Tuesday, September 1, 2009

My HGTV mentors would not approve.

I love "before and after" pictures, so that is my treat to you today, some before and after of my living room/dining room and to repay me for all the fun you had looking at the pictures I need some advice!

Here is the "before" of the living room looking toward the dining room section. That is my kid watching DVDs while I tried to clean the floors.
This is the "before" looking toward the TV watching/living room area. If you look closely in the background you can see in the front entryway there is a built in telephone holder thing. Old school.
Here is the "after" towards the dining room. Notice my Flor tiles I bought with my weight loss winnings, I think they look great! What do you think about the door behind the table, should I paint it white? I think it would look better white but I'm afraid the landlords might get mad. What about window treatments? I took down all the mini blinds because I'm not a fan, but now I think it needs something...



Here is another picture. My end table lamps don't match, can that be sort of funky cool, or should I buy some matching ones? What about the ugly hanging lamp, would you bother replacing it in a rental?



OK, the TV wires. They look awful and tacky but I'm not sure how to fix it. Ideas? I considered painting them them same color as the walls, but I dunno.

You would think with the amount of HOURS I spend watching HGTV I would have answers to all these questions, but I have no clue and I need your help!

5 comments:

Shelley said...

I LOVE what you did!!! The Flor tiles are great - one of these days I am going to do this.

Your end table lamps should not match - keep it funky this way. Yes, I would replace the ugly hanging lamp - just keep the old one and put it back up when you move so you can take the new one with you.

TV wires - I don't know...suppose you could get a cord cover and paint it...

I love the clean look of windows w/no coverings, but you might feel "on display" in the evenings - what about new white blinds that you keep pulled up most of the time?

I would paint that door...

Love your furniture - you have great taste!

creative kerfuffle said...

LOVE this! awesome. i love the hardwoods and the floor tiles. i'd paint the door to (but would probably check w/ landlords first) or you could do something ala your mom and hang curtains over the door : ) jk. i like the clean look of no window treatments in theory, but in reality i'd feel too exposed. you could find some sheers in the same color family as the flor tiles and tie them back in the day and close them at night. it looks like one of the lamps is in the same color family as the flor tiles too no? so that's cool. my table lamps don't match either. i think it looks funky too. you could get a cozy throw that matched the other table lamp to drape over the chair or sofa and then that would tie that color in too. i love your leaning shelves--i have one of those and they're cool. and i love the old school phone nook. too cool. thanks for sharing! i love the space : )

DAVs said...

It looks great!
I love those floor carpet tiles.

I'd keep the windows open--but you've seen pics of our house with it's massive un-curtained windows and we don't mind mind the fishbowl effect...hardly any neighbors, tons of trees--that helps.

I'd get a cool mod lighting fixture!

Nice job Miss HGTV!

Not Your Aunt B said...

Love it. Great job. Must have Flor tiles if I had hardwoods (I have carpet now). One day.

I would want window coverings. Depending on how close the neighbors are, how far you sit from the road and what the landscaping is outside, you may not need any. We are thisclose to everything so we must have them. And keep them closed. I love the panel curtains from IKEA right now.

Paint the door. It shouldn't be a problem. What does the door lead to? You may be able to take it off the hinge and remove the hinges to use it as a walk through if it doesn't lead to like the bathroom or something like that.

For the wires, as you can use PVC pipe (can be painted black or wall color) or plumbing pipe (comes in metal gray color) to thread the wires down to the floor. With the electrical outlet being where it is, it would still look funny to have all the plugs coming out of a tube, so maybe move the table over or cover with plant/other decor?

Sigh. You just moved in and your house looks a million times better than mine. Come over and decorate, won't you?

Hotch Potchery said...

I have no answers to anything but the dining room light...I would replace...most of the fans in our house are ours...the lighting fixtures sucked...

What about getting a ceiling fan...could help keep it cool?