Updates To Our Living Room

Hi everyone!  I want to share some recent updates we've made in our living room.  I showed some pictures of our living room back in February, with a few snowmen here and there. The snowmen are packed away for another year, and I've replaced them with some rabbits.  I have a fondness for rabbits -- you can tell I don't have a vegetable garden.  :)

The bigger changes I wanted to share are what we've done around our piano, including new window treatments.  For years, I displayed about four or five accessories on top of our piano.  A treasured plate from my sister, a baby picture of our son, a Royal Doulton vase, and a few other items adorned that spot. 

I don't have a picture of the piano as it was at that time.  There was nothing wrong with the way it was, but at some point, I just wanted a change.  I decided the room needed a touch of silver.  I had lots of good black and white family photos, and so I set about getting silver frames for them to be displayed on the piano.

In addition, I wanted to hang something different on the wall above the piano.  This is what I had there for 16 years.  This picture was taken at Christmas, so I had ceramic Christmas carolers on the piano, but you can see the swag that hung on the wall at the time.

My mom made the Christmas carolers, by the way.  We had them in our house when I was growing up, and I always loved them.  The swag over the piano was made for us by my husband's grandmother when we lived in our house in Greensboro.  It's still beautiful, and I'm one of those people who has a hard time getting rid of things, so I'll keep it and perhaps put it in our guest bedroom one day.

This picture shows you the curtains we had in the living room previously.  My mother-in-law made these for the living room in our Greensboro home.  The room had four good-sized windows, and she made four valances for us.  I've always loved that pretty chintz pattern.  I think this may have even been a Waverly fabric; I'm not positive.  She chose it to coordinate with our sofa and chair.  Here's a picture of the sofa from this past winter --

Anyway, my mom-in-law did a great job on these curtains.  When I told her I was getting new curtains (these are about 20 years old) she told me I had gotten the goody out of these and to just throw them away.  Huh?!  These curtains are still in excellent condition, and this little pack rat won't be throwing them away.  Besides that, I'm sentimental about things that people make for me.  :)

So here is our new look...

What do you think?  I got our drapes from Country Curtains, and I'm really pleased with them.  They're a linen/cotton blend, and they're lined so they have a nice weight.  I really would have loved to have one of their beautiful floral patterns, but since our sofa has a chintz floral pattern, I had to go with a solid curtain panel.  No problem -- I've wanted floor-length drapes for ages, so I couldn't be happier.

This is a close-up of the curtain panel.  It was hard to capture the color exactly in these pictures; the color looks different in each one.  I like the small embroidered sunburst pattern.  It looks like dots from a distance -- just enough pattern to add interest.

You can see I replaced the swag over the piano with an antique painting that belonged to my maternal grandparents. The portrait is of Jenny Lind, the Swedish opera singer.  This is the piano I practiced on growing up in my parents' house, and this same painting hung over the piano in my parents' living room.  When we put this up after Christmas, my mom said it looks like it belongs here.  We used to have it hanging over our bed, but we got a taller bed, and the picture wouldn't fit there anymore.  I really like it here in our living room.

The other recent addition to this room is the piano bench.  My husband's grandmother made the cover for her piano bench years ago, and when she went into a retirement home, she gave most of her treasured items to family members.  She gave her piano to her church, and we just switched piano benches.  I gave her my bench to go with her piano, and I think her bench goes beautifully with our piano.

Isn't this beautiful needlework?  I'm so proud to have this -- it's a real treasure!

My husband's grandmother also made this footstool, which she gave us many years ago.

Our black and white family photos...

...and my sweet rabbits that I found at a local gift shop.  They're from the Bearington Collection.  My mom crocheted the afghan on the back of the chair for us.

So that's our little living room metamorphosis.

Thanks so much for your visit; I love your visits and comments!  I'm joining:

Susan for Metamorphosis Monday
Cindy for Amaze Me Monday
Marti for Inspire Me Tuesday
Patti and Paula for What's It Wednesday
Kim for Wow Us Wednesdays
Katherine for Thursday Favorite Things
Kathy for Home and Garden Thursday
The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday

Denise