We've lived in our house for a little over two years now and the last area to really get any attention paid to it was the living room/ dining room. I recently got the urge to just get some basic things done in there though. The big one by far was painting the ceiling. That was the worst, messiest, most time consuming project I think I've ever tackled but by far the most rewarding. The ceiling was riddled with water stains from a bath tub overflowing upstairs when the previous owners lived here. It also how do I put this... "sparkled." Honestly I'd never seen anything like it but apparently somebody thought it would look really sweet to pepper the ceiling with glitter {thats's the 70's for ya!} So needless to say it was time for a fresh coat. The result left us feeling like the ceilings were about a foot taller and so much lighter and brighter.
I also wanted to make a sofa change but since it's not in the budget right now to buy the one I really love I shopped our home and brought up one from our sunroom. It replaced a gigantic sectional and also as a result made things feel more open. Above it hangs my favorite thing that I've brought home lately- a driftwood sunburst. It was handcrafted by a local artisan from driftwood found on the beaches in my hometown of South Haven, Michigan. I love it for it's size, texture and personal meaning. My trusty blue bench made a trip down from the foot of our bed to in front of the picture window for extra seating.
In the dining room I added a cream dresser which we are using as a buffet. I love having a place to stash all of the extra table linens etc.. as well a place to serve off of while entertaining. It was from a batch of furniture orginally delagated to Elizabeth Gray but I couldn't help but keep it for us. {I have a feeling furniture shuffles like this are going to become more and more common lol}
