I was going to label this post "de-flowering the living room" but somehow that just didn't sound right.

When I first moved into our 1880's Victorian fixer-upper, 17 years ago, I went more with the traditional Victorian style, though it's really not me. (I left a modern kahki/black/white decor  with Ansel Adam photos and even a black laquer table) I love our home, and won't change the floral wallpapered (very Victorian) formal dining room, but I'm definitely ready for a (cheap!) change in our family room/eat-in kitchen. I have a long range plan in mind that, because of both time and finances will have to be implemented in increments. I got a good start this weekend and got rid of the flowers. Yay!!

Here is the before:

And here is the "in progress" . I took down both the valances. The wallpaper in the bookcases was painted over in yellow. (Looks brighter in the picture than it is) I exchanged the floral rug and "lost' the floral wing chair.

The valances I chose for the smaller windows won't work so I need to come up with something different. I'd love to use the fabric in the placemats (below) but that didn't work. I'll probably do some kind of roman or roller shade. I will paint the green moulding white to match the rest of the house.

The bookcases are to be a dark chocolate, but the hardware store mixed two gallons for me - both of which turned out like chocolate milk. Not what I'm wanting. Oh well, I'll do those later. Snafu's are just part of the experience. :-)  I am also going to paint the top of the coffee table dark chocolate.

The green in the bookcases is actually doable, but I'm trying to get away from the hunter green/burgundy thing. Moving more to a chili pepper red/sage green/creamy yellow with the dark brown. You can't really see them but there are now large, chocolate brown (SUPER cushy) pillows on the couches. Eventually, I'd like to switch out the painting above the fireplace for a large architectural detail. I'll have to wait until I find something I like, though.

Another before:

And here is the "in progress":  I do now have ONE brown panel hanging from the window. lol I bought very rich, chocolate brown super thin-wale courderoy panels but they were too short. I returned them and they only had ONE long enough panel in stock. I bought it and the other is on raincheck. The one does look nice, though. lol I really loved the curtains above when I made them. I'm just really ready for something more clean and modern.

The colors in the placemats are what I'm moving toward. I'd like dh to make a large oval mdf tabletop to fit over this one, making it larger than what it is. I'll paint the table, eventually, too.

I've still got a long way to go (and who knows when I'll next have a chance to do anything) but I do like it much better, already. I'll keep you updated as I make progress.