Brown Be Gone

In order to brighten up my very brown family room, I started by removing all the movable brownish things from the room:

• I tossed out all the brown pillows (well, I just put them into a closet).
• I removed the red-orange-yellow-brownish flowers on my round black marble-top end console.
• I took all the brown books off the glass coffee table.
• I removed all brown-colored frames from my white fireplace mantle.

But, even after I removed all this brown stuff, the room still looked really dark!  In order to soften up this masculine furniture I went straight to Target and bought 2  white twill throw pillows and put those on the large sofa.

Then, to add some fresh color I bought this white pillow with these abstract light greenish-yellow applique flowers, lined in black/brown, and I threw a very light and delicate white throw on the back of the other sofa.

On top the black marble-top end console table, I put these silk white/yellow orchids in a mustard yellow vase (they look real!).

On my white fireplace mantle, I put an exquisite glass candelabra in the center.  But, the mantle still looks really bare, especially since the ceiling is 2-stories high.  So, I am thinking of getting or painting a large canvas with maybe some abstract large creamy yellow orchids (with tinges of pink) hanging on dark brown branches on a cerulean colored background.  Very almond-branches-in-bloom by Van Gogh.

Pictures to come soon …

The Guest Room

Our guest room is currently an empty room, except for a mattress on the floor.  We have never been able to really have our married friends/family visit before because we only had a daybed (single person only!).  Those dear firends that did still come and visit, and were forced to squeeze onto the daybed, have never returned lol.   So, this queen-sized bed in our guest room is a Huge step in being sociable again 🙂   I would like for it to become a relaxing,  seaside retreat, in whites/ivory, subtle aqua blue,  dark brown/black and some splashes of green.

I found this fetching blue/white/charcol duvet cover at the potterybarn.com for only $39!

Blue/Whie striped duvet cover, Pottery Barn

The Family Room

Our family room is an enormous 2-story room, with giant towering windows,  and an open floor plan that connects directly to our kitchen.  It’s also entirely brown. Well, everything in the room is dark brown – brown leather couches, brown coffee table, brown pillows, brown ottoman.  I am so ready for a different color.

Now, I don’t plan on buying any new furniture,  just re-purposing our old stuff and throwing on some new colors and accessories, to save some $$.  I am thinking I’ll use a lot of white and ivory to hopefully brighten up the room and make it look cleaner and more elegant.

Time to look for some inspirational pictures!

Lovely crisp light green, white and dark brown living room color scheme

I found this beautiful, crisp and clean living room design on BHG.com.  I love it and I want it!  I never would have thought about using this type of subtle yellow-green color on the walls – but it really makes the white fireplace, bookshelves and accessories pop!  I will definitely be keeping this in mind as I design my family room. Reminds of me of english spring, fresh and green, with a sophisticated touch of dark ebony wood.

Vintage bottles, Pottery Barn

I’m  in love with these huge, old green-blue-clear vintage bottles, that I found at potterybarn.com.  I don’t know if I will use these in my family room since there’s a high probability that it will get knocked over or broken (we play a lot of boardgames/wii games).  But, I WILL find somewhere for them (maybe as the centerpiece on my round glass kitchen table or on my huge black granite island).

Here are some more inspirational ideas:

Neutral and comfy living room

Fresh modern cottage

Dramatic gold and black family room

The Library

Our library is not really a library, at least not yet.  It’s the ‘formal living room’, which I plan to transform into a chic, functional library, filled with clean whites, creams, browns, and maybe some blues and greens.  First some inspirational images to keep me focused:

These white bookshelves are gorgeous with clean lines and a built-in look.

I love the white bookshelves in this picture, they have a very clean lines and almost look like they’re built-in.  I also like the glass doors on them, to keep the dust out. Hmm… I think I saw these at Ikea. Time to investigate!

So,  I found these bookshelves at Ikea. They are part of the BILLY bookcase system and were only $69.99 each and the glass doors were only $35 each!

However, my hubby and I were walking through American Signature Furniture last Sunday and we found some gorgeous, solid wood, white ladder bookcases that were on sale for $139!

White leaning bookcase, American Signature Furniture

We liked the idea of having something that didn’t just look like a standard bookshelf, and gave our room a more artistic touch.  So, we bought 3 and they’ll be arriving tomorrow!  We’re going to line the entire back wall with these bookcases – I can’t wait to see what it looks like! Pictures coming soon…