The Big Living Room Reveal!!

Today is the day: the day that we completely finished our new living room in the attic! I thought some nice before and after pictures are in order for today :-) When we first moved in, Luke turned the big attic room into an Ohio State room. It was just going to be a "hang out" room. But this year, Luke decided that he'd rather turn the Ohio State room into a living room. I couldn't have been more thrilled!

Okay, you are about to see 3 sets of photos: Before we moved in, Ohio State man-cave stage, and new living room!

Here is the stairway before we moved in:
Here it is all decked out in Ohio State gear: gray walls and black trim...complete with Ohio State stickers and movie posters.
And now for the big reveal...the current stairway. Loving it! What a change! New railing, new paint, new carpet.
We ARE painting the trim around the windows white in the spring when it warms up and we can take the plastic off of them :-P

Here is a picture of the stairs leading up
And a close up of the new railing that Luke made. Definitely better than the old one which was falling apart. It certainly wasn't too safe!
And here's the picture my sister drew for Luke and I the Christmas after we got married, hanging on the wall as you walk up the stairs.

For this next angle, I don't have an original from when we bought the house, but here it is in it's OSU glory. Brightest walls I've ever seen.
And here we are now. I just love the color! It's a lot more calming then before. We got a new (to us...it's actually a hand-me-down) TV stand. And the old striped door is now a crisp white. Also, notice the horrendous fluorescent lighting has been replaced with much softer lighting.
Love this little area. I like adding little birds around the house because I love the whole metaphor of a home being a nest :-)

Next is the view of the wall opposite the stairs when we bought the house. Don't you just love the brown trim and two different kinds of carpet??Here is in its OSU days...look at all the sports paraphernalia!
And here it is in its current state. I guess I didn't get a picture from quite the same angle, so this is really only half of the wall. But I still think it's a major step up!
Here is the back wall when we first moved in
Ohio State Stage...eww (this was taken earlier than the other OSU room pics...so it's even worse than the other ones):And now! Not quite the same angle, but you get the idea. And again, we're painting the trim around the windows white in the spring when the plastic comes down!
Here is a close up of the wall where I put this beautiful "peace" sign. I think it looks great on the blue wall!
And that's it, the full reveal :-) I am absolutely in LOVE with the new room! The dim lighting and lighter paint color just give it such a calming feel. And I'm loving the new carpet! It's cozy, and Luke and I haven't spent much time anywhere else since the carpet was installed on Wednesday :-) I had to laugh tonight when I realized that literally EVERY SINGLE piece of furniture in this room was donated to us. Except for the little black tables and the blu-ray shelf. So it's still a little mismatched, but that's okay! maybe someday we'll get a nice sectional sofa and a beautiful coffee table and some nice end tables. But for now this is great :-)

I hope everyone had a great weekend! I know I did! And the roads are still pretty terrible from the snowstorm this weekend, so I have a 2 hour delay tomorrow which may turn into a snow day! I'm pretty pumped to sleep in a little bit, or have the whole day off :-)

Come back tomorrow to hear about our Super Bowl party and to see a really funny video of my little Ellie :-)