Overview Of The Dining & Living Room
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Today I’m showing you and overview of the dining and living room area as it flows together through the large open space.
An Evening With Family:
Yesterday evening I had such a wonderful time. Kendra came over with Riley, 18, and Marley, 13.
Riley is going to the University of Oklahoma in the fall and plans to be a doctor.
Kendra brought supper and cupcakes. We sat around my dining table and ate the meal and chatted.
Then Kendra hung the curtain rods that had just come in. She hung the curtains over the window behind my chair, as you can see in the first photo.
More Curtains Have Been Hung:
Don’t the curtains look great? I think of the curtains as the icing on the cake. It just finishes things off.
Kendra also hung the curtain rod in the second bedroom, which hasn’t gotten much attention yet.
The curtains, exactly like the ones I already had that I originally ordered 3-4 years ago, should arrive soon.
With the rod already in place, all I have to do now is add the curtains.
There’s my sweet little Gracie perched on the top of the couch, unaware that her photo is being taken.
I brought in the red indoor/outdoor chair I’ve had forever in order to accommodate seating for everyone.
I love my new home and feel safe and content here. This is just about the right size space for me and the kitties.
Visually Separating Spaces:
I chose to separate these two spaces, the living and dining area which is just one long room, by angling the couch over toward the middle.
Then I visually grounded it in place by placing the green cupboard behind it.
Therefore the area seems more like two spaces rather than one. By doing this you define what you want the spaces used for.
New Floor Lamp:
I couldn’t get enough bright light for the ponytail palm. So I ordered the tall, slim, and more modern type floor lamp and put it along the hallway wall.
When I’m trying to decide where to put table and floor lamps, I look at the area more like a grid.
Then I place the lights where they’re equidistant, thus adding light in more equal proportions where they’re most needed.
Corner Of The Living Room:
Above is the very first area I arranged my first week here. I still like the quilt on the wall. It’s the only quilt hanging on the wall in my apartment.
I’ve got some decisions to make about the kitchen, then I’ve got to arrange the furniture in the second bedroom.
Have a great weekend! It’s sunny and bright here today.
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You have such a talent for decorating. I am always impressed. I hope the safety factor in your new home is much better than previously. Please keep the wonderful pictures!
It’s absolutely gorgeous, Brenda!!! What gifts you have for interior design and placement—wow!! Your home looks like something out of a magazine; I’m sure you hear that all the time. I agree with the person who commented, a few days ago, that the management ought to use your apartment as the model.
I’m going to copy some of your ideas, including equidistant lamp placement.
Thank you so much for sharing!!!
These pictures are great! Really shows a a full
view of your beautiful decorating!!
Very Happy Birthday Brenda !
I adore your new apartment and everything you have done! It encourages me to continue working on my own list of design changes for my place. I want every spot to look finished and welcoming like you have done. Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday 🎂 🥳 💞
Happy Birthday Brenda!
Love everything about your apartment. Beautiful. You are giving me many ideas I can do in my place. And believe me, I need all the help I can get with decorating. Ivy and Gracie sure seem to love the extra space. The picture with Gracie perched on the back of the sofa shows just how much she has grown.
It all looks great! I like the way you have angled the couch with the dresser behind it. You must look at it all now and wonder how it fit in the previous tiny apartment.
Happy Birthday 🎈🎁🎉🎂
Your new place is very cozy and bright. Enjoy the fruits of your labor!
Love, love, LOVE! EVERYTHING! An ordinary decorator would have planted the furniture along the walls, making that long rectangular room look like a bowling alley and called it good. You’ve thoughtfully angled and balanced pieces to create a cozy conversation pit for your guests and defined a cozy eating area in the process.
When I first started decorating our newly built house – some 35 years ago, I received advice from a saleslady at Ethan Allen where I made most of my purchases. “You don’t want everything to ‘match,’ she said – you want it to ‘floooooow!'” That’s what I think of when I see how you’ve arranged your carefully selected eclectic pieces.
As a former high school art teacher, I was instructed to repeat colors throughout a composition to achieve movement and unity. You’ve instinctively done that, too! Your color palette of soothing cream, green, and yellow with lively punches of fiery red is both warming and welcoming!
Finally, I really enjoy seeing Ivy and Gracie stroll about their new home as if they “own the place!”….which, of course, they do!
Oh, and one more thing – which other readers have noted as well – your tone is so much more relaxed and self confident since you’ve arrived here! Sometimes I’d leave your old posts feeling anxious for your well being. You seemed distrustful of people and on edge waiting for “the next shoe to drop.” (Who could blame you?) I join the rest of your online friends in being so happy for you here – looking forward to the outside gardening phase when I predict neighbors will flock to admire and seek advice and new friendships will be formed in abundance!
Love your apartment with all its decor. Looks so welcoming and cozy. So glad you feel happy and content in your new space.
Curtains look great! Your house looks like a home, so beautiful. You accomplished so much it took me months and months to get everything in place when I moved.
OH, did not know you had a Bday—HAPPY BIRTHDAY—mine was yesterday
Happy Belated Birthday yesterday!
everything looks beautiful—-haydee
It is wonderful how your life has changed for the better just by moving from that horrid place to this great place. As someone else wrote, your house looks straight out of a magazine! And to read that you are happy – well that is just marvelous!
Happy Birthday! 🎂🎉
Happy🎂Birthday🎂Brenda!
Happy birthday Brenda glad you got to see the kids. Your new home surely looks like a cozy little cottage😍
I wondered how Kendra would like the room now with the furniture all in couch at the angle. She has great decorating ideas like you so I am glad she felt comfortable with it angled too. All looks so warm and cozy and perfect for you as I know you have always preferred small spaces. You have created a much larger appearing space with your wonderful sense of style and it looks happy to me so I feel you made a most excellent choice moving there as stress wears us down and you don’t need that.
I always enjoy seeing what you do to a room!!! Your new home is looking so pretty.
Your cute home just looks better with every little tweak. I love it. Happy Birthday, my friend!!
Your home is lovely. It has so much more light and freshness than before. The pictures and flowers are up lifting. What is the name of the pattern on the quilt on your chair? It is my favorite.
Pinwheel quilt pattern. I didn’t make that one. Found it on eBay for a song.
Good find
Everything looks wonderful,Brenda! And to see the kitty girls here and there, relaxed is an extra delight. Sometimes I look around here and think – how I wish Brenda could design this for me!
Happy you had such a nice time with your daughter and grands. How wonderful your grandson is planning on studying medicine.
Mary
I am loving the pictures that you are sharing with us. Your curtains really are the icing on the cake. Curtains to me just finish a window off. You have put a lot of thought and detail into your decorating. I love your new home! I am glad to hear that you do too..
Everything looks so nice. You should leave the red indoor/outdoor chair where it is. It looks really nice there, along with the small side table. You’ve turned your new place into such a cozy home in such a short amount of time. Also, Happy Birthday 🎂🎁🎈🎉
Everything looks cozy and beautiful. I wish you lots of happiness in your new home.
Your home is absolutely lovely Brenda, and am glad you are so happy there.
I love your ponytail palm, I am going to look for one.
I nearly missed seeing Gracie in the picture, the two kitties seem to have settled down very well, I am sure they love their new home as much as you do.
Happy Birthday Brenda💞🎂💐 Yes the curtains tie it all together and carry your red throughout. I did a close up of that pony tail palm and it is huge! We have one that is currently in time out outdoors and seems to be thriving! But it is just barely resting in dirt. Is that normal? I’m glad you had such a lovely dinner with Kendra and the kids late night. So very special for you in your new home❣️
Well, I wouldn’t think so. My ponytail palm isn’t at all loose in the dirt.
I love everything about your new home! It’s definitely Home Sweet Home! I agree – the curtains are the icing on the cake.
You’ve accomplished so much but the best thing is that you are more content. Enjoy and welcome home!
Everything looks like it is out of a decorating magazine! I just love that you used a cutting board on your living room table, and you put a small washboard in the living room also! You are giving me such good ideas, as I have both of these items! You mentioned you were able to order the same curtains that you had gotten several years before! I had bought curtains for a new room we were building on to our home but one thing led to another and I never put them up. Twelve years later I decided to use them in another room but I needed one more pair. The store had gone out of business so I looked on eBay and found the exact curtains!
Looks lovely…like you have been there for a long time…is that a plant in the bird cage?You and yours have done a wonderful job..all the canvases are beautiful..cannot make out the one to the right of the fireplace…love blowing things up to see every detail…I have been going back and reading your old posts..learning more about your life…so enjoy it all..continued blessings 💞
Brenda, you asked, Don’t the curtains look great? Yes they do, and not only that, EVERYTHING looks great. I love how everything has come together, and just seems made for this room. You truly are a decorating Wizard…So warm, so cozy, so Brenda!
Perfect…………