A Colorful Farmhouse Living Room

I love a good farmhouse styled room. Color is also a favorite. Although I love the look of a monochromatic cozy room, I don’t have enough self control to stick with all whites – and having a dog and 4 kids doesn’t help either. The light, bright and white is not for me.

I struggle with the same ‘ole same ‘ole farmhouse look. Do you? I like to see a little more personality in someone’s home. I’m not a fan of a room looking like everyone else’s.

What do you think?

When we first moved into our townhouse ,(Nov 2019), my daughter;s friend said, “it’s nice, but your last home was so much more creative”. That made me think, did I drink the kool-aide and my rooms were starting to look like the thousand’s of images on instagram? Too simple, to light and bright and farmhouse – straight from the aisles of Target’s Hearth & Home section?

I was determined to change that. Although my style has evolved from years past when I used a lot more “upcycled” items, I knew I could still create a unique atmosphere.

The first room that was complete in our townhouse was the living room/dining room area. It’s a colorful farmhouse styled room.

Here’s the latest look for our living room.

…and how that living room started out when we purchased it.

The blue sofa is new. Thanks to IKEA’s 10 year warranty, our sofa was replaced because of a problem with part of it. IKEA no longer carries the brown slip cover, so I chose this blue and I’m really glad I did. The brown was pretty nice too. But, the blue adds a bit of life and a pop of color.

More from around that now more colorful living room…

The fireplace was the victim of another spur of the moment makeover a few weeks ago. I’ll post more about that in the future, but here is how the fireplace started out. Charming, ehh? You can see the renovated fireplace in some of the photos here, but, I’m still waiting for a chunky barn beam to show up so I can install it as a mantel.

Here’s the hearth from The Tile Shop.

We replaced the face of the fireplace with shiplap. More on that later.

One of my favorite trash finds was this piece I turned into a bar.

It was actually the top of a hutch, but the bottom piece was crumbling. I painted it black and sanded and stained the top. The glass in the doors was broken, so I ditched that and never replaced it. Now it’s easy access bottle service.

One of my favorite design tricks is to create a dramatic ceiling. I used Peppercorn by Sherwin Williams on the ceiling in our dining room. I love the atmosphere in that room. Having so much light helps when using a dark color in a room, especially on a ceiling. It’s one of my favorite things I’ve done to this house this far and probably the cheapest too.