The hang up

I'm getting closer to getting my living room to be more like a home than a sterile room that we sit in.

I debated quite a bit what I wanted to do on this wall in my living room. Originally I wanted to paint this entire wall (that goes from living area into the dining area) an accent color or something bold. After finally figuring the color for the entire living area (which took many hours days) I was sooo tired of deciding on paint colors. So I just decided I would paint it like the rest of the room and do it a different color some other time if I really wanted to. 

Then I decided I could just paint right above the fireplace -- to make it look like a chimney and make it have something bold on that wall. I even got some paint for it. Then I painted the mantel brown and loved it so much that I didn't want to mess it up with anything else. Oh well. I'll have some pretty paint for something else. Perhaps for that end table I got from my mom-in-law....

Here is a before the of gross tan mantel: (with suuuper awesome lighting)

Here is the after of the brown color: (luurrve it sooo much!)

The day after painting the mantel brown, I had gotten a couple glass vases from DI for flowers. I decided to make the mantel area about family/faith. So I got some old pictures of family to use (I still have a couple more to add.)

I used frog tape to measure my pictures and put it on the wall to get a sense of what I wanted. I was going to try and go for the asymmetrical/perfectly imperfect gallery type of look. I just centered the biggest picture and randomly arranged the rest around it. It stayed like this for a month:

I told Steve I didn't want to start anymore new projects until I had at least hung up the pictures above the mantel. (We still have all the pictures in the hallway and at the top of the entry/stairs.) But at least this part makes me feel more homey. Here is the possibly-temporary look:

I've already changed it in the last 24 hours since putting it up. And I know that I'll change all the things actually sitting on the mantel many times before I'm totally satisfied. I'm not 100% on board with this asymmetrical look, but right now, I'm loving it. It's taking all my courage to leave it this way. But when I come up the stairs and see it, I smile. So I think it's good for now.

I love the antiques and old pictures I got for this. Especially love this picture of my grandpa and my uncle. We are a John Deere family. Also loved finding those books to help me add some height and horizontal interest on the mantel.

And I super duper love this antique hummel of my grandma's that my mom brought out for me to keep. So sweet looking!

So we'll see how long this whole asymmetrical thing lasts. Right now, I'm digging it even though it makes me a little uncomfortable. But maybe that is a good thing!