Living Room Before and Afters

Finally, I'm ready to share more detailed before and afters of our home.  Today, I'm starting with the living room and entryway:

For those of you just joining me, let me explain.  My husband and I purchased our home in 2008 from the first and only family to own this 1924 bungalow.  The home was out of date, and had to be taken down to the studs to be habitable (by today's standards)! 

The entryway before:

You can read more about how I styled this entryway for spring here.  We saw this gut job as an opportunity to open up and move walls as well as put our own touch on the home:

Someone once asked me how I saw beyond the run down before shots you see here. Honestly, the older and more out of date the home, the better, in my eyes. That way, I'm not paying for someone else's updates that aren't to my liking.  I LOVE OLD RUN DOWN HOMES ON THE MLS.   I just love imagining the possibilities......

You might notice in the above before and after that we actually moved the entryway toward the front of the house by closing in a small outdoor porch.  At the same time, we widened the entryway as well as the entrance into the living room.  The sideboard in the entryway was left in the basement by the previous home owner.  I decided to clean it up a little and use it in this space:

In addition to gutting the home, we installed all new windows (with lots of help from our contractor, of course).  Since the walls were being opened up, it was more cost efficient to order standard size windows than to try and match the old window openings.  Besides, this front window didn't fit the age of the home:

 I would eventually like to change the face of the fireplace and to install a mantel.  Until we do that, we painted the old brick white for a mini-facelift:

Up until two months ago, the tv was hung over our fireplace.  We took it down and used this mirror - that was previously in storage - as a place holder until I can find a piece of art that I really like for above the space.

I'm also using these lanterns on the side table until I can find a pair of lamps that works in the room.  I'm keeping my eye open, and something at Homegoods caught my eye this week.  I might go back; if they are still there, maybe it's a sign.

It's interesting how much photographing my own home has helped me make improvements. The mirror just hasn't been working for me on the fireplace. After looking at the below picture, I realized it would better fill the space hung horizontally.  Until I can get my husband to add the wire, it will stay as is.  Here is a shot looking into the dining room:

...and one last one looking into the living room from the dining room.  I think this is my favorite before and after.  You can see how opening up the walls and adding larger windows makes a huge impact:

Of course, there are still changes I would like to make in the living room.  You can see some of my plans to update this room in my 6 Ideas to Update the Living Room  post:



See more of my home tour here. 

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Linking to:
DIY by Design / No Minimalist Here / Stone Gable / Jennifer Rizzo / Common Ground / Inspiration Gallery / Inspire Me Please / Finding Silver Pennies / Home Stories A to Z / Clean and Scentscible / Savvy Southern Style