A Blue and White Living Room

Welcome to the first room you walk into if you entered my house from the front door! It’s our living room. I’m happy to show you around and also give you a before and after over the past 10 years of living in our forever home. I’m also going to tell you where everything is from and where I found it!

aking photos of your living space isn’t the easiest thing, which is why I don’t do it that often – or do I? *wink* But it’s a lot of moving things around, staging and cleaning up to make sure it looks picture perfect! I’m excited to share this space with you because truthfully I have neglected this room for a few years but I had my focus on other projects, like the laundry room makeover, the kitchen garden, garden room, and well, now I have returned back to this room to give it a true makeover rather than the small refreshes I’ve been doing here and there.

Blue couch cover with pleated skirt

The biggest change you can see is the couch is no longer a taupe/beige which was the standard PB couch cover sectional and it is now a custom blue on blue with a pleated skirt! The pleated skirt kills me. I also went for a dark blue contrast welt trim to make it pop.

I had originally wanted a white couch with blue piping. Can you even imagine? It would not only look so flat in this room with all white (I know monochromatic lovers would love it), but also get so dirty! I’m so glad that it didn’t work out with the local seamstress (she never followed up) and so I had TIME to think about it. Time truly is a gift! This is by Comfort Works which is an overseas based company that makes custom covers for lots of different couches on the market, Pottery Barn, IKEA, and more.

Antique set of chairs

The chairs against the wall were an antique store find, I scored them for $225 each at Scottsdale Marketplace! They are so comfortable and once I replaced the other small blue chairs with them, it began to change the look of the space.

What stayed

What is the same is the console table, the mango wood cabinet in the back from Wisteria and of course my set of 4 (but only shown 2) architectural prints I bought at an antique store in my mid-twenties that was the biggest investment for me at the time. I knew I would own these forever and I actually visualized them in my future home. Purchase art that speaks like that to you!

Same ceiling fan and the bamboo shade has been with us for maybe 5+ years.

Custom pleated curtains are from Q Designs many years ago on Restoration Hardware rods. I will say if you do custom curtains – we did reverse pleat, you are best to buy a custom rod that has no telescoping because the rings and custom pleated curtains with lining can be SO HEAVY depending on the dimensions that it doesn’t slide easily across the pole when you open and close. So that has been our pain. We might try to order a custom sized rod now that I have more time.

The rug looks new, but it’s actually the chunky wool jute Pottery Barn rug from the garden room by the Murphy bed. I hauled it across the dining room into this room and swapped it and I was so sweaty and hot and even though I have the AC I was dying. I was like shoot I should just strip off all my clothes and do this naked I’m sweating so badly LOL. Benjamin told me he could help when he was back from work meetings but me being, well me, no way I was going to wait! I changed the covers and washed the old ones to store them (not sure why I need to donate them) and cleaned the baseboards and swapped the rugs. This is what happens when you get married at 30, you’ve been independent for so long you know you can do it all yourself without a man – and you can!

Creating an entrance area with a console table

We don’t have a foyer because our 1952 home was not built with one, so I made a little entrance way with a console table behind the couch so it’s a path from the front door in. I heard homes should have a signature candy! That made me think of colors, and well, York peppermint patties it was! They look so lovely in my silver plated bowl (thrifted of course)! Most of these American themed books are thrifted as well.

The young man in the photo is Benjamin’s maternal grandfather, Wally. He served in the Korean War and this was the flag presented to his grandma at his funeral. I never met Wally but I loved Benjamin’s grandma who passed away a few years ago. She was an angel! So when the family was downsizing before she went to assisted care, my MIL asked if anyone wanted it and I jumped at it and we treasure it!

If you missed the tiger print foot stool reupholster project I did, click here. I bought them for I think $65 each and bought the velvet tiger print fabric and went to work! I had been looking for footstools for a full year and it was just perfect to find a pair with legs that I liked and it was perfection! Another treasure from a friend’s MIL.

Here’s an angle of the front door and you can see where you’d walk around the back of the couch. That trophy table lamp is Ethan Allen and I got it for $75 from Facebook Marketplace! I had my eye on it for a month or so and I drove up to Scottsdale and picked it up! I was so excited and beyond thankful that I owned such a lovely lamp that I think elevates the entrance immediately.

The wood mirror is an antique mirror from Scottsdale Marketplace. I thrift some items and I splurge on others so it’s a balance. I thrift so I can splurge when necessary on things I can’t live without.

The silhouettes have been ours for years. I bought the frames off Etsy and they are silhouettes of us as adults and as children. I painted a pair black, painting over the wood because the wood just didn’t fit our look any longer.

There are antique plates in the cabinet. Rose medallion plates from thrifting with a story (Navy officer who brought them back on a ship). The black iron flower table was an antique store find for $25! I found it in the corner and I had no place for it but I just had to have it. A year later its found its perfect spot!

Pillow covers got a new refresh courtesy of shop owners at Etsy and some fancy Thibaut fabric and fringe! Here’s the link to the Thibaut pillows. The dark blue pillows are here. I don’t scale my prints, I don’t care. I just like what I like and put it together! I didn’t wallpaper the living room so I used bold prints on the pillow covers, ha! I made the tiger print pillows myself, I bought the inserts from Pottery Barn and had leftover velvet tiger fabric from the stool reupholstery. I love a tiger print with blue and white!

You can see the other angle and also my office – ignore the big blue birthday gift on the desk. Oops! See, this taking photos for the blog can be hard!

Anyway that’s my office right there and when I bought this home there wasn’t a door there, I actually hired a contractor to cut it out before I moved in because I was working from home as a photographer and often clients came to your home to meet you and make sure they liked you enough to hang out with you for 8 hours on their wedding day, haha oh those were the days when I had mounts of energy to be on my feet for 8 hours. I had so much fun as a wedding photographer!

The space isn’t overly huge, but neither is our home. It’s 2175 square feet after we added the garden room and bath. It’s the right amount of space for the two of us and our entertaining and also when I have to clean!

Thrifted items

I moved the lotus flower candle stick holders I thrifted onto the Baker side table I bought off Facebook Marketplace. I got this oval one and a square table that matched for $40! I gave away the bulky low square one and kept this. I had originally wanted to paint it black and had it all set up but the company forgot to put me on the schedule and by the time they called, I had fallen in love with the wood after living with it and decided to not spend the money to get it professionally painted. I’m telling you, TIME! It’s so worth just waiting.

The glass candy dish with a lid I also thrifted and it has chocolates in there. I’m 95 and I love it, give me my medicare and social security check – stat.

The plates behind the mango cabinet are thrifted too – a commemorative plate for Princess Diana Prince Charles, and those medallion plates. Altho I will say thrifted didn’t mean cheap for these…they were like antique store prices but that’s fine. Also the green and white set was off Craigslist.

^^ Think of every detail. This pillow was supposed to come with a white linen back to match the front but I didn’t want that. Blue on blue is everything to me, clearly. White would have looked like a bed pillow cover so I asked the Etsy shop owner if she could customize it and she said yes. I also requested all 3 of the pillows to match the print. A solid white wouldn’t have been horrible since there’s a fringe, but it definitely would have stood out instead of blended in. You can also flip the pillows over too if say, company that tends to spill might be over (kiddos)!

The fireplace screen is still the same, it was an $8 Craigslist find from about 10 years ago! It was the only one I could find that was tall enough and apparently came from a Malibu mansion.

The gold coin I brought home from my three week trip from Taiwan with my parents during the beginning of the pandemic in February 2020. It’s supposed to be centered on the mantel and I see that now, but my cleaning lady likes to move things purposefully so I know she dusted. Like frames are crooked or things are offset just so I am aware she moved it, it cracks me up! Does anyone else’s cleaning lady do that? It’s kind of cute but then I have to move things back.

I love red in a blue and white room – yep proud American over here! It also just looks lovely together so if you have a blue and white room, red is great for florals or even as the third accent color – and even lovelier during Christmas time! If it’s on our American flag trust me, you can’t go wrong with red white and blue ever! It’s also on the French flag *wink*

My good friend Fawn says my house is very chinoiserie. That’s the perfect word for it. It’s the blend of Asian and European and that’s 100% my style!

---

Before

I need to share a few snaps of the living room in several stages before over the years. And I want to also say, I loved our room at every stage (before I changed them haha), but truly I look back and while they are not my style any longer, I never felt without or that I didn’t love my space. I feel blessed to have always felt content and happy in my space and lived within our means, budget and that is such a gift. That is the key to happiness! Be thankful and grateful for what you have and make it “feel” like home to you!

---

And now I’m happy to show you how our space looks today! If you have any questions let me know in the comments. I’d love to know what you think. Until next time! xx

---

Diana Elizabeth says, so what room is next? She thinks it’s the dining room and then the backyard.