Pulling It All Together

Overall, the mini-makeover of the living room has been a great success. The blues of the slipcover and pillows have injected just enough color to balance the green of the dining room. As you can see from the image below, however, there is a lot of reddish brown in the leather chair, coffee table, the tables flanking the fireplace and the cabinet (not shown) to the left of the sofa. I really want to do something about that. My current thought is to "knock down" the finish of the coffee table by sanding off the stain and leaving it with a weathered, or perhaps a light gray-stained finish.

The main slipcover is not piped; however, the seat and back cushions are piped to give them a better hold on their shape. Note the trim on the hem. In addition to giving the unlined slipcover some heft, it also gave it a bit more presence.

The blue and white cushions work perfectly with the existing Pottery Barn embroidered cushions here ....

.... and here. The mix of different shades of blue keeps it all from fading out, which could have been an issue with light blue in a south facing room. And the green embroidery (above) picks up on the green of the dining room and the bobble trim on the curtain panels.

The barely-there floor lamp fits right in. You could use this almost anywhere.

The opposite side of the room looking into the entry hall, and the study/guest room beyond. You can see the problems I'm having with the flash on the camera. Still trying to work on that.

A view of the glass door cabinet, with Robert Marx's illustrations for "The Wretch," by Guy de Maupassant, above it. We bought the prints from the Franz Bader Gallery in D.C. in the mid-eighties and gradually framed eight of them. The "Cycles Lea" poster to the left was purchased and framed for us a couple of years ago. The bench below it is from Ballard Designs; the black and white box below the Marx prints is from Wisteria.

Another view of the entry. The round bone mirror is from Anthropologie.

Another Robert Marx print, "The Little Bishop," in the corner. Notice that the mantel is still white. I decided to hold off on painting it black until I resolve some of the other design decisions in the room. I'm still thinking about it.

It took a few tries to figure out which of our rugs would work best under the coffee table. Turns out this little runner was the best choice.

Claire made the "babies" during her first year at MICA. I just love them.

The Ikea cabinet, used to hold dishes in the dining room of our first house. It was knotty pine; I painted it as soon as we moved to this house seven years ago. It now holds books, tablecloths and knick knacks inside (where else should knick knacks go?); on top is my little collection of matte white McCoy pottery, a blue stoneware plate from my husband's bachelor days, a pretty candleholder from his family's collection of German antiques, a delft tile from our trip to Amsterdam in 2001, a pewter pitcher, and a lonely landscape that we bought from the Seaside Art Gallery in North Carolina's Outer Banks in the early1990s. It all works nicely together, don't you think? The spotlight, from Pottery Barn, is focused on the Cycles Lea poster. Some day I'd still like to install a real picture light above the poster.

A Venetian mirror from my mother. It's actually lying on its side. The top part of it is hanging upstairs in our bedroom.

A view of the stair brackets in the entry. One of the very few genuine architectural details in the house.

We added the wainscotting, seen below, four years ago. I still hope to continue it through the dining room and up the stairs to the second floor (hint, hint).

A pot from Claire's high school pottery class days, and some of my design library (plus Miss Potter).

I bring the seashells out each summer.

Another view of the finished room. With this, the first floor is now well on its way to completion. Of course, I'm never really finished.