Living Room: Before and After

We got a call from a British TV show last week, asking if they could feature Lilly's YouTube video on one of their episodes. Of course we agreed. We never say no to those kind of things. The next day they asked if they could come to our house and do an interview to add to the video. Of course we agreed. We never say no to those kind of things either.

Then I started freaking out.

"My house is so UGLY!" I thought. "I can't have a TV station come and FILM in my ugly living room!" So I batted my eyes...like this...*bat, bat, bat* and I puckered up my lips...like this...*pucker, pucker, pucker* (okay, okay, enough Sebastian jokes...) and I smiled a cute (and somewhat cunning) smile to James and told him that I loved him SOOOO much...and asked him if I could paint the living room before they come film the interview. That was on Thursday. The interview was the following Wednesday (today). I realize that's almost a full week to complete the project, but having 3 kids throws a whole lot more dimensions to the project. Trust me.

Being the WONDERFUL husband that he is, he obliged to let me paint the living room. (He claims he got the better end of the deal, considering he had to do minimal painting. I completely agree with him.) So, he went to school on Saturday with the living room looking like this.


Please pardon the mess, and especially the orphan-looking children watching Hercules. I had just started taking down wall decorations and curtains and stuff when I thought that I had better take some pictures or I would have to do another "House Fixes" blog post without any "before" pictures. And, yes, my kids watched a whole lot more than just Hercules.

Unfortunately he did not come home from school with the living room completely transformed. But I worked at it as much as I could and I did make a lot of progress relatively quickly. (Remember, I have 3 kids!) To make a long story short(er), here are some pictures of the living room when the camera man showed up this morning.





I realize that the "before" pics show a messy room and the "after" pics show a clean room. However, I hope they also show how much better my living room looks! I can't believe how much of a difference a little paint can make. Seriously. If you want to do something cheap that will totally transform your blah-looking house...PAINT! For about $25 you can totally make your house a happy place to be! (BTW, I recommend Lowe's Valspar paint. Like it more than Home Depot's Behr.)

(Funny) Side story...I also added a new TV stand to the decor. I got it at Target. (I LOVE Target!) I went to get it down from the shelf and it was a LOT heavier than I expected. But I managed to get it into the cart and everything, all by myself. (You should be impressed.) When I took it out to the car, I was going to do an easy "slide" it out of the cart and into the car, as I couldn't actually heft it. Well, luckily no one was in the parking lot to see me totally tip the entire shopping cart over as the box came crashing onto the car seat! And, by the way, shopping carts are a lot harder to stand upright once they've fallen. Avoid tipping a shopping cart at all costs.

I love my new TV stand. It matches the rest of my living room furniture, and it looks great. Plus, the TV used to be on what is supposed to be a coffee table, so now I can use my coffee table as a coffee table. I think that's one of the things that makes my living room feel like a "real" living room now, not just a "we're-students-so-we-use-what-furniture-we-can-find" kind of living room.

Did I mention I really like my living room? Maybe I'll sleep there tonight.

Oh yeah...the interview went great.