LIVING ROOM PROGRESS PHOTOS

One of the big takeaways from my reader survey last month is that you guys are interested in seeing more of the decorating process in addition to the actual room reveals. I tried to do this with our foyer (sharing decorating decisions before the finished product) but today I’m taking it a step further with photos of our (very) unfinished living room. I hope you’ll weigh in in the comments!

design darling living room progress

My top priority in our living room is to install window treatments in the bay window that houses our chaise longue. As you can see, the space gets a ton of light coming from this one wall, but cars driving by can see right into our windows and it’d be nice to have a little privacy. My plan is to order these (by far the most affordable lucite curtain rods I’ve found) and hang really inexpensive semi-sheer curtains (maybe these?) just to obscure the view without eliminating the natural light. The curtains will also help fill out the space around the chaise, which, if you follow me on Instagram stories, you know has been an ongoing decorating debacle (I’ve tried adding two different baskets at the foot and angling the chaise into the room, but ultimately decided to add this floor lamp behind it and call it a day).

design darling living room progress photos

I’m still deciding whether I want to try a different side table to the right of our sectional. Will’s had this antique one since before we met and while I love the style, it does little to brighten up the dark navy upholstery that dominates the room. We already own at least a couple different side tables we could swap in (a round white one and a mirrored square one off the top of my head) so I’m having a hard time justifying purchasing anything new here. I’m also torn on the wooden lamp, which I painted white and made quite a few paint drips on. But again until I see something I love, it kind of gets the job done for now…? If you’ve seen something more fun, leave me a note in the comments!

design darling navy sectional

Please ignore the fact that I need to take a lint roller to our sectional (and actually attach the three pieces — that space in the middle is driving me crazy!) but the third thing I’m focused on in the living room is our throw pillow situation. The sectional is honestly so comfortable on its own that we don’t really need any pillows, but it’s such a large (and dark) piece that I feel like an assortment of pillows would really help break things up. I’m a little all over the place in terms of what I’m thinking, so again feel free to cast your vote and help me narrow things down in the comments. Obviously the current throw pillows look dinky and insufficient on their own so I either want to add a bunch or just nix them altogether.

design darling ikea media console

This view of our media console is basically finished outside of a little styling. The striped rug used to be in our master bedroom when we lived in Dallas but I love having it in a more central part of our house! I’m thinking of adding some sort of tray to our acrylic coffee table (maybe something like this or this — thoughts?).

design darling chaise longue

God knows how I’m going to shoot this space for the blog when it’s actually finished because there’s so much contrast between the bright area over by the chaise and the dark area over by the sectional (photographer friends, any ideas?!). Here you can see at least the outline of the little floor lamp I fell in love with… I’ve since found this one that’s a little less expensive if you’re on the hunt for something similar.

design darling slim aarons prints

I can’t wait to get this place in better shape so I can take “real” photos for the big reveal. I can’t wait to hear your two cents!

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