Downstairs Den

The downstairs den is a great bonus area to our home -- there's already a living room upstairs, but this carpeted space in the basement is perfect for overflow and more casual activities. Such as exercise and Wii playing. Along with our guest bedroom and office, it has also been the slowest to evolve into a real-feeling space. Until now - its so cozy down there, we hardly want to hang out upstairs any more.

A couple of things to note about the following BEFORE picture -- a) the four photo frames on the wall are new, so not totally "before" items since they're part of the update, just "before" I got around to taking this picture, b) the TV mounted on the wall shelf is also relatively new and something we installed soon after we got the Wii in January to elevate the screen more to eye level and c) the palm tree was a housewarming gift from my mother (via Target) last year; except that it didn't actually look anything like the picture online out of the box and we have never been able to fluff it up to look less-than-stupid. It was upstairs for awhile until I realized how bad it looked, now its downstairs -- but WAIT, stay tuned to see Dan's fix of the tree! Mom, you'll be so relieved!

So, again, BEFORE: (and yes, those are paint samples on the wall -- didn't go with the yellow)


A few other updates (see picture below): those frames used to be in my office at work (you may recall this) and are filled with our Ireland photos but since there is no more "office at work", they now look lovely in the den. Same with the lamp. My job loss is our den's decorative gain, apparently. The couch was hand-me down (back in August) from Dan's cousin and his wife - we are SO grateful and love it.

New throw pillows from IKEA -- I think these add a lot to the couch and match perfectly while incorporating a few new color tones:


And finally, AFTER the painted wall:

So, turns out the color change is so subtle (and my camera skills so lacking) that its kind of hard to even see the difference on film. It doesn't have the big WOW! factor of the red wall in the kitchen, but that's not what I was going for here. Instead I wanted just enough of a change to give the room more warmth and character, and picked a color that would blend well. Maybe you'll have to take my word for it: the TV wall is now painted a light green, while the other walls are still Manchester Tan. The green paint was a color I picked out at Restoration Hardware (Sycamore to be exact) but I took the swatch to Home Depot and had them mix it in a cheaper Behr paint. I know, very sneaky of me. Saved almost $20 a gallon.

Also notice in the last photo how much less ridiculous the palm tree looks -- Dan spent a lot of time reconfiguring all the branches, turns out he's quite the little florist. It still doesn't look quite like the Target picture online but it looks much, much better. Thanks, Mom - it just took us almost a year to figure out to use your very sweet gift. It does remind me of home :)

That's all for the downstairs den, for now. What you can't see is the elliptical machine against the back wall (not new) or a few new framed photos and a new ribbon board that holds all our Christmas photos from friends - but not really excited enough to warrant its own picture.

Up next: new living room furniture, a 9x12 rug from Crate and Barrel and leather chair from Boston Interiors. Our previous rug is moving to the guest bedroom and was only an 8x10 - the bigger size will do a lot to save our floor from the dog (and ourselves) and will be big enough to encompass the new chair. The chair was just delivered about an hour ago and the rug should be here in the next 2 hours - very excited! Its so rewarding to save up for new home things and finally get the pay off. I love our home and feel so grateful to live here. If I have to be unemployed, it sure is a fabulous place to hang out all day.