Saturday, January 7, 2012

The Debrowning of the Living Room



I love my living room. It's big, open and bright. I like the style (afterall, I did it) and the way it's coming along.


However, despite the fact that it looks a bazillion times better than before... it's still very brown. Sure it has green walls, but the overall feel is brown. Allow me to prove my point...

I have brown furniture



brown floors (you can read about them here)


brown coffee table


brown rug


brown shelves


brown chair complete with brown blanket rack and brown blanket


brown blinds


brown decorations (this is starting to get embarrassing)


brown fans 


brown bar stools

brown table, magazine rack and even brown CD/movie holders
 I'll stop there, but believe me, there's more.
This isn't another room project I'm going to start and and take forever to finish, moving to ten different things in the meantime. (I know, I have the worst project ADD ever). This is just a pledge. 

I, Ashley, pledge not to add anything else brown to my living room. I will work to reverse some of the brown damage and bring some color into the space.

I've already started a bit, switching out this table
for this one.
I have a few other things planned (such as redoing the bar stools and adding brownless curtains), but overall I'm just going to let if come along naturally. I do think I'll start on the curtains now though, because picking out fabric is always fun!





Ashley

Linked to:
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32 comments:

  1. The white table looks perfect there, I'll be back to see how else the room becomes debrowned!
    ♥Rondell

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  2. Love the white table & lamp as your starting point. It will be quite wonderful to watch the changes over time. I was amazed, when I did my 2011 review, at how much I'd accomplished with baby steps. So will you, I'm sure.
    dawnedesign.net

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  3. That is a LOT of brown :) I think the white table looks great and i can't wait to see what else you change :)

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  4. I love your living room girlie! Ours is brown too but my mom just brought me an old rocking chair that she had when I was a baby and so she refinished it in white for me ;) I love it! Living in an apartment is hard though cause I can't paint the walls ;( Oh well one day we won't be in the military so I will be able to do whatever I want! BTW love the fan light shade/cover thingies... lol

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  5. You're right, just the white table swapped for the brown one made a HUGE difference. Lovely space.

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  6. i am a debrownifier, too. i have a post titled the same as you, debrowning the living room, lol. still don't think i'm there yet, like you i want to switch out my end tables, but it'll get there.

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  7. I like a lot of brown, but I do usually like it paired with a good bit of color, so I know what you mean. The white table is a great start!

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  8. I love the changes you have already made and can't wait to see the end result.


    Cheers!

    ~ Sarah ~ Your newest follower
    Www.sarahstruss.blogspot.com

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  9. I love the changes you have already made and can't wait to see the end result.


    Cheers!

    ~ Sarah ~ Your newest follower
    Www.sarahstruss.blogspot.com

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  10. I just "de-browned" my living room. I painted the walls a light turquoise (almost white) and added some bold white and red drapes. It's a totally different room!

    I'm popping over from Whatever Goes Wednesday, check me out:

    http://imakestuff4fun.blogspot.com/2012/01/clip-on-tie-tutorial.html

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  11. I love your little white table, it's a such nice addition. :)

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  12. You're not alone! My living room is too brown too! curtain panels, fan, floors, sofa and ever art!
    You've inspired me to debrown myself!

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  13. i am in love with this post! so cute and funny! i think we all have a tendency to lean towards a particular color scheme and maybe go too far. maybe because we don't know what else to do or maybe because we just like that color! i tend to do the same thing with almost every room and really have to push myself to get more creative. i love that you are expanding your creativity, and that you are showing it on your blog! awesome. btw, the changes are looking amazing so far!

    i would love it if you would stop by my blog and link this or any other amazing project you have to my linky party going on right now!

    http://letbirdzfly.blogspot.com/2012/01/exodus-35-creativity-party-16.html

    thanks so much for sharing!

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  14. Looks like the start of something really great! Won't you consider sharing it with my readers at sassafrassalvation.blogspot.com/2012/01/architectural-salvage-jewelry.html. Thanks! Happy New Year!

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  15. Haha...great post! I made it my mission to "de-brown" a few years ago too. Those were my exact words too. I told my Mom...Ugh...I'm so sick of BROWN!

    May I make a suggestion? I think some white plates and/or platters would look great on the wall, and maybe a few bright white throw pillows for the sofa? All of that could be very inexpensive and tie it together.

    ♥Linsey

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  16. Ha ha! I'm the same way in my LR! I have light brown walls, sectional, carpet and rocker! Too much brown!! I've improved it some with some color, but I should've picked a different color sectional!! :) Need to follow your tips of adding white!!

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  17. I think you are going in the right direction! It will look awesome!

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  18. lol. Love the term "brownless." I've been working on the same thing!

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  19. Oh wow, your living room is looking gorgeous! I love the white side table you added, it adds such a charm! I'd be thrilled if you'd come and share your post at the Head to Head Showdown, going on right now at www.icantstopcrafting.blogspot.com ~Jen

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  20. I have the same to do item on my 2012 goals. I don't have any pops of color in my family room. I want to add some blue in and get rid of the many brown accents too! Have fun! Found you from Tatertots and Jello

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  21. gorgeous or what?!!

    would love it if you could share this on my link party
    http://serenityyou.blogspot.com/search/label/Serenity%20Saturday

    Natasha xx

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  22. Love the choice of the green on your walls! What is the color called? I think the brown looks really nice with the walls, but I do agree maybe a little pop of color some where else would just make it look that much better:)

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  23. Personally, I think it looks super. The transformation from before to after already is impressive. It has a great earthy, casual feel. Maybe I like brown. I think bringing in more pops of white, like that end table, could be a great direction to continue.

    Good luck with your ADD. I suffer similarly!

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  24. Sugarr2518...I'd love to be able to tell you what color the green is, but truth be told I painted it three times (greens a hard color to get right! It kept looking like something that came out of a nose or a diaper). Eventually I got sick or trying to find the right color and mixed all my samples and leftover paint into a five gallon bucket and used that. Amazingly it turned out great, lol.

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  25. Ha! My living room is very brown too!!! I'm trying to walk on the wild side and change it up a bit :)

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  26. I like this a lot!! The transformation is amazing!

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  27. Lovely! Brown is a neutral color if you ask me. It goes with everything. The room really is beautiful!

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  28. Well, I sort of like your wood tones with the green walls. But, I am sitting here in a dark brown leather chair on my light brown carpet next to my dark brown end table. I do have a turquoise dresser as a pop of color in here though.

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  29. I love the tone of green on your walls and think it looks great with brown. I can understand you wanting to lighten up a couple tables and I think that white distressed one is lovely. It's cute how you refer to your re-do as the debrowning of the living room.

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  30. There might be a lot of brown but I think it looks great. Makes me want to clean my house right now. Thanks for sharing at Bacon Time. Have you linked up at our Valentine linky contest yet?

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  31. Your living room looks so great now compared to originally! We have a very similar scheme in our living room - almost the identical green walls,and lots of timber, furniture and floorboards but it's mostly more honey-coloured than yours.
    In a couple of weeks when our renovations are finished I'll be moving stuff around and also doing a little "debrowning" so I'll be very interested to follow along with what you are doing! One thing I definitely want to do is to paint our dresser ... just have to pick a paint colour ....

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  32. LOL! Cute post! I actually think your living room looks pretty good, but it will be fun to see what you do and I'm sure it will look even better as you progress through the debrownification! LOL!

    Tania

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