We met the neighbors behind directly behind us the other day, and they are a nice young couple who put recently just put in a chicken coup! I am so envious of their chickens, as I’ve been asking Chris if we could do this for months. I mean, I don’t plan to clean the chicken coup – that would be Chris’ job – but his excuse for not building me one is that it will be too big of a mess. I’m hoping Tommy and Dani (our neighbors) make it look clean and appealing enough for Chris.
We’ve been discussing our home exterior more and more as the weather turns warmer, but there is still much to do on
the interior. And while that’s the case, I’ll share a few photos of our living room. First, I should mention that every room in our house (except the kitchen) was a yellow/beige color. And not the pretty kind of yellow/beige (if that even exists). So when deciding how to decorate the living Chris suggested we just paint over the color, and I’m SO glad he did.
After painting our ceiling and walls, the biggest obstacle was covering our hideous eye-sore of a swamp cooler. If you’re not from Colorado (or another state with an arid environment) you most likely don’t know what a swamp cooler is. It’s basically an evaporative cooler that cools air through the evaporation of water. Despite my overwhelming desire to desire to take it out of the wall, I know I’ll be thankful for it in the summer time. So with the help of my brother’s wife’s mother (I know you had to think about that for a second) and her creative catering and party planning friend, I was able to successfully cover my ugly swamp cooler AND put together a few items I already had to semi-complete our living room.
Can you guess where the swamp cooler is?? It’s behind the big map. Yeah – that’s how big it is. I purchased several maps from http://www.paper-source.com for $4 a piece, put poster board behind it ($.25), attached magnets ($2) and snapped it onto the swamp cooler (I should mention that the swamp cooler cover is metal). The additional frames surrounding the swamp cooler are map from our travels, money from our travels and a collage made by a very special person.
I should also mention our unusual pendant lamp. Our living room is dark and in need of all the light it can get. A hanging light was definitely the best option, but I definitely did not want to pay a lot of money for one. So, the solution was a $5 pendant light chord from Ikea, an awesome vintage lightbulb we found in our basement and a $3 lamp shade from Goodwill that I ripped the cover from. I covered the metal of the lampshade with yarn and the light chord with twine. And voilà – a $10 hanging lamp. We still need to hide the chord coming down the wall and hide the wall outlet with a floor plant. But those are minor details…
On to my favorite piece in the living room – our dresser turned TV stand! I 
LOVE this dresser. There’s an adorable mid-modern furniture store down the street from my house that was having a 50% off sale; so I got this gem for $75. It took a little convincing for Chris to go for it, but he did and I don’t think he regrets it.
We don’t ever want the TV to be center of our living room or our lives. But we do enjoy watching SNL and, Chris, the occasional baseball game, so we do own a TV. Among the globe I found at a flee market and Chris’ field guides (including Rocky Mountain Scats and Tracks) held between the extremely heavy jade lions he brought back from China – the TV isn’t much of a centerpiece. Also, above the TV are a couple other maps I bought for $4 and attached to poster board.
Lastly, can’t have a map themed room without some vintage luggage. Chris’ mom and grandma were here a couple weeks ago and seemed very puzzled that I would use these as decoration – since they use them for traveling. Oh well. Not everyone can get my decorating style. But I will tell you that the adorable blue vanity case is hiding diapers and wipes for a convenient changing station in the living room.
So these are the living room highlights! Again, the house is still work in progress but Chris and I are slowly making it our home.
Life and Olive Oil 