Media Room Update

So, I've promised some pictures of our media room progress a few times now. Here's where we are with this room. It's come a long way since this time last year. I'm really happy with how things are going and even though it's taken a while, I feel like we've done a lot!

We really only need a few more things to be done until this room is 'complete.' Isn't it funny how once you get pretty close to finishing a room you see so many things you could have chosen? I've seen tons of red accessories out in stores now since the holidays are coming up. So, here's what we've done since you probably saw it last.

1. We put prints and photos in all of the frames in the gallery wall (except one)!

2. We bought a pub table and chairs for the nook area behind the couch.

3. We added new artwork to the wall in the nook. This print is a scene from Paris via Ikea. I love how much more dramatic this is the original art choice for this spot.

4. Added a chalkboard on the other wall in the nook area. I'm not sure what we're going to do with this chalkboard yet. But we are thinking of using it for either game night score keeping or lists of places we want to travel.

5. Added art to the area beside the window. I found these prints at HomeGoods and love that they have pops of red and feature pretty city scenes in New York, Paris and Venice.

6. Added a new throw for the couch. I picked this up at World Market and love the silver threads running through it. Find it here or a similar one from West Elm here.

7. And if you missed my last post here, we added a bar 'cart' area, which will be complete soon!

Whew, that's a ton of pictures. Hope you enjoyed the update!

Media Room Bar

So, I haven't blogged in forever! I've been gone on a work trip for most of the last two weeks and hoped to blog while I was on the plane, but never got around to it. I've been making some updates in our media room to the bar area. 

I still need to get a print for the frame, but otherwise, this space is almost done. I think I'm going to either get this or this from Etsy. In general though, I love the way this area turned out. It is a fun addition to the room.  

On the top shelf, I have a wooden tray with a variety of liquors and accessories. Of course this includes red chevron straws and cute napkins that say "cheers" I found an awesome lamp at HomeGoods a few months ago that has a clear jar for the bottom and a removable top that I am filling with corks. I think this is a great way to tie in the theme. The lower shelves have glassware, mixers for cocktails and a wine rack. 

In this picture, you can see that we're making lots of other progress in this room. I'll be back to talk about those updates later :) Now it's time for a party! 

Media Room Gallery Wall

Long time no see! Things have been super busy around here, I'll post about that soon ;)

I finally got around to working some more on the decor in our media room. I knew that I wanted to incorporate a gallery wall into the design somewhere, but I couldn't figure out where exactly.  Well, I decided to use the dead space above the couch and came up with something pretty cool.

I've been collecting frames and items for the wall for a long time. It takes a lot more stuff than you would think to fill space well.  Plus, I wanted a varied look, with different color frames and shapes.

One of my favorite things in the gallery wall is this frame with old passports in it. These are passports of members of Kevin's family that we found and decided to put on display.  The one on the left is from Britain around 1920 and the others are mid 1900's US passports. This really goes with the world travel theme that I'm trying to pull in. 

I added a small floating shelf to the gallery wall to showcase our sentimental champagne cork collection. I've been debating for a while over what to do with the corks that we save from our anniversaries, and this seemed like the best option (better than stuffed away in a box, for sure!).  You will notice that a lot of the frames don't have real pictures in them yet. I went ahead and put the gallery wall up without finalizing everything. But, my plan is for these to be travel-themed, with maps or landscape pictures of places that are special to us, and pictures from our actual travels.

I got a new lampshade at Target to go on the floor lamp that I have in the corner. This made a big difference, I like the shape and linen texture of the shade. 

Oh, and I'm also currently working on accessorizing a bar cart-like shelf that will hang out in the back of the room. I think this will be both pretty and functional.  I can't wait to get this completed and show you! Here is some of the inspiration for that space:

Adding some color...

...to the media room that is. I've made a good bit of progress in the last week in our media room.  Here's what we've done!

We got our TV stand and new TV for the room last week. Our TV is a 60" 3D LED Samsung smart TV that we got on sale during one of the pre-Super Bowl sales. I wasn't sure if the TV we wanted would go on sale this month, but actually, one of the even nicer ones came way down in price, so we upgraded! :)  We are loving the picture quality and some of the cool smart features.  The TV stand from Hayneedle.com was delivered promptly last week and it's perfect. There were no issues with shipping or any damaged pieces, so I'm really happy that even with the free shipping it was great! We're really happy with the size and storage options. We can actually get all of our devices into the cabinet... DVR, Xbox, Blu-ray and Wifi modem and router.  This picture isn't great because the light was really bright and reflecting off of the screen, but it looks really awesome in person!

Finally, I got pillow inserts for all of the pillow covers that I ordered from Etsy. I'm loving the pop of color and patterns that they bring to the room.

I also made some progress on the window treatments for the room. I've decided to go with a cornice and panel style instead of roman shades. I bought off the rack red curtains and made my own cornice board to cover them, I'll make a post detailing all of the steps soon. The red is really great for the room and really adds a lot.

But, I'm not done with these curtains and cornices! I'm going to add blackout liners to them so they really block out light if you want to watch a movie during the day and I'm going to add a ribbon trim to the leading edge of the curtain panels and to the cornice.  Here's what I'm thinking it will look like. I took a piece of ribbon and held it up on the curtains:

I'll add a plain rectangle of trim to the cornice. I considered doing a more elaborate corner but I want to keep things masculine, so I think plain will work great. Here's what the gray trim would look like photoshopped in:

I think we're doing great on the progress for the room. It's finally at a point where we can use it which is really nice, since this room has been vacant for more than a year! We had a goal to be able to watch the Super Bowl in this room this year and I think we're going to be able to do it! ;)  I have a lot of ideas that we still have to incorporate, including accent tables, lamps, etc and even a gallery wall, but that will take place over the next few weeks as we start collecting things. 

Updates around the house

I haven't posted about the media room recently, but we are working hard on selecting and buying all of the different pieces. I am really excited about how it is coming together. Once we get our TV and a few more things, I will take some pictures with my camera of the progress. In the mean time, here are some photos of the progress from my iPhone. I ordered these pillows for the room from Etsy and we've already received the ones on the left. The rest should come later this week!

Pillows ordered for the couch

We also finally found a coffee table for the sectional. I had been debating for a long time on what shape and size ottoman or coffee table to go with. I finally decided that I wanted something round and unique, maybe a little masculine. I think this one fits the bill, the metalwork is really interesting and I like the shape. I think it will really work well with the rest of the furniture we are selecting.

New coffee table

Last night, I finally selected the tv console that we'll use under the tv, the focal point of the room. You wouldn't think so, but this has been so, so difficult. However, I think I finally found one that fit most of my criteria.  I debated on the height of the stand for a while and finally had to decide between two, one that was 36" high and another that was 25" high. I initially wanted the taller one that looked like a cabinet, but after playing with tape on the wall, we decided that the lower console would actually be more comfortable to watch tv on from our sectional.

Trying to figure out what size tv stand will
work best for the room

I ordered it from Hayneedle and with their free shipping (!) it should get here next week!

We also made some updates to our master bedroom. We got a new duvet and down comforter, changing the whole look of the room. The duvet is from WestElm and I love it. I had been thinking about changing the color scheme and fabric in this room for a while, so I'm excited that this will hopefully push me to make some more updates in our room soon.

We also ordered new shams and sheets from Pottery Barn during their big white sale. I love the way the gray monogram and trim looks with the bedding.

What have you been working on around your house?

New Sectional!

We got our sectional delivered this weekend (well part of it)! We originally ordered a three piece sectional, including a large regular sofa, armless sofa and chaise.  However, when the delivery guys tried to bring in the regular sofa part of the sectional, it was too big to get into the room! We couldn't get it through the doorway with the way our upstairs hallway is laid out.  The delivery guys also didn't want to damage our walls or the sofa, so I took it as a sign, and decided to just return that piece. Instead, we ordered another chaise to go on the left side of the couch. So, now we will have a long couch with two chaises. 

I actually think the new configuration will work even better than the original plan.  After I started to see the pieces in the room, I realized that the original sofa piece was just going to be wrong for the scale of the room. I love the chaise that we got, so it will be even better to have another one.  The couch is really going to be great for this room, I just can't wait to get the rest of the furniture and TV in here so we can enjoy it. Here are some pictures of the two pieces that we got delivered this weekend in the room. 

The other chaise should come in a couple weeks and then it will finally be complete!