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Around the House: Paint it white

By Dawn Sailors In Around the House, Living Room

Back when our living room furniture was all light, I painted the fireplace and bookshelves the same dark chocolate brown as our kitchen cabinets. And I really liked how it looked.

But ever since moving our dark charcoal couch from the basement to the living room, the whole room just felt way too heavy, and I was itching for a change. So I changed things. Ta da!

You’ll probably notice quite a few changes here actually. I mentioned some of them in this post a while ago. I updated the window treatments from heavy curtains to bamboo roman shades, and I love the change. I opted for a little trickery and hung them significantly higher than the actual top of the windows to give the illusion that the windows are bigger than they really are, while letting a lot more light come in. It also balances the bookcase on the other side of the fireplace much better this way, and I love the addition of the wood tones in the room. Much warmer!

I also pared down the mantle decor to a cleaner, less cluttered look, and added this new star-burst mirror I found at the Home Depot. It might be my favorite thing ever. Love the mid-century style, the color, the shape, the size, and the fish-eyed mirror in the center.

But the biggest change by far is the white fireplace and bookshelves. So fresh and so clean, clean! They make such a difference in the room and make the dark couch feel much more at home.

I also added a new fiddle leaf fig to the fireplace area, with a two dollar plastic pot I bought at Target and painted with craft paint.

I’ve been drooling over this plant all over Pinterest and on every blog ever for months and months, and finally found the mother-load at a local nursery here in Omaha (Mulhall’s) and brought my own home. Now I am on a mission to not kill the thing. Which is an uphill battle because this is where plants come to die. But I’m going to really really really try this time. Really. I even have a phone alarm set to water the thing. Yeah- dedication.

At some point I’d love to re-tile the fireplace with some shiny white marble, and I’m still trying to decide what color the backs of the bookshelves should be with the new white all around, but for now, I’m very happy with the progress in this room. All in good time!

Happy Sunday!