How to create an inviting living room space

It takes a village to renovate a house, as many people would usually say. When my hubby and I purchased our first house last year, we had not idea what we were getting ourselves into. Neither of us have ever owned a house, nor have rented one to understand responsibilities that come with managing, remodeling, and taking care of a large property. Up until that point, we were fortunate enough to live in nice rented apartment communities where everything was well taken care of by leasing management companies, and we never imagined how much work we would put in to make our house feel like home for us.

As all people looking to own a property, I became obsessed with HGTV and DIY shows  and really thought that we would be able to tackle all home renovations ourselves... well, we quickly discovered home shows make it easier than it really is in real life. 

All project that would have an estimated completion time of 2 hours would take us a full day, or a day project would take us almost a week. We had to rely on family help, YouTube (Thank God it exist), and long list of online resources to help us finish our projects. Our house was full of bad surprises that we or other house inspector didn't discover before we closed on the property, and when we moved and begin the work we had days filled with challenges and surprises (on this one will write later), but in the end of the day, we were Really Happy to have a save and up-to a code house for ourselves. 

Below are pictures of our living room that had a complete transformation (as all other rooms in the house). 

This is how our house looked like before we bought it. Dark beige walls, an exposed brick fireplace that desperately needed painting. And limited natural light that was blocked by a carport roof that we took down shortly after we moved in. It is amazing how bright and airy the room is now without the carport roof!

The first thing we did after getting the keys- painting every inch of the house. When selecting a paint color for the rooms, I knew I wanted to have grey interior that will later be matched with vibrant colors of accessories, distinct patterns, and bold hardware. We ended up going with Kelly Moore painting and have chosen "Gadsburry Grey" color for main walls and "Sophistication" Beige for the window accent wall. 

This is how the colors look after we were done painting and finally moved in. Pardon the mess!

For a while this room has been empty and used as a storage while we were working on a remodel of bathrooms and bedrooms, but as soon as we finished the remodel, we began to furnish and decorate the living room space. This is what the room looks like today with all new furniture that we purchased from Bassett, while the accessories came from variety of stores ( gold tray from here, candle holders on a mantel here, curtains similar here)

I will be looking to add pillows in fuchsia and cobalt blue colors, and add a contemporary art in blue, black and white tones.