Kitchen done, Living next

Well now it's been a while since I posted about our renovations. That's because it's gotten dull after the excitement of our new kitchen.

The next interesting job was the living room. I wanted to go for a fairly neutral look, by my standards, (which really just means not painting everything red and gold for once) that showed off the interesting ceiling lines and simple modernness of the room, while still honouring my maximalist tendencies.

MrC had already painted it before we moved in, on account of the huckery wallpaper.Before - this frieze and wallpaper combo was actually worse than it looks in the photo...

The wooden curtain rods had to go too. I'm not opposed to them entirely, but while this wee house may be cute, it is undeniably modern in style and line, and such cutie pie touches do not belong within it! So, curtains also gone. In their place, we put plain calico roman blinds, coincidentally from the exact same fabric. Not my first choice, but on account of the World's Loudest Wallpaper, I chose something simple, for once. HOWEVER, there is only so much simple a gal can take, so the blinds have rods and swags to frame them, which I finished today. This is the finished result:

This shot shows the end of the living room next to the kitchen. The WLW is only on the end and side wall there - a little goes a long way. The swags are of the most delicious slub-stripe fabric with a hint of metallic on one side, and a taffeta-like shot fabric on the other. We've just wound them loosely around the rods, which are gorgeous antique brass ones with cage finails. I love the effect, but am contemplating adding tassles to the end drops.... I know, I can't stop. I am a maximalist, and more is more!
We had lined up a fabric and wallpaper combo originally that was far less eye-catching, but having found the WLW while out buying paint recently, it has been relegated to some future do-up of the office and workroom.
I do sometimes wonder if being able to make one's own soft furnishings is a false economy. I fairly regularly buy two or three fabrics for just one room before committing, instead of paying through the nose for someone else to make them once. Still, the fabrics that get "Klummed" (our word for things that get rejected, c/o Project Runway) generally end up being sold for a good price, or redesignated to other projects.