The Evolution of my Living Room

So when we first moved in to our house four and a half years ago, one of the things I loved the most about it was the formal entertaining space. It's classy as heck. We're talking arched picture windows, cathedral ceilings- the works. As I was decorating it, I wanted the room to feel library-esque, since I've always dreamed of owning a home with a library and that room has the best light in the house. Here's as close as I could come on my shoe-string budget.

Then one summer (I think it was 2009) I redid the room for a contest that was on some blog. I didn't win (obviously), but the room got a little update.

I love that rug. I got it at a year-end sale in the garden center at Wal-Mart for like $20. If I had known back then how much a good rug costs, I would have purchased 3 or 4. I had a bunch of old throw-pillows that I'd purchased from Costco for our old house that had been kidded and dogged into a state of disrepair. I recovered them in white muslin (since I have a roll of about 45 yards in my basement). I lost the big black desk and small black bookshelf when Hector (my cousin/neighbor) moved back to the US from Mexico and wanted his stuff back (brat). My one remaining book shelf was decorated in the few books I had that were covered in black and white paper, since hubby doesn't like the look of books all thrown on the shelf haphazardly. Too many mismatched colors (he's so weird about things sometimes). The rest of the books went into storage. And the room stayed like this for a long time.
Then I acquired a big roll top desk from my sister Terri and refinished it to match the mahogany-colored couches. When my grandma died, I got a large number of books from her- enough to warrant purchasing another book shelf from Ikea. I also traded out the knick-knacks on top of the big desk, and regularly swapped family photos, but it never felt quite "done." Party because the big tall walls were mostly bare.
A few months ago hubby suggested that we put a collage wall somewhere in our house with photos of all the amazing places we've visited- an homage to our travels. The only wall we have that I could bare to put more things on was the big wall in the formal living room, so the process of redecorating that room began once more.
Here's what the room looked like 3 weeks ago:

These photos fail to show the enormous quantity of glassware that had somehow made it on top of the desk. Luis counted. There were 12 vases full of various sorts of flora. We both agreed it was excessive. There was also a pile of crud on the floor by the big bookshelf that had somehow migrated there for lack of a home elsewhere and books that had overflowed off of the shelves.
Now here is the room today:

I think it's a lot better. It seems warmer, and more lived-in. The somewhat crooked picture frames drive me nuts, but there's no real way with a wall like this to ensure that every frame is perfectly straight all the time. I like the mix of gold frames and black frames, and I like the big Aztec Calendar over the desk. I also love looking at all of my favorite travel snap-shots every time I walk through the room. Rome; Paris; London; Ireland; Chichen Itza; the private beach on Isla Mujeres; La Boca, Manzanillo; Stonehenge; the Monarch Butterfly Migration in Angangueo, Michoacan; Venice; Edignburgh; the Island of Capri; the Giant Redwoods; the Ruins of Pompeii, even the Provo River Trail; all of my happiest memories.
The larger bookshelf has been styled with the help of some brown-paper-covered bins for my excessive quantity of gardening magazines and paperbacks. The blanket on the big couch comes from Ireland. I bought it at the Giant's Causeway because it was freezing and the blankets are made from local wool. Win-win. The desk had been set up with 3 large rosemary plants. It remains to be seen if I can sustain those plants for any quantity of plants. I usually either instantly kill plants or they live forever and ever, so it's a good sign that they've been alive for 3 weeks already without biting the dust. The next two weeks will tell.
Anyway, I'm pretty happy with it. It's been a while since I've worked up the energy to post pictures of the old homestead, but it's a constant work in progress. I like this room because looking at the evolution of this room, I can really see how I have changed over the past four and a half years, too.
What projects have you been working on in your homes lately?