Living room:

Alright, next up on our tour is the living room. This is where I was definitely trying to go for the beachy white-on-white feeling.

One of the things that really bugged me about the living room in our rental house was that, obviously, since it was a rental, we couldn't paint the walls. And it just always bugged me that the beige of the couches clashed with the shade of beige on the walls (see picture below):

It pretty much made me hate our couches. They just looked dingy and worn down. I kept telling Nick that I couldn't wait to replace them (sad, since we bought them brand new only a year ago).

Truth be told, I still would jump at the chance to replace them. I am just dying to have a white couch from Pottery Barn. I know...its not practical. But its what I want.

But anyway, I was hoping that putting these couches up against a nearly white wall would help with adding some contrast. And I was right! Since we have moved into the new house, I have liked the look of these couches sooo much better. They now seem to stand out, rather than just contributing to the wall of blah as they did in the old house.

The lighting in my photo isn't great at showing a true representation of how this looks, but just wanted to draw attention to the fact that our ceiling is painted...TEAL!! I have been dreaming of this white-on-white color scheme with a teal ceiling for quite some time. Originally I actually wanted to paint the ceiling purple, like this amazing room I saw in Better Homes & Gardens:

So for all of you thinking how strange I am to have painted my ceiling teal...well, it seems quite muted now compared to purple...right? :)

Its going to look really good once we put the crown moulding up.

Nick single-handedly painted that entire ceiling. And hated every moment of it. I am sad to report, Nick HATES painting (just doesn't have the patience for it), which has slowed our painting projects down quite dramatically, because now I feel like if I want to paint something, I am probably going to have to paint 90% of it by myself. I painted the kitchen and the bedroom myself...I am trying to inspire myself to tackle the two bathrooms soon.

Anyway, back to the living room. I got the pillows from Cindy Crawford's home line at JCPenney. I really like the stuff in that line! Definitely goes with that upscale beachy vibe.

The pillows might not look like a huge step out of the box, but I really had to push myself to pair different textures and patterns together. Remember, I suffer from a matchy-matchy complex. So pairing that graphic on the cream pillow with the teal floral...not something I would normally do. And the small pillow in the armchair also has little teal beads on it for a little added texture. Baby steps people!

More from the Cindy Crawford Home line...this white-washed lantern.

I took this lantern up to the cash register thinking it was $39.99. When she rung it up, turns out it was on super-clearance for $6.79. Love it when that happens!

The bowl behind the lantern is filled with decorative balls that look like they are made out of twigs. This ties in a little more texture, the pops of dark brown that I use throughout the house, and a bit of the natural elements that I used in things like the tall bundle of sticks in a vase and the woven brown baskets near the couch. We found the balls and the bowl at Wal-Mart. The bowl was originally a light brown, and Nick white-washed it for me to complete my white-on-white vibe.

I am in love with these cute little birds. I bought them on Etsy.com. They are homemade!

A few more things worth mentioning:

• The rug in the living room (which I really LOVE!) is actually two small rugs put together. I had to match up the two edges to make one full demask pattern in the middle. I hand sewed the two edges together, then duct taped the rest on the back). I love how in the picture below you can't even tell it is two rugs. And with the coffee table over most of the seam, I don't even notice it much in real life.
• The curtains and roman shades are both from JCP. Curtains (and the pretty curtain rod with crystal finals on the ends) are also from the Cindy Crawford line. Seriously love that line!

• In these pictures I have not decorated the mantle yet. Took me a while to find just the right thing for the mantle. But I finally decided on something and just ordered it from Ballard TODAY!! I will update once it arrives...I know the suspense is killing you! :)

So I think thats about it for the living room. Soon we'll talk about the kitchen/breakfast nook...which you get a bit of a sneak peek at here: