Living Room: Before and "Progress"

I titled this post Before and "Progress," because even though we've done quite a bit in this room there's still much to be done! Here's what we've done so far:
- painted the walls and trim
- purchased a sofa, rug, two chairs and two lamps
- decorated a little (see wall behind sofa in photo below)
- replaced the hideous light fixtures above the island (I know, technically that's the kitchen but it's all one big room. More on the kitchen later)

Things still on our list:
- get a bigger coffee table
- start my photo collage on the wall behind the chairs
- purchase and hang curtains
- find a toss cushion for each of the chairs

I'm planning a more formal house tour post to document all the before and afters, but in the interim, here's a before photo I snapped on my smartphone the day we took possession of the house (sorry for the blurry quality, but you get the idea):

And here's what it looks like as of yesterday afternoon:

I am so thrilled with our most recent find: the mirror behind the sofa. I knew I wanted a mirror but wanted something different and kind of beachy looking. I think the table/mirror combo turned out really well!

Stay tuned for a house tour post in the next little while.

Happy Monday!

Paint (a banister) by Numbers

Brent and I have just finished our latest project, and boy was it a doozie! We had a great time spending over half a day (16.5 hours in total) together, but are we ever glad to be done! We are extremely pleased with the result. Here’s the lowdown on the banister painting expedition:

66 spindles, 8 newels and approximately 25 feet of railing

12 sheets of 100-grit sand paper to sand the entire thing down over 2 hours

3 coats of paint to attain the finish we desired which took 14.5 hours in total, how’s that for some heart-to-heart chatting time?!

And here’s the breakdown of our supplies and cost for the project:
- CIL’s No VOC semi-gloss out of the can white paint (approx ½ a gallon): $0 = already owned
- Sand paper: $6.76
- Brushes: $0
- Paint trays: $0
- Painter’s tape: 0$
- Total for project: $6.76

Here’s a WAY back photo of what she looked like before we had even moved in:

And here’s a few from after we painted the walls (back in November) but before painting the banister:

And here she is all clean and glossy white!

Next step: artwork and photos for those bare walls!