~Living Room Refresh~

French Country Style Living

Our living room has gone through some more changes and although not significant, little things have made a difference and I feel it's slowly bringing us one step closer to the finished space. I wanted to share the refreshed space with you and a quick look at some of the design choices we will be making soon into creating that French Country style that I really love.

Our house has changed over the last year with simple elements like freshly painted walls. The new design idea for our home is to lighten and brighten our spaces from before. Paint color is an easy and inexpensive way to update those spaces. We have an open concept living room, dining and kitchen which is ideal, but the spaces were painted different colors when we bought it. Having different colored walls in an open area can close off the space, which obviously defeats the open concept. We have recently painted the open area living spaces all the same color, which lends to a more open and larger feel. If you would like to see the before and after of those spaces, you can click the links below to take a look. :)

"Painting Party in the Dining Room"

"Living Room Update~Design Feature"

"Living Room Makeover"

"The Kitchen Update"

You may also want to take a look at our updated "Home Tour", on the blog.

The living room refresh includes moving around some furniture pieces, a new sofa slipcover from Wayfair, and a refurbished "French Country" side table. We finally had some sunshine and so I hurriedly set up my camera and studio lights to take some photos to show you!

Here is what the living room looks like now!

We bought the sofa slipcover from Wayfair. The reason we needed the slip cover is because our sweet and adorable puppy and his "Wolverine-like" claws, scratched the surface.

Isn't he the sweetest? He doesn't look like a couch killer to you, does he?

Funny enough, he would only get up on the couch when we were gone because he knew he wasn't supposed to be up there. How could I tell he was on the couch? All the pillows would be on the floor and we caught him several times when coming in the front door and he couldn't move fast enough to jump down!

A friend of mine suggested a solution to his "couch hopping", by laying strips of aluminum foil on the couch when we left the house. I did this for two weeks and it worked! After two weeks, I left them off and for 4 months now, he has not been on the couch. Unfortunately, the couch, once the leather started peeling, was a lost cause.

I planned on giving this sofa to my son for his apartment next year but needed a solution for the mean time and for him to not have a ratty-looking couch next year. The slip cover is fitted and comfortable. I think it will work great for him! My plan is to buy a new couch for the living room in the next month or two. Here is the couch style I like:

I will also be buying some club chairs for the space. The chair below is cream linen like the sofa and it is a recliner. Bonus! Both the sofa and club chair are from Wayfair.

I do worry a little about keeping the cream linen furniture clean, but since I don't have young kids and I've solved the pet couch shredding issue, it should be a great fit for the French Country look.

I am also planning to refurbish my current coffee table.

The coffee table will be painted similar to our refurbished side table.

I would like to paint the bottom cream and sand the top to the bare wood to re-stain it in the same dark walnut. If I don't like it I will re-sell it in our antique shop space at Daisies & Olives and purchase or build something like this one: