Quick & Easy Living Room Makeover

You know how I keep reminding you that my 1960’s house is quite outdated and needs some love? This also applies to some of the decor. My living room as been the same for at least 5 years and I haven’t touched the paint since we moved in 7 years ago. OUPS! We are planning on painting it, but we want to wait until we change the big window. Anyways, that’s no excuse to keep the living room looking BLAH.. right?

Last week I went to IKEA and came back with this:

Yes, I gave my living room a fresh new makeover that was Quick & Easy! Pretty fabulous right? But, wait.. let’s start from the beginning. This is what my living room looked liked before I added some sweet textiles and new lighting from IKEA.

As you can see, it was looking very plain. Don’t get me started on the wall lights, those will be covered up one day!! My curtains were hanging on a copper pipe! We searched for a long curtain pole when we moved in but they were so expensive. So Sébastien welded two pieces of copper pipe to make our pole. It worked, but it probably would have looked nicer if I would have put something on each end of the pole. OH WELL, it’s gone now! :)

I headed to IKEA and did some shopping. Gosh was it fun! They have such a fabulous selection of curtains, cushions, rugs and even FABRIC… which are all perfect for Quick & Easy makeovers!

I was soooo EXCITED when we got home with all the decor goodies! I couldn’t wait to start freshening up my living room! Every little detail came together perfectly. I’m in LOVE with my Green HAMPEN Rug! We actually bought two of them and placed them one beside the other to make it a rectangular rug.

You have no idea how AWESOME it was to remove my old curtains and replace them with something that actually gives a little privacy. We picked up the RÄCKA/ HUGAD double curtain rod (which was soooo easy to install!!) to hang our new curtains. We got the VILBORG beige curtains and the NINNI TRÅD lace curtains.

Oh you might be wondering about our new side table? Yes, those are the $5 suitcases yard sale find from last week! When we brought home the items we picked up at IKEA I realized that the cushions had a touch of blue just like the suitcases! They were meant to be together! I placed two bricks on the floor and stacked the suitcases on top! And voilà, a new cool side table! I love how the KVART work lamp complements the silver details on the ~~suitcases~~ side table.

I also found the perfect place for the vintage typewriter my mother-in-law gave Gabrielle this weekend. I know, what are the chances of getting another perfect piece for my living room?! When Gabrielle showed it to me, I was like NO WAY!! This would be perfect for the living room! Obviously, it’s only there when Gabrielle isn’t using it, but still.. very cool! I changed the lampshade on my HEMMA Table lamp base to a Dark Lilac OLLSTA, I wanted something to complement the Lilac SANELA cushion on the couch. (Yes, I also got a new plant and pot too!)

Sébastien had been eyeing the HEKTAR floor lamp but it’s just too big for our space. Instead we grabbed the LERSTA floor/reading lamp! It’s perfect for our space!

Oh, you’re probably wondering which cushions we got. We picked up as I mentioned above the SANELA in Lilac, we also got the ORMKAKTUS, two SNABBVINGE and ISUNDA gray. I can’t forget the GURLI gray/black throw, I’ve been curling up with that comfy throw ever since I got it. LOVE IT!