Rustic Inspired Living Room Refresh – ORC

Follow along with me while I join the One Room Challenge (ORC) to create a rustic inspired living room refresh!

Do you have a room in your home that isn’t being used to its potential?  Our living room is in desperate need of a refresh!  I had been kicking around the idea of various changes I could make to the room to make it “work” better for us.  But, unless I have a strict deadline, I often procrastinate!

Fortunately,last week when I was in Round Top, Tx for a retreat with several of my blogging friends the conversation turned to the One Room Challenge 

and the next thing I knew, I was committed to the event and all signed up as a guest participant!  At least 6 of ladies from the retreat signed up and then more of our blogging friends joined us when they heard about it.

A Simple Explanation of the One Room Challenge

In 2011, Linda Weinstein decided to join together with a small group of her online friends with the goal of finishing a room in a designated amount of time.  The group of friends worked on their projects and helped motivate each other to stay on track.  She named the event One Room Challenge®, since staying focused and completing the project could be quite a challenge.

Fast forward to the present and the event is now held bi-annually.  The One Room Challenge showcases designers and Social Media Influencers.   The campaign begins on the first Wednesday of every April & October.  The campaign hopes to inspire individuals by showcasing new ideas and trends in home design and decor.

Bloggers and other social media influencers are welcome to join in the challenge as Guest Participants. For the next 8 Wednesdays, the participants will be sharing their progress on their blogs and various social media platforms.

How Did The Living Room Get in Its Current State?

Let me share a little bit of background: My husband, Dave and I purchased the home from my Great Aunt in the late winter of 2018.  We originally thought we would be snow birds for a few years before making Florida our full time home.  Some things happened and our time table got moved up.

The process of downsizing and moving from my family homestead in Illinois to our home in Florida is outlined in a series of blog posts.  It was a long process.  This process caused more than a little strife and anxiety!  My husband is not very sentimental.  He kept telling me we didn’t need whatever it was I was trying to pack up.  And he constantly reminded me how much smaller the Florida house was than the farmhouse.  One of his favorite phrases was “You aren’t going to junk up the Florida house!”  I pretended like I didn’t know what he meant by that!

Even though the Florida house was smaller, and my Great Aunt had left several pieces of furniture in the house (2 sofas, a loveseat, a complete bedroom set and a couple of leather recliners) I had certain pieces that were family pieces, and I wanted to take them to Florida.

And as much as I hate to admit my husband might be right, the living room is starting to look , well, a bit junked up! I often have to put up folding tables or use one of my primitive scrub top tables when I need to sort seasonal silk flowers or decorations.

One Thing I really Miss about the Farmhouse

When we lived in the farmhouse, I was busy running either my flower shop or my pizzeria so I really didn’t decorate as much as I wish I would have.  I did spend some time back in Illinois last Spring and I was able to spend a whole day decorating the fireplace mantel.  That process really made me realize I needed to find a way to incorporate at least a mantel if not a fireplace surround into the Florida house.

One idea I had was to build a faux fireplace on the lanai.  I thought it would look so cute on this wall  behind these chairs. Until I started thinking about rainy season and wind .  Might not be too practical to have a wooden mantel out on the lanai even though it would be fairly well covered.

My “Muse” for a Rustic Inspired Living Room Refresh!

A few weeks before I left to go to the retreat in Texas, a shop owner friend of mine went to Round Top, Tx on a buying trip.  She brought back the most magnificent fireplace mantel.  She was told it came out of a house in New Orleans that was over 100 years old!  I fell in love!

Someone had painted it black!  Most of the paint has flaked off so I will remove the rest of the black paint and then use wax or buffing cream to restore its luster.

 

 

 

Where Will The Fireplace Go

Once I get the paint off of the mantel and the wood’s luster restored, I will figure out how to make it stand up.  I plan to get rid of the couch in the living room and put the fireplace mantel along the west wall. I don’t have a good picture of the couch along the west wall so I will show you how that area looked with the buffet along the wall.

The batik will come down and be moved into a different spot in the house.  If I center the fireplace along the wall, I should have room for a chair on each side.  The chair pictured below will look so pretty next to the fireplace, don’t you think?

To Paint Or Not to Paint?

These are 4 pieces that I am thinking about painting as part of my living room refresh.

Goals to Help Create a Rustic Inspired Living Room Refresh!

Although the fireplace mantel is going to be the focal point of the refreshed living room, I have several other goals for this project.

1. Donate the couch that we don’t use.  My Great Aunt left behind two couches and we really only use the one in the gathering room
2. find a better way to store/organize my “stuff” so that my large pieces can be used more efficiently
3. recover a footstool so that it goes with the room decor
4. make room for a work/dining room table

 

Please check out all the other amazing projects!  They can be found here: One Room Challenge