New lights!

Hi again friends,

You might remember that I shared earlier this week that I was in Virginia last week visiting my mom with the kids. I left my husband at home to work and tackle his 'Honey Do List' that I left him. I wanted to share one of the many things that he tackled last week. He changed out the light in our living room. We had a simple Half Dome Ceiling Light that was pretty hum drum. He switched it out for this beautiful green and clear glass chandelier from Pottery Barn.

This room needed some sparkle and it got it!

The vibe that I am going for in this room is Coastal Cottage Chic:

I recently took this small starfish pillow from the family room and decided to let it stay in the living room for now. I think it looks good in here:

Notice the sweet watercolor that Steve brought back from his Camino Santiago walk in Spain:

Recently I was talking to a dear friend on the phone who lives in Ohio and is an awesome photographer. She shared with me that if you want to have bad light in a room, paint the ceiling a color other than white. It finally made sense to me why the pictures that I take on the first floor of our house are always so dark! The ceilings are painted a coffee color! The light will always be dark in these rooms until we paint the ceilings white. We might bite the bullet and hire a professional to paint the whole first floor eventually since it would involve painting the ceilings. We are waffling between a soft blue (which we always tend to gravitate towards) or maybe we'll spice it up a bit and go with a warmer, bolder medium shade of blue but definitely with white ceilings. We love the blue paint that Claire and Phil have in their hallway/entry way on the show Modern Family (you never know where you'll receive inspiration from!):

Our coffee colored ceilings which translate to poor pictures (no surface for the light to reflect on/ the warm coffee colors soaks up the light instead of reflecting it- hey, now I am glad that I learned something teaching that fifth grade science unit on light!):

What's left to do in the room:

1. Add a soft blue and green 5 X 8 rug.

2. Find something to place on the wall above the two gingham tan chairs.

3. Put the new chandelier on a dimmer switch. I am crazy about dimmer switches and think just about every room in your house should have this option to control the lighting.

Happy decorating & living to you-

Megan

megan@cottagebluedesigns.com