50 Shades of Blue (and Gray)

Living Room

I’ve always wanted to decorate a room with shades of turquoise and blue—in fact there is a very specific color that I always see and admire when roaming the aisles of HomeGoods, scouring over catalogs, and perusing Pinterest.  A few months before I bought my condo, I bought this glass vase from Hobby Lobby:

Original Color Palette Inspiration

 I chose this color and various shades to star in the color palette of my living room, with gray as a secondary color.  The condo has relatively new gray carpeting, so this was something that I wanted to keep for now.  Bonus is that shades of blues go well with gray!

My design goal for this room was to keep the room simple and modern.  A new couch was the first purchase I made; I’ve never actually owned my own couch before this purchase and have survived for the past couple years in apartments with a tan leather love seat I bought with babysitting money in middle school.  (That’s right—I was the kind of kid in middle school who saved her money for a leather loveseat.)  As much as I love that piece, it doesn't lend itself well to entertaining when it's the biggest seating area in your living room.  Then again, it forces you to get cozy with your guests ;)

I visited most of the furniture stores in the tristate area, and finally found a gorgeous gray sectional at Macy’s Furniture that fit exactly the style, comfort, and price range for which I was seeking.  What I love about this piece is that it has an expansive amount of seating, the gray back pillows aren’t secured in place so I can switch them around, and the chaise section can be moved around as well.  The day I found the sectional couch, I stumbled upon the light blue/green loveseat that introduces the color palette of the room.  

 

Macy's Sectional (The standing lamp is from Ikea)

Macy's Loveseat and Sectional and HomeGoods Blue Lamp

The pillows on the couch are from various stores in the area and mix both a laid back style (the blue patterned pillow) and a fancier (the light teal) style.  The light teal pillows were actually a find of my mother’s (who has been my ultimate style/project guru throughout this process) from our favorite project location—Hobby Lobby! (Download the Hobby Lobby app and get 40% off any item per visit!) The pillows also helped bring the different shades of blue into the room.

When reading articles on interior design, several mentioned finding an “Interest Piece” that’s odd or interesting to pull the eye into the style of the room and initiate conversation, while making your room unique.  My “Interest Piece” is a lamp in the front corner from Ikea. It stands on a tall silver post and I love the crazy LED light arms—you can move them around to different angles, and they cast a really cool glow at night.  They also mirror the trees that you can see right outside the window, which is an opportunity to pull in the natural design of the view out my windows! (Thank you to Kelly and John for paying attention to my design plans for weeks and bringing the lamp as a gift the week of my closing! This makes it only that much more special of a piece in my room). You can see it while sitting on the gray sectional couch.

Close Up of my "Interest Piece"

 The glass table in the middle of the room and the glass side table I bought four years ago at Value City, and they work well in this room.  Their edging helps continue the blue theme in the room, and glass helps make the room look bigger.  The blue glass lamp on the glass side table was also quite the hunt to track down.  I finally found the perfect shape and color at HomeGoods and especially love the modern look of the shade. 

Take a look at a BEFORE SHOT of what the room looked like (decorated by the previous owner) and a similar camera angle of AFTER shots of my room:

BEFORE shot of the previous owner's room

 

AFTER shots and a peak into the kitchen

More later on other pieces of the living room—the bar, painting, black ladder shelf, and glass cabinet have unique stories of their own :)

Love,

Shannon