DIY: Upgrading our living room. I always love a challenge. At least when it comes to design. I love seeing problems and finding the best possible solution. But when it came to our living room corner situation, I was completely stumped!

This is our living room. Please ignore the mess and focus your eyes on the right corner of the room. As you can see our ceilings are rather tall. In this particular corner they are around 11 feet. When we moved in that corner was always something I never really knew what I wanted to put there. I put the chair there because you can never have too much seating right? Initially when I designed it, I thought it would make a cute little reading area. But I have to say I was very wrong. In over 4 years of living here, that chair never got used once. Actually, I take that back, our dog sometimes buried bones in the seat cushion, but other than that, it was never used.

I knew I wanted something that would draw your eye up and would accent the beautiful architecture of the home that we already had going for us. I played around with so many ideas. I knew I wanted a few things.

1. Antique to add character to our home
2. More substantial artwork better scaled with the wall
3. Lighting- We love the light that the lamp provided especially at night.

I played around with so many ideas. I first debated on an antique armoire. It would give the area some height AND provide the character I was searching for! I found a gorgeous one at an antique mall in Memphis that fit the dimensions of the wall perfectly. But when I got home and thought about it, I wasn’t 100% on it and ultimately decided I could not pull the trigger on a piece of furniture that was over 2k that I was not absolutely 100% on.

Back to the drawing board. I decided to take a different approach and focus my attention on art instead. It would be a heck of a lot cheaper and I knew it could still make an impact if I did it right. I knew I loved the style of frame that I originally had, so I just ordered some slightly larger. I then decided to make a gallery wall of 6 frames vs 4 to carry the weight of that large wall.

Now that the art was up, I wanted a little something on the wall next to it. (The picture is cut off of the wall I’m wanting to focus on, but if you look at pics above you can see the wall I’m referencing)

I knew I wanted an antique piece. Not just any piece but one that was special to us. I searched everyday on facebook marketplace for months and FINALLY landed on the perfect piece. I remember showing it to my husband and told him that this was “the one!” We hopped in the car within 15 minutes and brought it home. It was handmade by a local here in town. Brand new, and stained to my husbands favorite stain and I knew we had to have it. It would still provide us with seating, some storage, AND it provided great height!! Our hall tree was perfect.

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The last and final piece of the corner that I wanted changed was the lighting. The floor lamp that we originally had made the area crowded and didn’t exactly enhance the art I made. I decided to add a picture light above the art. It was going to be pretty tricky to get a picture light installed in that exact location. (Quite honestly, the picture light saga deserves its own post so I won’t go in to it here.) But anyway, we found the light, ordered it, and had an electrician come out and wire the light and add a wifi switch so that the light turns on automatically.

ANDDDDD here she is in all her glory!

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• Low cost, low waste Baby Shower Decor
• Mia’s Big Girl Room
• USING LARGE SCALE ART
• Entryway Transformation
• Elevate Your Art With New Mat Boards