grey | Jewels at Home

After some peeks into the small spaces in our house – the powder room, the nursery, the laundry, the master bath – I’m glad I can show you our living room. It’s actually only one half of the original living room – we are using the other half of this enormous room as our dining room, and we turned the separate dining room into a family room.

I am not sure quite how to describe the style – it’s a little bit contemporary but classic. It has Chinese elements, but more of a Regency Chinoiserie feel than traditional Chinese. Is this the Asian fusion of the decorating world? Anyway, I love the cool soothing blues and grays warmed up with some green. It satisfies my desire for a grown-up space but is still a very comfortable spot to hang out.

Not much more explanation needed, so I’ll get to the pictures. I’ve included links to the many DIY projects in this room.

A view of the living room side of our living-dining room, from the foyer.

The bamboo brush paintings are by my mom. I sewed the living room pillows and repainted the vintage marble-top coffee table.

This picture was from the Holiday House Tour:

I love this elegant old Chinese chair that I picked up at the flea market. It’s sitting by the window, next to a craigslist-find chest that I painted in teal.

Here’s another sunny view of our living room. I love that it has so many windows.

Living room tour. Classic contemporary space with Asian elements. {Jewels at Home}

To the left of the piano is an antique wooden window screen that I painted, and on top is a repurposed shoe box, decorated with paper.

These nesting tables are from a consignment store, and the silver box is a rummage sale find that I painted in silver.

This vignette on top of a bookshelf includes some art from a favorite calendar, an antique Korean vase given to us by Steve’s parents, and a little Japanese dish I picked up years ago while shopping with my mom and sister.

The bookshelf on the other side of the window has a similarly sentimental display – art from a calendar and from an old friend, a small blue and white Chinese vase from my grandmother’s house, and some candle sticks I found in thrift store.

Thanks for visiting!

“Jewels”

This is one of those projects that I meant to do myself, but I’m glad that I didn’t. It had all the makings of dragging on for a ridiculously long time like our powder room, and I didn’t want dust, plaster, and paint to be lying about the living room and accessible by the kids for several weeks.

Many thanks to Joe and Jose, a painting team that do a great job and are enjoyable to have around the house, this job was done more quickly and better than I could have achieved myself. They worked on this at the same time they helped paint our stair risers.

The fireplace has been my bane since we moved in – with its cheesy faux finish and disturbing disembodied heads, it was impossible to ignore and clashed with everything I wanted to do with our living-dining room. On the other hand, we didn’t have the budget to completely redo it, and I felt it was a part of our 85 year-old house’s history and personality that I wanted to respect.

Updating an ornate fireplace. Before and after.

Enter Joe and Jose with some saws and chisels, a bit of plaster, and a lot of paint, and this old eyesore became a unique focal point that doesn’t frighten young children (and their parents).

Updating an ornate fireplace. In progress… excuse the severed head!

And here is the newly painted fireplace in Benjamin Moore Chelsea Gray (HC-168). The solid color really tones down this massive piece and allows us to appreciate the design, and I don’t miss those little heads at all!

And since the seasons are changing, I also took some pictures of the mantel decorated for fall. I’d like to add some branches as well, but this is a good start.

Warm fall mantel with metallic pumpkin!

Fall mantel arrangement.

Doubtless, this new fireplace is a hundred times better than the way it was, but I am actually thinking of repainting it an even lighter shade of grey. I was inspired by this picture from House and Home magazine in January 2012. WIth such a large and ornate fireplace, I think the color can be very subtle and still stand out. What do you think?

Light grey mantel makes a subtle statement. House and Home magazine January 2012.

I’m glad we didn’t spend a ton of money nor throw out this historical piece… I’m also glad my hubby didn’t go along with Joe’s suggestion of putting one of the severed heads in our bed as a surprise! Eeeek!

“Jewels”

Jewels at Home

Tag Archives: grey

Living Room Tour

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