Before and After: Living Room

I'm so happy to be blogging again. The past four to five months have been pretty tough. James and I would work at our job during the day and then head to our place afterwards to fix it up. We would get home at 1 or 2 am and basically crash and do it all over again the next day. We were exhausted but extremely happy to finally have a place to call our own. It was hard work but it's so rewarding.

I can't wait to share pics of our labor of love. It's still a work in progress but I'm excited that the hard labor part is done. Now the fun begins with all the decorating and furnishing.  I hope you enjoy these posts and videos about our new home :)

Living Room Before

Living Room After

Continue reading below to get all the details about our living room :)


Painting over Wood Paneling

I wish we had time to film how we prepped the wood panel walls before we painted them but filming at night was challenging. The lighting was off and it didn't help that the walls were so dark. We looked like zombies on top of that. It just wasn't pretty. Luckily, there are already videos out there that shows how it is done (I will link one of them below).

Here's what we did if you are thinking of painting over your wood panelings:

1. Wipe the walls and make sure that they are clean and dry.
2. Lightly sand the wood panels with 100 grit sandpaper. This will help the drywall joint compound and paint adhere better.
3. Wipe down the walls again with a damp rag, making sure they are clean and dry.
4. Fill in the wood panel grooves with drywall joint compound. See how it's done here.
5. Allow the compound to dry completely before sanding it down. You might need to add another layer of compound depending on how deep the grooves are.
6. Wipe down the walls again with a damp rag.
7. Now you're ready to paint on a coat of oil-based primer.
8. Once that is dry, paint on two coats of your favorite paint color.

We painted our walls with Sherwin Williams' Amazing Gray (SW 7044) with the SuperPaint formula in Satin finish. We love the color and the paint was very high quality. It went on smooth and beautiful. We highly recommend it!

Furnitures and Home Decor

As for our living room furnitures and decor, I like to mix pricer pieces with inexpensive ones. We tend to invest more money into pieces that will get a lot of usage like our sofa and rug. We also love to check craigslist.org to see what's available. We scored a few good pieces on there. Our coffee table was originally $600 from Crate and Barrel but the previous owner sold it to us for only $60!

I love TJ Maxx and Homegoods for fun inexpensive decors. Their selections are always changing so it's fun to poke around and see whats new. Joss and Main, an online website, is my new favorite place to look for home stuff too. They have daily sale events and their customer service is excellent. I've found many cool pieces there.

 

(left) These little club chairs are super comfortable. I love sitting on them. 

(right) I've been in love with these gold poufs for the longest time! I'm so happy to finally have one :)

Here's a list of where we bought our living room furnitures and decor:

Sofa: Crate and Barrel
Gold Pouf: Joss and Main
Pillows: TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Target, and Joss and Main
Rug: Overstock.com 
Coffee Table: craigslist.org
Club Chairs: Homegoods
Dining Table: Ikea