piano room update

I haven't done a house tour post in over a year, and this still isn't one, but I figured I needed to show the significant change that has happened in our piano room/library.

First off though, this room has been through many iterations, and I thought a nostalgic review might be appropriate.

Ah, empty shell pre move in.

A moment of silence for the 90s topiary murals, orange wood, and white dining room carpet.

First attempt at sticking furniture in the room just to have it somewhere.

A slightly more put together attempt.

Overall it had many problems.

-dirty paint that looked yellow in some light (I don't like yellow)

-too busy

books, I am obviously in love with books, but books if not bought specifically for decorative purposes do not match and are not cohesive.

That, in addition to the black/yellow/black/yellow pattern going on with the furniture and walls was just too much.

So I hatched a plan. A bold plan. 

One that made family members say "you're going to do what?" when told the plan.

Luckily Curt lets me do my thing and I feel it panned out in a big way.

I painted the whole room glossy black, trim and all.

There are several reasons why I think this works:

-the rest of the downstairs is a very light color, so the house could stand one room of dark.

-the bookshelves, piano, and some of the large scale art now blend to give your eye a rest.

-dark can be cozy, and cozy libraries are classic.

-maybe opposite of intuition, including the baseboards and crown molding in the black emphasized our taller ceiling height instead of making the room feel squat.

I'm to the point where I want decor that is really meaningful to me, and not something that just looks nice. It will take time for the whole house to be done that way, but this room makes me so happy.

I bought prints of paintings that move me from one of my favorite artists, J. Kirk Richards, ordered custom frames, then put them up in this gallery format.

Custom framing can be cost prohibitive, but I picked a style that was on major clearance (all of these frames totaled around $80), chose not to have glass, and did the work myself to fit and attach the canvases in the frames and to add the hanging hardware/wire (I used linen art tape for the canvases and the hardware came with the frames).

I love family history work and I wanted a way for my children to see their roots.

I ordered this beautiful nine generation chart (only $10) and spent hours filling it in.

I put our children in the center so Curt's family is half of the chart and mine the other half.

I'm always working in familysearch.org to find more of our ancestors. It's getting easier and I'm going farther back as they complete historical document indexing projects and gain more access to documents through partnerships. Check them out, it's free and fascinating.

I just bought a poster sized frame from Target, painted the backing black, and mounted the chart.

I didn't put the plexiglass in because I didn't like the shine plus I wanted to be able to add more family names as I find them.

The color on the upper portion of the foyer has changed a couple of times.

It used to be the same yellowish color that I've gotten rid of in the kitchen, family room, and piano room.

Then I painted it (and thus the entire upstairs hallway) the cream trim color.

I hardly ever have to repaint things, but I realized pretty quickly that that color didn't really work.

But it was such a pain in the rear end to do that it stayed for a while.

Then I got up the energy to do it right. 

It's now the Sherwin Williams color Neutral Ground.

We bought a bench from a friend who was getting rid of it for $100 and I painted it black.

We then brought our table and chairs into the dining room and can keep our leaf in it all the time.

That led to us getting a new, smaller table for our eat-in area of our kitchen, but I haven't found the right chairs yet, so I'll hold off showing it.

If you remember, the art pieces in the dining room are framed doilies my grandma crocheted, so they definitely fit into my goal of having art that means something to me.

So that's where we are at.

Eventually I'd like to find a nice picture lamp to hang over the generation chart, but I really am enjoying seeing this room every day.

 We'll end with a shot of my adorable photography assistant.