Candice's Living Room Project

(Candice is letting me post her room before she does. I did ask permission. She isn't worried about my 25 readers/family members spoiling things before she posts. She doesn't usually post about her house so she may never post these anyway. I really want your honest opinion on how you like the room. Tell me what you like and don't like. We can take it. But, just so you know, we don't like to have what everyone else has so this is a bit unique. )

It's becoming a tradition that when I visit my girls, they have projects lined up to do. We did Candice's family room last fall and this trip it was on to the living room. This is taken from the entry hall. This "living room" is really meant to be a dining room but there is lots of space to eat in the "great" room so we thought a library living space would be more useful. We call this our modern take on an old English library. We painted the walls a charcoal gray and left the trim white. We even took the paint up on the ceiling leaving a rectangle of the original color unpainted. We were going for drama. (It only took two coats of primer, one coat of paint that looked navy instead of charcoal, and then back to the paint store and another coat of a true charcoal...ok maybe it was darker than we wanted but at this point...good enough.)
We decided to line one wall with a thin plywood. Candice and I liked that look a lot but Mark encouraged us to go forward with our plan. What was the plan? The plan was to line the wall with pages from two Sherlock Holmes books. (Not that you would notice that is what the pages were from but when we go with a theme...we go with a theme. The book pages were different colors in each book so we interspersed the pages to give the wall a more mottled look. (Mark is hanging the new light is this picture.)

Anna asked why we didn't just apply the pages on the wall. We thought it would be easier to fill a few nails holes than to try and strip off thin book pages when and if she ever decides to change the decor.
What did the boys so while we were working? It was Saturday so the kids were allowed to play the wii while we worked. They loved it.
Candice and Dickens preparing the pages. (She might make me take this off my blog so don't tell her it's on here. Hey, we are working...it's a come as you are party.)

We sprayed the pages with spray mount and stuck them to the plywood. Just in case you were wondering how we did this. Rocket science right?
Mark waiting for us to tell him how to adjust the light. He was a trouper. Very patient with us and our "to do" list.
I really did sew all those stripes on the window draperies. It was not striped fabric. I would have like them better if I had made the stripes the same width. Ahhh, live and learn.
What do you think? The coffee table and locker we bought at Round Top. The pillow with the "S" I made for the family room and the #4 pillow is from Pottery Barn...I think. The chairs and love seat are from the Pottery Barn outlet store. They have some great buys.

(I found the couches I wanted from the Restoration Hardware outlet. They also were a really great price but thought it would cost me a fortune to have them shipped. I was so sad to leave them behind. They don't have shipping from the outlets like they do in the retail store or online. I wish they had some outlets like that around my house.)
Candice is ordering two unique bookshelves to go on each side of the locker. We were able to fit quite a few books in the locker even though it doesn't look like it. I know it is an unconventional arrangement but we like it. There is still more tweaking to do but we finished 2 am Easter morning and I left Monday morning early. The time went too quickly.
Interesting light don't you think? We also have molding to go around that painting rectangle in the ceiling but we didn't get it finished before I left.

Now for an insider secret. We were literally laughing and crying at around midnight. Picture dark gray walls, bare light bulbs, black and what striped curtains, and a metal locker with the doors closed. At that point we thought we had made a HUGE mistake. Especially when Mark came in with the #4 pillow held in both hands in front of his chest like he was having mug shots taken. Candice said that she would never be able to have any one over until it was changed or they would think she was really bizarre. We decided to keep going and once we got the rug and the furniture in along with some merchandising in the locker, it got a bit better. I have to say it was a rough night though. I don't think either of us slept much.
By morning, and a little more tweaking, we decided we loved it.


The coffee table is a old grill of some kind with zinc squares hammered on the top with little nail heads. We love re-purposed interesting one-of-a-kind pieces.
We didn't get everything hung before these pictures but there will be a black and white picture with light matting on that wall behind the love seat. She also had some great letters "M&C" to be hung on another wall. They are the finishing touches the room needs.

And, see those tulips. Mark bought those for Candice. They were there when we got home from Round Top just to show her how much he missed her. He is a keeper. (We feel so blessed with 3 great SILs actually.)

THE END. What do you think? If you are reading this, I would love to hear from you.

Could I entice you to make comments if I promise to show Candice's family room? A room I would really like in my own home. A room that is also unique and answers the question about what to do with a wall that is 24 feet tall without any architectural features.