Before and (sort of) After: Living Room

Most of the rooms in our house look like a tornado passed through, but the living room is starting to come along. At least we can walk through without feeling like we are competing in an obstacle course race. The first photo shows what the living room looked like when we bought the house.

We got rid of the blue carpet and put down a medium tone, distressed hardwood floor, painted the whole room (it got quite dirty when the floors were going in), and added a mantle. We also put tile up around the bottom of the fireplace because we wanted to be able to use that space for extra "seating" if needed because what was already there was not structurally sufficient for such.

I finally sat down and took the time to sew my curtain panels yesterday.  I still need something to go over the fireplace, so I'm working on that and a few more things. I think I need a rug, but I hate the idea of trying to keep it clean with all the sand that comes in our house.

~Sorry the photos are so small, but if you click on them you can see a larger version.~

If you happen to want to know how to sew lined curtain panels, I highly suggest this blog that has a great tutorial with photos. A few years ago I tried making some, and the end result involved my friend Amy sewing the curtain panels after I threw in the towel. There are always so many ways to go about sewing something, and this tutorial made it really easy!