At Last...My Glam has Come Along

So here's the rest of the scoop on my revamped living room (just months after my cheap revamp in, ahem...November). I felt super sheepish about this because I thought you'd conclude that I have decorating attention deficit disorder (which I might), but back in November I was trying to ramp up the glam and found it kept falling flat. I couldn't understand it, so I studied Pinterest photos of glamorous rooms (ones that incorporated gold successfully) and you know what I found? A lot less brown. My tan rug and my wooden palette coffee table were really holding me back. 

For any of you who decorate on the cheap, you know this is bad news. NOT the RUG!!!  Large rugs are expensive, the trendy knock-off people haven't gotten their act together, and I live in Nebraska where pickin's are slim. If you spread your horizons through the wonder of internet shopping, there's the added cost of shipping. This might not be so bad if you only had to pay for its trip one way, but I have personally rejected two rugs when they arrived at my house, so I got to pay for their round trip. Not cool. One rug was a different color in person and the other was a wool Dhurrie rug that didn't meet my standards for quality. Which are not super high, but these rug makers didn't bother to sew the vertical places where the two colors met, just the horizontal. You could poke a finger through in these places. Hence my inner quaking when I realized the living room (which in all its parts houses two tan rugs) needed a new color. 

The silver lining (which I was straining to see) was I wanted a different size rug for the fireplace side of the living room as well. Ever since the bookcases took up less room than the piano, I've wanted to expand the seating area, but the 5x7 rug seemed undersized. So two birds with one stone? I hoped so.

I set my maximum budget at $200 and started looking. I've never had luck with Craig's list, so it was with a dismal, "I guess I'll give it a shot..." mindset that I typed in 8x10 rug. And up popped a beautiful, yes, beautiful ivory rug with grey and silvery lines running through it. Subtle lines that would look just peachy under some Gatsby-worthy, gold coffee table footsies. I paid $175 for this beauty and still can't believe how easy it was. 

I decided to use my ottoman as a coffee table until I found my dream golden coffee table and a couple days later, I found these two end tables at Goodwill with glass tops. I liked their shape and thought they'd look lovely scooched together. I had a rectangular piece of glass cut long ago for the wicker chest in our family room but don't use it because we store blankets inside and it's too hard to get to them. I paid $20 for each end table, so my golden coffee table cost me $40 minus the $10 I made selling their original tops at a garage sale! With the coffee table and rug in place, I got a some colorful accessories and the glamour came home. 

The plate above kick-started this color scheme. I fell in love with it and wanted to look at it every day. I put it on my coffee table long before it went with anything, and looked through color schemes until I found it with pink and (to keep things exciting) chartreuse. Grounding these colors with lots of grey and cream keeps things feeling calm enough for me. This was outside my comfort zone, with the glitz and brighter colors, but I'm enjoying it on a daily basis.

This peaking owl cracks me up! Here's what I've added to the room recently: chartreuse owl, grey ball, pink alabaster candy dish, chartreuse vase, turquoise planter(?), the chartreuse throw blanket, and two pillows I made out of that great leopard print (from Hobby Lobby). Everything was second hand except the owl, the blanket and the planter/bowl thing, which were from TJMaxx. 

Here's what I'd still like to do in this room:

• Transform the mirror into a gold, sunburst mirror
• Make my lamp on the mantel look like it's dipped in gold
• Replace one of the pillows on the couch (since it looks like it didn't quite make it to the color party)

   

And one final shot with my favorite fake flowers I snatched from the dining room table. Even with my little list of things to do, this room feels pretty perfect to me. I love to sit in here. What room do you like sitting in most? What look do you keep trying for and not reaching? I'd love to hear!