Before & After: The Living Room {Christmas Edition}

We've finally gotten all the boxes unpacked or put away in our attic and I'm slowly getting everything situated one room at a time. Right now, the house is decorated for Christmas, so once we take the tree down, we'll have to do some rearranging here and there. Eventually, I would like to replace the mini blinds with nice wooden roman shades. We had them in the old barn-house and I loved them. We've also talked about opening up the space between the living room and kitchen. Patrick wants to knock most of the existing wall out and put in a 6 ft. bar. I would like to just make a large cutout and have a breakfast bar. I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to come to an agreement because it will be quite a while from now before we start any big projects - and we'll probably tackle the outside stuff first.

{Before}

 {After}

Yarn lampshade (idea from martha) on thrift store lamp... total cost $12.

 I wanted our tree to have a very organic meets vintage glitter feel, so I searched all over for clear and iridescent glass balls (which I found at Hobby Lobby) and topped the tree with this pretty white bird. I used glass icicles I already owned and mercury glass nut and pine cone ornaments that my mom gave me. I wish I could have gotten a better picture of the tree because it is so much prettier in person!

**I wanted to mention that my wonderful husband did every bit of the painting himself and did a wonderful job! I can tell he has definitely learned quite a bit of patience over the past three years. I can only imagine it would have something to do with this little guy...