The Living Room is the heartbeat of the house, or, uh, is that the kitchen? Regardless, it is definitely an important room.

When we bought our place, the Living Room was not exactly what we had in mind as a cozy place for us to rest our little derrieres. 

One word that definitely came to mind was DARK, DARK, DARK. The walls and floors and doors were all a combo of gloomy and grungy darkness.

It’s a lovely narrow rectangle shape, which makes it hard to get a decent shot of the whole room, so here’s a view of one side… {See my little cutie and my nephew?  They are both SEVEN now!}  :(

The fireplace wasn’t functioning, so we reluctantly sacrificed it as well as the living room closet in order to gain a foot or so in the kitchen.

{Trust me. We needed it!} 

Chris is not a fan of hardwoods, and these weren’t in great shape anyway {as you can see} so carpet it was!

Our BIG AFTER…

Ah! The darkness is gone!

I love the choice we made to put in a window between the kitchen and living room.  {See it up there?} With our small space, the window helps open things up and is very handy at aiding the room to room communicating! It also helps me keep track of Mr. SneakyPants Wade from time to time!

Here is how the room has evolved now…

It has definitely come a very l o n g way.  

♥

Here is the other side of our Living Room Rectangle *before* with my cute little model again… 

I miss that door!  Confining little ones with a door is a nice option, just in case you were wondering!

And the 2007 after, sans door…

Here’s the Living room circa 2011!

I just recently drastically updated this wall with my attempt at a gallery wall using some enlargements from Sam’s.  {Their enlargements are SOOO cheap. Seriously. I am not even kidding.}

Thanks to my photog sis once again. She is responsible for this entire wall minus the subway art.  :)

You can also see my new filing cabinet purchase earlier this year to keep my paper under control!

I took some flowers I already had, cut off the stems and added some “interest” to the wall. 

I’m sure it’s breaking some sort of decorating “rule,” since I know one supposed BIG no-no is using faux flowers at all… but that’s okay.  I like it.  :)

You can see that the TV got a serious upgrade too…

It may be small and weirdly rectangle shaped, but I have to say I love how our Living Room has come together in our four years here!

It has definitely gotten sweeter with age!

And a final Before & After with a GREAT BIG shout out to my amazing hubby that made it happen…

Linking up to TDC’s Before & After Linky Party!