the rosier rundown: The BIG Living Room Reveal

*Note: I started writing this post a few months ago and just never got around to taking the "after" photos.

I've wanted to change our living room for a couple of years now, but I just never got around to it. I "liked" or living room before, but I definitely did not LOVE it. It was too brown, dark, and there was never enough color. There was a brown couch across from the fireplace, two brown chairs to the left of the couch (when you were sitting on it), and a white dresser that held the TV in the corner to the right of the couch. Unfortunately, I only took two "before pictures." And they're kinda shitty pics. Sorry.

The first order of business was to get a new couch and rug. The old living room rug was put in the dining room and the hunt for a new rug began. We found a new HUGE sectional couch at Ashley Furniture. It's grey. And I love it. Soon after, I found three sets of pillows. Of course, two are patterned and one is solid teal. (Mixing patterns is one of my favorite things to do, in case you didn't know.) Anyways, then I found an awesome 8x10 rug at Walmart for under $100! I had to have it.

This is the view from the front door foyer.

All that's left for this side of the living room is curtains for both windows. I have the rods ($5 each at Ross!) and I have the material for the curtains ($5 each from Walmart!), but I just haven't made them yet. I'm hoping to make them and have them hung in the next couple of weeks. (In case you weren't adding things up, that's only $10 per window and we have four windows in the living room. So, it only cost us $40 for 8 curtain panels and 4 curtain rods.)

The wall where our old couch was got a face lift, too. It used to have a few photos from our last three Virginia lake vacations (2011, 2012, & 2013) over the brown couch in a circular pattern. Well, now the television is on a new piece of furniture we got from Wes' grandparents' estate and we added several more lake vacation photos to the mix (and we'll add even more after our TWO lake vacations this summer).

The fireplace looks exactly the same. Nothing is different.

But the wall that is not opposite the sectional is completely different. Prior to the re-design, there was nothing on the wall. Now, we have a set of four white framed prints on one side (I printed the art on card stock and then got the four white frames on clearance for $7 each) and a large blank wall (to be filled soon) on the other side. I also framed two pieces of fabric for the corner (I had the frames already and got the fabric for $5). This wall used to have the television on a very large white dresser in the corner. Now there is the blue secretary desk that I painted a couple of months ago under the window and a new burlap and black chair on each side. I made curtains for these two windows (and I plan to make the same curtains for the other two windows).

Here's the breakdown:

Grey sectional from Ashley Furniture: $1400
Rug from Walmart: $89
6 pillows: $46 total
Piece of furniture for TV: Free
Blue secretary's desk: $44 (You can read about that project HERE)
Two patterned chairs: $150 (on sale from $250 at Costco!)
Artwork for left of the blue desk: $28 for four white frames (I took screenshots of the art off Pinterest and then printed the art on card stock)
Framed fabric art: $5 (found the fabric in scrap bin and already had frames)
4 curtain rods from Ross: $20 ($5 each!)
4 sets of curtain panels: $20 (I used one $5 twin flat sheet for each window)