture.

 

 Great use of Wal-Mart bags and makes for easy paint clean-up

 First wall of paint...

 Second wall of paint...

 

 Third wall of paint...

 And the fourth wall of paint.  The red was a last minute decision to add intrest

to the room since the field color paint turned out a bit darker than anticipated 

(because of the Base II we mixed it with)

Once the walls were painted remaining tasks included replacing the dated ceiling fan and adding trim around the fireplace to hide the paneling, baseboard, and molding that we had to cut in order to remove it (since it was applied behind the brick of the fireplace).

 Cleaning the old ceiling fan so not to be bombbarded 

with dust when we took it down

New ceiling fan

 I was very excited when I remembered our wedding gift a photo frame with red matting that reads "Miracle" - a wedding gift which ties the red wall in with the fireplace.

The trim around the fire place Dustin worked so masterfully 

cut - with all the funky angles and curves and all

Next came the really fun part - moving in the furniture so it would look like real people actual live here and could sit and have a conversation here.

 View into the new and improved living room - the red chair also ties in 

with the red wall - I was very excited about this as well

Another view into the living room

A cheap solution to curtains is a sheet.  Using a king size sheet purchased for $15 at Walmart, curtain rings purchased for $5.50 at BigLots and a curtain rod purchased for $3.75 at BigLots I was able to put these curtains together.  The red strip was a ribbon ($2 for a spool from Walmart) I put on using no-sew tape (you just put it between the ribbon and the sheet and you iron it - which heats it up and glues the two together).

The curtains

The remaining work in the living room consists of installing new baseboards, which I am choosing to hold off on in case we find we have the money to replace the carpet with either new carpet or with laminate floors.