Beni in the Living Room

Do you ever look at a room and think that there's something off with it but you can't quite put your finger on it?  Do you then proceed to try to remedy the unfathomable situation by changing absolutely everything in it, one piece at a time?  Yep, happening with me right now. And looking at blogs and Pinterest does not help one bit.

Case in point, my living room which has been a work in progress for 16 years.  The trouble is I bought all of the pieces at different times, without a plan.  So nothing really goes. Yes, I love the eclectic look but even good eclecticism is designed and deliberate.  Often a good room design starts with a rug.  I think I've been through 5 different rugs in my living room alone.  I always think that the next rug is going to be the savior of the room; the one that pulls it all together.  I'm usually satisfied for a short while but then a new trend comes along and I fall for it.  My latest obsession (among millions of other bloggers and pinners out there), the Beni Ourain rug.

I love the look of these rugs in pictures.  They look both stylish and laid back at the same time.  They can make a traditional formal room look less stuffy and a bohemian eclectic room look more grounded.  My favourites are of course the original ones from Morocco, but these come at a huge price tag.  We're talking thousands of dollars.  They're perfect because they look handmade with lots of variations in the patterns.  Us average folk have to make do with the mass produced unfortunately.  West Elm have their version called the Souk Rug.  Pottery Barn did one a few years ago which I love the look of.  And Anthropologie have one called the Flotaki Diamonds Rug.  This is the one that I bought.  And I bought it at a heavy discount, of course.  I paid $350 plus shipping and tax for an 8 x 10 that originally retailed for $2000.  Now for $2000 you'd think you're getting a gorgeous rug that will be the envy of all of your friends!  Well, can I tell you, I'm mighty disappointed.  It just doesn't do it.  So I think it's going back, unless anyone out there in Salt Lake would like to buy it from me.

Here's a picture of my living room with the old rug which is the Brandon Rug from Pottery Barn.

It's not so bad.  Actually, it's a really nice rug.  Oh, and I got a new pendant light, which I think is really boring but it was cheap and does the job.  What I really wanted was something fabulous and unique, but c'est la vie.

See!  Now everything else looks crap.  Especially my sofa and chairs.  And the table and those silly side tables.  Aghh!

Umm, now looking at this photo I might convince myself to keep it.  But if I don't love it, am I just fooling myself?

Yes, that is a huge armoire in the living room.  It houses a TV, XBox, speakers, record player, stereo, a gazillion remote controls and quite a few dust bunnies.

Who has a blooming drum set in their front room/parlour?!  Not many design-minded people I know.  Mary McDonald (famous LA designer on the show Million Dollar Decorators) didn't even let her client have a grand piano in the living room.  But unfortunately, space is tight and there is nowhere else to put it.  Plus it is kinda cool looking.

And look, I got a new plant.  Yep, another design cliche.  But it is awfully pretty.  Let's see how long it lasts.

Here are some inspiration photos of Beni's that I think look great.  It's funny, when I look at my pictures I'm almost convinced to keep it.  But in real life, it is really shaggy, hairy, woolly.  And sheds like a motha (that was a quote from a review on Anthropologie's website, not my words. I should have heeded their warning).

Sources here

Why can't my room look those rooms above?  Not fair!  What do you think?  Keep it or ditch it?

More projects aka you might as well while you're at it!

My house is a disaster!  Why do we do this to ourselves?  Every October, it seems like, we have to start some sort of remodel which completely takes over the whole house and has us living in a bomb site.  This year is no exception.  It all started out when I couldn't stand the look of my yellow walls anymore. I'm sure lots of people have had that feeling about a paint color they used to love but now despise.  But instead of just painting it which would have been "putting lipstick on a pig", we decided to fix a few small problems with the wall finish.  That turned into having the whole family room re-skimmed.  Which meant moving out all of the furniture.

Remember this room.  

It now looks like this!

I'm almost too embarrassed to show you.  It definitely looks like an episode from Hoarders.  Please don't call the child protective services on me.

And this lovely room that was recently finished.

Now looks like this!

I don't know how the poor boys are managing to practice the piano.

But that's not all, you should see their playroom.

Yep, major disaster.

 I think Damian needs to sort out those cables.

At least we can see the pretty bay window without all of the furniture in front of it.

Look at this horrible textured ceiling.  It's just gotta go (it's only taken us 15 years).

 And the start of the real mess.  And yep, the contractor was real messy and did a crappy job of protecting the floor and the trim and just about anything else!  Arghh!  And he wasn't cheap.

   That plastic between the family room and kitchen is a joke!  The drywall dust got everywhere!

Nice job of protecting the floor and cleaning up after yourself, Dave!  (Being totally sarcastic).

Yes, that is how he left it!  He even expected us to have to wipe down the sanding dust on all of the walls ourselves despite charging us a butt load of money!  Not happy with him at all.

Move on to the next part of the project, floors!

But what stain color to choose?  Such a dilemma.  The house is pretty dark, but I really love the look of dark floors we took a risk and that is what we went with.  The contractor tried to talk us into English Chestnut, but it was too red for my liking.  There's already a ton of red in the trim.  I wanted a contrast, so we choose Dark Walnut.

Nice picture of Justins's feet.

No turning back now.

Wow that yellow paint looks really yellow!

And here's Nate's prep for the painting.  Huge difference between the level of care he is taking and that of the plasterer.  It's the first time we've hired a painter to do the inside and I have to say I'm liking it!

These pictures were taken before the finish was put down.  They don't look red in real life.  They're a lovely deep brown and we're really happy with how they came out.  The guys from Underfoot Floors were awesome and the owner of the place is our neighbor which made it even better.  I highly recommend Underfoot Floors if you live in the Salt Lake area.

And since we're repainting the family room and hallways white, we might as well paint the kitchen white too!  Starting with the yellow dresser.

I think I might paint the inside the same grey that I painted the island here.

Trying to decide on paint colors.  Did originally want to go with the same grey as in the music room, but it looks really dark in the kitchen, so white it is.

And I have huge plans for this corner of the room.  Whether they'll materialize we'll see.

So let's hope it's finished before Christmas so we can actually enjoy it.