A Living Room tour

Today I wanted to share my living room with you. Yesterday I spent the entire day "re-mixing" my living room. That's a process where I "shop" the house and pull together accessories to use in new groupings. During the winter I love spending time in my living room. It's warm and cozy color scheme is the perfect place to converse with family or close friends and a quiet, comfortable place to read. After I stowed away all the Christmas decorations, I needed to move some furniture around and then that lead to moving wall art around and so on. As you will see from the photos, I LOVE color and the living room and dining room are both done in gold, red, and brown with touches of black accent pieces. While everything is so dreary and gray outside, I layer on ANALOGOUS color schemes. These are colors that lay side-by-side on the color wheel such as yellow, yellow-green, and green or in my case yellow, orange, and red. With its limited color range, an analogous color scheme relies heavily on textures, patterns and finishes. Variations within the intensity of the color can also help to add panache to an analogous color pallet. I decided to add touches of orange and spice to my room for the duration of winter. Let's take a look: This is a shot of my living room sofa. I've had this camel back sofa for several years and have vowed that I will never get rid of it. When the tapestry fabric wears thin, I plan to reupholster it. I love the lines and deep, thick comfort of its loose-back cushions.
I decided to add touches of orange to the room yesterday. I introduced the color by adding floral stems in a tall metal vase. I like the variations in the colors of the blooms.

I was using this plate in my entry hall prior to the holidays. Since it has a soft yellow background and the fun animal print border, I decided I would add it to the living room accessories for a while. It's rather exotic looking and that adds to the feel of the room. You will see in later pictures that I have a thing for Palm Trees - love 'em! When I married my Florida Cracker husband, I not only fell in love with him but with the palm trees native to his state. To me, there is just something majestic about the Palm Tree. This plate features a Coconut Palm.

I also used some of the same floral stems in large black vases on my end tables. this helped to carry the new color around the room. A good rule of thumb when introducing a new color, is to use it in at least three places.

I shared a photo similar to this in my post "An Apple A Day". This is my coffee table which pops with various shades of red and touches of gold.

You can see two chairs at the end of the room in this photo. Hubby and I just reupholstered these before Christmas. Both chairs were in good shape but the finishes and fabric did not go with my color story. Now they are painted glossy black and covered in a mustard yellow silk fabric with a Red, Rust and Teal floral design. This spring I will incorporate some that lovely teal shade into the room. That will be a nice cool change for the warmer months.

Here is a better view of the chairs. And more Palm Trees.

This is a gel-fuel Fireplace. That is very convenient because on a whim I can move this from room to room. Last winter I used it in my bedroom. I currently have a collection of pillar candles sitting in the firebox. And you can see even more Palm Trees. The black ledge shelf above the framed art was added yesterday (thanks, honey) and the white dishes were added to draw the eye upward and play off the white mantel. You can partially see a wicker chair in this photo. This was a Pier 1 chair that I found on clearance several years ago. I use this in my Sunroom mostly, but decided to place it in the living room to add a tropical vibe to the room for a while. It works well with framed art and tropical foliage I use in the room.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed the tour. Tomorrow is MONEYSAVER MONDAY and I'd love to hear about all the ways you are saving money in 2009 - clippin' coupons, eating at home more, thrifting more often, hosting swap meets, whatever! Tell all your friends to stop by a leave us a moneysaving idea. Until then,

Happy Decorating!

~Alisa