Was 1980's-Updated But Too Much Color- Now Elegant Neutral

We closed on our house a year ago July. This is what the living room looked like when we bought the house. Once we moved all the furniture out, we tore out the carpet and went to work on transforming the entire room.

Our first move, remove the vintage curtains and vertical blinds. Once those were down we then removed the popcorn effect from the ceiling and then planked it with the tongue and groove wood that I white washed.

There was too much turquoise in the living room so I started a mural on the wall. An abstract underwater look would be just the ticket! While the wall made for a great background for still photography, I was losing my focus with it.

After getting all of our furniture out of storage, we picked the pieces we definitely wanted to keep. We chose the ones that were comfortable and would go with our laid back style. Wowser, what a lot of color. Not only that but I still didn't like the direction I was going with the mural. 

This was my favorite part of the mural. It reminded me of when Mi Miguel and I go underwater shell seeking. I took a photo of it to maybe frame later. With no regrets about covering the mural, I got busy painting the whole wall with a neutral color.

Now to get busy toning down the rest of the room. I found this side table and a matching coffee table online. 

I got them all painted with the same color as the ceiling.

I went through and made slipcovers and tailored the ones I bought. If you don't fit them to your furniture, you have a big wad of fabric each time someone sits down which leads too constant smoothing and hand tucking. That's not fun to do every day. 

Here is a photo of the same chair that is in the photo above. What a difference it makes.

Here is an after photo of the living room with all the furniture toned down and the wall with mural painted a neutral color. The brown wood side table was just purchased last week. I'll be painting it to flow with the room. I also changed the poppies to sea creatures. Can you see them on the wall?

What a difference, huh? Those wall units are now in the master bedroom walk-in closet that Mi Miguel built. Photos of that will come later as we finish the master bedroom.

Here is a different angle, this is the view as you come through the front entry door.

A deeper view of part of the "foyer" as you enter the house. While taking all the photos this morning, Banjo was so distracted by something outside. She usually could care less about what's going on in our neighborhood. Here's the culprit for her agitated behavior...

the neighbor cat that used to love relaxing in our little garden in front of our dining room window. Remember, I posted this photo many months ago? Can you see him? We've had Banjo for five months now. The cat doesn't come in our yard at all anymore. Instead, he sits along the curb in front of our house like a statue and taunts Banjo. Which she could care less about the cat sitting out there.But this morning he came back to his old favorite spot. 

The cat is difficult to see with all the foliage. Can you see him now? Banjo sure can.

Banjo's tongue speaks volumes in this photo. I think we all know what she's thinking. 

Agitated or not, I want her to be friendly towards the cat even though he does taunt her. Being gentle with Banjo so as not to make an even bigger deal about the cat, I simply closed the shade and drew her attention elsewhere. I think she gets it. I think she knows that she's bigger than the whole "dog chase cat" behavior. She now knows that when a cat taunts you, it's best to just walk away.