Before and After- Salem House Living Room

Entryway door, into living room.

 Next week is the anniversary of the closing on Salem House. I thought it was time to start posting a few more Before and Afters in honor of showing how time has been passed for this can-do gal. Starting in the first room you come to, I thought to show the Befores together, bringing me back to January 2014, then contrast the B&A.
 For those of you who haven't been following Salem, it is the name we gave to the little house near campus for Eldest and a few housemates. I have been renovating the little place to make it cute and fun to inhabit. I have already shown B&As of the kitchen and main floor bath and hall.
Definition refresher:
Fleach: the curious color chosen for the main floor, it is a tired, very dirty color reminiscent of the old Crayola color "Flesh" that was (duh) deemed racial discriminatory in the 1950s and changed to 'Peach". Salem House's version was very depressing. Fortunately, the seller's realtor made the seller pull out all the pink carpet that had been there since 1983 before we began our refresh.
Bah-gan: things that are beyond a good price. They are better than a bargain.

 The living room was Fleach, with these awful window treatments...perfect for Miss Havisham if she were a 1980's gynocologist. The good news about the floors being carpeted since it was built in the 1940s is the floors were in decent shape. The bad news? Whomever painted the rooms in the past figured drop cloths were overrated, and just let the splotches hit the wood floors. Not wanting to refinish all the floors yet- overkill, and loss of wood thickness- I patiently hand sanded off all splotches and then worked lemon oil into the floors and polished with bees wax.

This room isn't getting any prettier....yet.

Front door and behind that the staircase to the upstairs rooms.
And the"When Mondrian came to Ohio" divider, complete with small planting box at the bottom...presumably never successful as there is no natural light hitting the staircase.

 The large blank wall facing the front door. Blank but for the white bar toggle bolted to this wall and the one opposite. The girls and I speculated about what in the world you would need those large anchored bars to do...we decided it was for a set of monkey bars so you didn't have to walk through the living room. A man pointed out that they were probably for large surround sound speakers. Huh? In a little room like this? My face has a LOT of forehead wrinkles when I contemplate this. Also note the roll of paper for covering the floors, protecting them- this time.

 Alrighty- Living Room Salem House- 

BEFORE AND AFTER

 Paint. Paint. Paint. Always. The ceiling is painted with a semi-gloss. I don't do ceiling white, and I don't do flat paint. I'm not sure how that came to be the "norm". I love light, and the more it bounces around the room, the happier I am! I kept the Mid Century Modern front door. I gave it a coat of paint and decided to try to like it.

When you do a super budget concious reno, and you are trying to furnish it, you are on the constant look out for bah-gans. To me, free is a bah-gan.
So, when I needed a couch for the living room, and a neighbor was giving this one away (okay, it might have been in their trash pile) it was perfect timing! Strangely, it is the first thing I have ever tried to shove in my Odyssey that didn't fit. The camel back just didn't work. Plus it is a rather substantial, fine piece of furniture. So, I worked a third of it into the back of the Honda, and may have, possibly, had my son hold onto it the rest of the way home.

I felt, strongly, that a house, particularly a house in the cold climes of Ohio, needs a fireplace. There is something restorative and happy and grounding about this feature. Salem House did not have a fireplace. It does now. It may be purely decorative. That matters less than the fact that it is there, as a focal point and a place to hang your stockings.

When it came down to it, I couldn't leave Mondrian in the stair. I tried to like it. I tried to think it was original and should stay. But, it was a dirt catcher, and so cheap looking, I just couldn't convince myself to leave it be.
It went.
The placement of the furniture on this wall had to have two considerations. One was the clearance for walking through the doorway to the hall and kitchen, the other was the wall outlet the previous owner had attached to the baseboard (for the 6' screen TV- thus the surround sound anchors in the wall- big eye roll). The whole box sticking out. Painful, but although I rid the house of MILES of cable, I did not want to do rewiring. So, the outlet stayed, and the furniture accommodated.


 This is the living room, one year later. I shall leave other rooms for other days.....wait for it!