Welcome to the main living area of our home where all the action is. It has 2 sets of French doors flanking the fireplace which is over 22″ high. I know this because my ladder is 22″ and I could barely reach the top! There are also 2 beautiful arched windows above the French doors allowing for floor to ceiling views of the mountains.

This room had really good bones to begin with.  It had an overall yellowish color which I knew I would change.  Our former house was all painted Moonshine – a pale gray- and I knew I wanted to use the same color in here.  The color Moonshine feels like home to us.

There were 2 oak built-ins in the room which felt really dated to me.  There was a wet bar which I painted Charcoal, changed the hardware and used stained wood planks to cover the mirror. There’s already a whole blog post on the wet bar project in the archives.

This is how the wet bar looked when we came through with the realtor.

I attempted to make the best of it with our decor. More oak than I liked so….

After the bar was painted and how it appears today.  I kept the wood planks a natural tone as well as the sides.  So.much.better.

There was also a built-in oak desk that felt dated. I painted it Charcoal, changed the hardware and kept the desk top and inset of the desk original wood tone. I like to carry out similar themes within rooms that are within eyesight for continuity and cohesiveness. There’s a post in the archives for the desk project.

GREAT ROOM

✅Paint bar CHARCOAL

✅Paint desk CHARCOAL

✅Replace all can light rings

✅Replace 2 yellowed swivel lights over fireplace

✅Clean out fireplace

✅Paint exterior stone on fireplace

✅Paint inside firebox

✅Remove glass doors/screens on fireplace

-New Gas fireplace insert

✅Paint entire room MOONSHINE

-replace carpet with wood floors

Painting the stone fireplace with a gray wash made a huge difference in making it feel lighter, brighter and more modern.  I’m drawn to cool tones and the stones had brown and orange hues.  It was a much bigger project than I realized mostly because it was huge – over 22′ tall!

Immediately after painting the stone fireplace I was fixated on the yellowed rings around the recessed lighting as well as the swivel spot lights above the fireplace.   The entire main floor needed the rings replaced and I think I bought 27 which wasn’t enough.  It’s an easy swap and erased the aged look.

There were 2 swivel spot lights above the fireplace that were yellow.  That was another level of scary 22′ in the air trying to let go with both hands to remove the old and replace with new.  I hope we never have to replace them again.

The next major project in the main living area was to paint the entire space.  A snow storm was coming in one week around Easter and I stocked up on my favorite gray- Moonshine by Benjamin Moore.   I bought an awesome ladder that extends up to 22′ and it was my best friend.   A couple of days on the ladder and the room was our favorite color again.

We did move the tv from this location in May. The sun coming in from the high arched windows created too much glare.   Currently a large mirror about the same size as the tv is hanging in this location.

We ended up moving our office into the dining room and made the office a smaller living area with the tv.  It was originally set up as a formal living area space when we toured the house with the realtor so I guess we are now using the room as it’s originally intended (just not as formal).

What’s still on the list? Just 2 more items I think! The fireplace has a natural gas line and we used it to burn wood last winter mostly for ambiance vs actual heat.  We needed to purchase a new gas insert for the fireplace downstairs for actual warmth so we decided to wait until this coming winter to buy a gas insert for the main floor.

Replacing the carpet with wood floors remains on the list for down the road.  I’ve been debating how to handle to transition from existing wood in the kitchen area to the living room.  As of now I’m planning to change the wood direction into a herringbone for the main living room.

For almost 11 months in the house a lot has been done to make it feel like ours.  The vast amount of windows provide views of the mountains from any seat in the room. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching all 4 seasons through the looking glass ❤️Hope the many projects in the great room sparked some ideas for you!