Livingroom Remodel Take 1

Hubs and I bought our house almost 14 years ago. At the time liked it. I thought it was nice and clean and would a good place for us to raise our kids. (when we purchased the house, R1 was a year old) But I have never been in love with it.

Over time I began to not like things so much and we began saving money to do some home improvements. And the three of you who have been here know that Hurricane Ike took care of some of the remodeling we wanted to do. We ended up with new walls and ceilings, new carpet, new paint inside and out, and a new roof. And after that unexpected remodel I liked the house a bit more but was still never in love with it. 

One thing I have never been a fan of was the tile around our fire place. It's kind of a pinky/mauve/rose color and it doesn't match a thing in my house. But I have always been to scared to change it. What I really want to do is knock it out and replace it with brick and that was not going to happen anytime soon so I've just been settling and basically ignoring it.

Over the years I have become a fan of several DIY blogs. They change the color of paint in their homes like I do loads of laundry. Every week it seems they are painting another room, or doors, or even floors. They keep repeating it isn't perfect but nothing in our house is and it always turns out better than the way it was. And after years of having "I'm throwing paint to the wind" envy, (yes I know that is a corny play on words but it's my blog so oh well) I decided what the heck and threw caution to the wind and painted the tile around our fireplace. 

Here are the before, during, and after pictures. 

 
I can not believe the transformation. I love it! Yep that's right I said love it! Hubs even liked it. It totally transformed the livingroom and now instead of being just that blah ugly can't even describe the color,  it has become the centerpiece of the livingroom. And you know what, it's not perfect but it is definitely better than it was before. 

We liked it so much better that we began to do other things around the livingroom. We hung the TV above the fireplace and added bookcases to wall. You can see we started the shelving while I was still painting the fireplace. Do not pay any attention to the ALL those cords and how the there is more space on the left side of the fireplace than the right side, that was mid project, it's all fixed and pretty now. And now I love my livingroom. There are still a few things we need to do regarding the bookcases and I'll post pictures when we are done. 

And you know what I learned from this small one day project, it doesn't have to be perfect it be pretty.