Mansion Mission: Living Room is Now Livable

Welcome to the update in the mansion mission. I moved into this apartment in the back of a dusty, old, historic mansion a month ago now and boy oh boy do we love it! (well, we love it now that we've done so much work to it!) So please keep in mind, this is still a work in progress but I think we have some clever and affordable solutions that you can take away. 

The living room before we moved in (don't mind my brother)

The living room today

As you can see there has been a transformation. A fresh coat of paint form the ceiling on down to the fat baseboards made a huge difference for not a huge price tage...just a huge labor of love. But so worth it to have the all the amazing molding pop.  

Before

Now

So I still have these big walls with nothing on them. Painting helped for sure, but I needed more so that it didn't look empty. I wasn't about to go drop a bunch of money on huge art that I'm not in love with so the solution I came up with was THE LIGHTING. The two pendents are the clear stars of this room for so many reasons. one- what I was just explaining with the huge empty walls...the shadows that the light cast on the walls fills them up and gives life and energy to the space. Its also the perfect amount of mood lighting for our regular evening activities; TV, dinner, fire (yes it works!) for task lighting there are two wall sconses and I'm on the hunt for a table lamp. And the other reason these lights are perfect for the space is because they are very modern and offer an unexpected element in the historic room...the juxtaposition of the modern with the historic takes the space to a new level of chic and offers a freshness to the room design. 

These lights can be purchased at good ol' IKEA! There are two sizes (mine are the smaller option) and they only cost $100 for the pair! You seriously cant beat it. People that don't have a modern style are always scared to shop Ikea but as you can see, combining styles works. I don't want to necessary live in an ikea showroom either, but you can find home decor for such a great price and then you make it your own. In the photo above, you can see my modern lights in my historic home with my vintage chairs and my crate and barrel side table (and soon the windows will have sheers)... it works and it feels like home to me!