The Heart of the House

Note to Self: Remember to post pix of the kids rooms later cause they're finished and fabulous!

For now though, I just need some visualization for my next project - the living room/entryway

Its taken me a while to settle on some suitable accent tables for the house on the whole. The living room is a generous size and I want to keep it that way by avoiding bulky tables, especially since I have the oversized couch set.
A few more interior ideas I have are to mix up the shapes of the tables, along with the woods and other materials. I no longer subscribe to the practice of matchy matchy furniture. There's just too many beautiful pieces of furniture out there to relegate one's self to one color or one set style. I want nearly everything to be a conversation piece. I want a room that will have at least one thing that appeals to everyone - while my job is to love it all. Another thing I want to be aware of is to not concentrate one just one style of metalwork. My living room is overlooked by my kitchen which has lovely stainless steel appliances. I also have large shiny aluminum wall decor pieces along with nickle window treatment hardware. Additionally, I have quite a few wall accent pieces that are bronzed scrollwork. I've decided to use both in conjunction, and as long as one is not significantly more than the other I think it will all turn out looking like a cohesive space. As well, I'm finally taking the jump to incorporate more red accents to both spaces (a bunch of my kitchen stuff was already red). The whole idea behind my color scheme was the different colors of chili/peppers. I'm just keeping the red to a minimum is all but my shiny cayenne red Kitchenaid mixer is throwing everything off and thats not going anywhere! LOL

This is what my living room looks like in the "before" phase (this was one month after moving in)

I've since added one rug but outside of that, everything is mostly the same.

This is the coffee table I have in mind (this mangowood low-profile round carved table from West Elm - $299)

I snatched up a pair of these tables for the sides of the big couch and the matching console to fill up space along one section of the wall (all on sale I might add). Just something simple and functional

Above that table I plan on hanging this 30 inch gold hammered metal charger ($99 from IO Metro)

I got two of these beautiful chocolate abaca/rattan wingback chairs to round out the room along the bare wall (the graciosa chair from Pier One $299 ea.). I ordered the neutral cushions as well (they don't look that white in person).

For each chair, I'm getting this "rust" red silk pillow for back cushioning - one for added comfort and two for more color tie in ($29 ea from IO Metro)

 To bring in more shiny elements, I plan on placing this aluminum side table ($199 from IO Metro) between the two to add interest and break up all the dark

Above this new seating area, I've hung this frame gallery that I got from Red Envelope ($99). It's nice because the hardware is the same shiny aluminum type metal so, yet again another tie in. They make a slightly smaller version of this gallery and I plan on getting three of them to hang along the stairway going up.

THIS right here! THIS ISH right here.. is my goal entryway table. It's the Sheffield Bar/Cart from Pottery Barn and I think even with the greatest sale it'll still run me around $1650 (Retails for $1499 but of course I'll need a pair of the $99 wire baskets to round it out for this look). I told the husband I expect to have it in my clutches by next year.

In the meantime, I'm getting this simple piece from Overstock (buying it tonight! The price went down from $162 to $145 from the last time I looked at it! Score!). I'll re-purpose it elsewhere when I have my money money sheffield cart.

Also from overstock to end my accent table bonanza, is this tiered piece to put along the side of my chair & 1/2. I pray it's darker in person.

So I'm poised and ready to buy it all, just waiting for one of the lovely side-effects of Memorial Day - SALES!