It's really, really nice! So comfortable and welcoming, all your choices came together perfectly. I think you should post some "before" pics for people who haven't followed your journey to this wonderful end.

For kicks, here is are some before pictures:

What a wonderful transformation!!! Looks terrific.

Everything came together beautifully! Enjoy your new space!

It's light and airy and pretty, and cozy and warm and homey, all at once, so inviting! Especially love the ceiling, and the textiles (on the wall quilt, the rug, and on the furniture), the mix of furnishings that are all YOURS, the colors, and the loss of the "boob lights" lol, and enchanted with the display on the armoire. Lovely! Thank you for sharing!

It looks comfortable and very inviting. Good job!

Well done!

Beautiful! The lighting is a little bright for the pictures but I am going to check out the wall color. Does it read neutral/warm tan? I love, love, love your ceiling!

what do you think of the solar shades? do they cut down on glare? it doesn't look like it. do you have them down at night? does it take away from the black hole look?

The shades have only been up since Saturday afternoon, so I'm still evaluating them, but so far I can say that while they block much of the glare, they don't eliminate it. : ( But they're a lot better than the awful vertical blinds that they replaced! I'll try to pay attention to the black holeness tonight, but I'm pretty sure they'll take care of that issue.

The lighting is a little bright for the pictures but I am going to check out the wall color. Does it read neutral/warm tan?

I think it reads pretty neutral. The nice thing about the samples of this color at Wal Mart is that they come in 8.5 x 11 sheets that you can peel and stick right to your wall. So, you should be able to get a good read of it to see if it will work in your own space.

Thank you so much for your kind, warm, generous, and encouraging words, all of you! And, thank you for all the help along the way as I wrestled with what direction to take this room.

Laughable, it's so warm and inviting. I want to take a cup of coffee or glass of wine and curl up with a book or friend. I love your ceiling!!

"It's light and airy and pretty, and cozy and warm and homey, all at once, so inviting!" Yes. I could veg there very happily.

Your room looks cozy and comfortable. Congratulations on the transformation!

If you hadn't included a before, I was going to search for one. What a beautiful difference. I think that ceiling is masterful with the other decor. Sorry pup is bored with it all.

Here is a night shot of the smaller solar shade; no black hole. I haven't gone outside to see what's visible from out there yet, since privacy isn't much of a concern here.

Laughable, bravo. This room is so "you," or as I imagine you to be as a virtual peep. Well done!

You did a fabulous job Laughable! I particularly like the vignette with the trunks, blue &whites and other things. And the pooch! All so lovely and totally charming.

I'd love to see what can be seen through the shades from outside at night. I was just looking at those today. It's unfortunate they don't eliminate glare...I would think they would. We're considering solar shades for our office & formal dining room which face southwest and are also in the front of our house.

Very nice. The ceiling is so cozy and warm. The plant is perfect, the rug is so pretty, love your porcelain collection..and I really love your ottoman. It looks so alive, with these legs:)

Needless to say I love the dog..he's tired after you worked to put it together:) So sweet.

Wow, it looks wonderful! I honestly like it all very much. It's nice to see furniture that isn't white or real dark. I know you mentioned art but I think it looks done. Enjoy your new room!

I am going to check the color out for my walls. I HATE WalMart but I will go get the sample to paste on the wall and check it out. Thank you!

I might consider that ceiling in my family room.....it is gorgeous!

Bright, cosy, welcoming and well worth the wait I'm sure! I love it, Laughable :)

What an inviting room to relax and read or chat or have a nap. You made it shine.

It really is so attractive and comfortable looking. I really like your colours, warm but bright, in the rug, walls, and hanging quilt - great choices!

I love everything! It looks like such a cozy and welcoming space. The colours work beautifully. I really enjoyed following along on your journey in this room, it has turned out to be lovely and so personal.

Gee, it's sooo pretty and comfortable looking. You knocked it out of the park with your design savvy.

It looks great!!

You all are so generous with your comments, thank you. I went out tonight and took pictures so you could see what the solar shades look like from outdoors in the dark. The yard drops off significantly, so this was as close as I could get. (No chance of hiding behind these shades!) If you look carefully you can see the shade and curtain on the picture window as well as the lamps.

Here is the planked ceiling, the unlit ceiling light and fan. Hth!

I think you've done an incredible job, and it's my belief that the right rug helped you to pull it all together. The before and after pictures are amazing. The room is cohesive, relaxing and has a country elegance. There are two things I would consider, and that would be to paint the raw wood colored cabinet in the corner white to match the bookcases on the other side and, possibly, to remove the quilt and hang some art there since it would be a great space for that. I know you were inquiring about what to do with the area by the TV on another thread and wonder whether the quilt could be hung there, behind the lamp and plant. That would free the other wall for a picture gallery with some original and colorful artwork. There are many sources for art work but I've found that original art by the artists and by dealers without frames is very reasonable on e-bay. I could really picture a group of frameless oil paintings in that area.

Thanks Ingrid! Yes, the rug was the finishing touch, but the green couches, toile and ticking fabric we're what I ended up using as a guide for the room's colors. We painted, and then about a week or two later, found the rug. When I saw its colors I was pretty sure it was "the one." Working around these green couches, which I do really like, was a bug bear! I can see why people go with white or dark couches. Having couches as a colorful midtone presented challenges I wasn't anticipating. I felt like I was on a steep learning curve trying to get everything to work together. It was fun and exasperating, all rolled up into one.

I have considered painting the pine cupboard, but always chickened out. DH built it as a pantry cabinet for our previous home, and we fully intended to paint it, but I'm one of those that also likes wood grain, so this is as far as it got. Just the other day I started to think again about painting it, but wasn't sure what color. White would be easy enough. : )

Ack, I too thought about hanging the quilt behind the tv, and then decided to have DH hang it where it is now, which was no easy feat with this tough as nails beadboard. Maybe artwork could go around the tv instead? Now that our decorating decisions are winding down, maybe I should pick up painting or drawing again (a little intimidating-it's been a while!)

I love this room! It looks so welcoming and comfortable. I too, especially love the rug. The color palette is all so perfect together. I would have never guessed it was a Home Depot purchase. All of your pieces look currarated over time. It's impressive that they are from budget friendly stores. What is the lighted branch on your tall corner piece with the duck? Does it plug in or battery operated? I live it and am looking for something like that. Enjoy your new room!

Lovely room. Please tell me more about the LVP- what brand/ color and where did you get. I'm on a slab and am seriously considering these for the whole house. I already have them in my sunken living room and love them.

Thank you. It had to be budget friendly, or not at all. ; ) Most of the furniture and decor is from thrift stores, yard sales, or Craigslist, except for the secretary desk, which belonged to my grandparents. They allowed me to take it to school to be refinished as a high school art project, and then Grandad gifted it to me for graduation, so that's one piece that's quite special to me. They never realized how beautiful it was underneath it's sticky brown finish until we redid it.

The lights are sometimes called "rice lights" and they have a brown cord. They are electric. I ordered This set from Amazon.. We're on our 3rd set of various lights in about 5 years, but I enjoy them so much I leave them on all the time and replace them when they die. The branches that they are intermingled with is an imitation "bittersweet swag". Mine is from a local shop that carries primitives, but they can be found online, too. I think it's 5 or 6' long if stretched out to its full length.

I'll try to track down the exact flooring info, Jesshs.

Now I'm interested in solar shades. Did you get Splendor White? What is the 5%? I'm looking at their Signature series on their site and don't see anything about it. I like that I could order 'light gap blockers'. I have 2" white blinds in our living room and I can't stand the light gap at the top! For the large window, you have one long one that stretches across, right? Do you raise and lower it daily? How is it holding up? Can you see out while they're down?

These are the Signature Solar Shades. We got Monterey Cloud White in 5%. That means, iirc, that they are supposed to block 95% of the uv rays from coming through. 10% shades would block 90% of the uv rays, etc. Darker shades are supposed to give you a better view, but we weren't crazy about the thought of seeing the long, tube-like roller at the top when the shades were rolled up. The white virtually disappears into our molding. (They sell a matching valance, but to me, that looked cheesy.)

We didn't order light gap blockers, and it's been cloudy and rainy, so I'll have to wait for more sunshine before I can assess how much light overflows the top of the shade. Maybe you can compare the pictures above to see how they are doing vs. what you have now.

We love that even when they're down, the room still feels bright. So many blinds that we've used in the past really made a room feel darker, dingier, and disconnected from the sunshine.

Yes, we got one big shade for the picture window. It's 113" long! That was part of the appeal of these, since a lot of shades don't come that big. The other thing I liked about these is that they're controlled with a continuous chain loop. So many of the shades were cord free, which would have been obnoxiously difficult to use over the couch. Can you imagine me saying to my guests, "Excuse me while I stand next to you on the couch to lower the blinds! Pardon me, now I'll just hop over you so I can pull down the next two shades..."

Here are the parts I'm a little disappointed about: When the sun is shining at the shades, I really can't see out them. There is this reflection type situation that occurs that turns the shade into big blocks of bright white. There are shadows in the blocks of bright that are cast by the window frames, but other than that, whiteness. Now if the sun isn't shining directly on the shades, then yes, we can see out pretty well. But, that's when I pull them up, unless we're watching something on tv. They're good at cutting the glare in that situation.

As the sun sets, they don't make it totally comfy for looking directly out like I thought they would. It's certainly much better than no shade at all, but not perfect.

The chain works well for raising and lowering. There are these balls that get snapped on as stops, yet they still have to slide through the chain holder that's attached down low to the window frame (hard to explain), and that makes us have to do some gentle but more thorough tugging.

We have had these up less than a week, so I can't speak about durability.

Here are the floor specifics, jesshs:

It's a dream to sweep, but do be careful about moving things over the planks, since we accidentally put some scratches in it already. We bought it at Bargain Outlet. Lumber Liquidators had a similar looking product, too.

One question for you laughable, I saw in an earlier thread that you had a library/ breakfast room, do you still keep books there as well as in your new living room? I like the idea of all the books in one place, right now they are scattered throughout our house!

Yes, we still have books in the breakfast room in addition to these living room shelves, except now it's our piano room, rather than a breakfast room. I can't seem to contain our books to just one location either!

Laughable thanks for the additional shade info. That bites about not being able to see out when the sun is shining in. I guess it's a trade off though. I've love to have you come back and give an update later as to how they're holding up. Thanks again!

I have not seen an ottoman with a cloth over it like yours before. Is the fabric loose, as in just thrown over the ottoman? What keeps it straight?

Laughable, this looks fantastic!! To me, so English country which is what your inspiration photos were saying to me. Love the cream drapes & new rug & the pine ceiling. Well done!!

Laughable... lovely! And you don't mind showing off books! Looks very comfortable.

Littlebug, the ottoman cover was something I put together. It stays on pretty well, and is easy to smooth out when it gets rumpled. I stitched decorative buttons at each corner to help pull the fabric a little tighter, so it doesn't move too badly.

After tickle time with one of the kids, it looked like this, for example.
Thanks, peppapoodle, I wasn't sure if we were ever going to make it to "England" or not, lol. I'm glad everyone thinks it works. It's a very soothing space for us to relax in now.

No artemis, we can't be spineless about our books here, can we. ; )

Wow! Great transformation. Can you tell me a little more about the ceiling planks? Were they interlocking? How did you attach it to the ceiling? Finishing nail gun? That room was a lot of hard work; great decisions and beautifully executed!

Thank you! We (that'd be DH and a helper) tore out the old ceiling, put in foil faced foam insulation and sealed it. Getting better insulation up there was the major thrust for the ceiling project. They then attached furring strips, and fimally, nailed the tongue and groove pine boards in place with a finish nailer. The nails are hidden up in the tongues of the boards. (I think this is called toe-nailing, iirc.)

Thank you for sharing. :-). I think you're among kindred spirits here. Many of have decorated our homes with Craigslist, eBay, consignment, antique and garage sale finds along with DIY projects. Always great to see someone create a beautiful room like you have.

laughablemoments - We love how your space turned out - well done! We'd love to feature your room reveal on our blog or social media. If you're up for this, drop us a line at pr@blinds.com!

Hi - you mention would not use whitetail again? Is that just the brand or don't like the color (I am considering it, so your comment interested me).

Hi Rosa, overall I like the color Whitetail. It’s a warm, slightly creamy white, leaning ever so tinily yellow (very slightly.) What we didn’t like was the Sherwin Williams Pro Classic semigloss paint itself! We found it to be thin with extremely poor coverage. I guess we should have been clued in when we read on the can that it does not need to be thinned prior to spraying. So, if you’re spraying, it might be fine (?). For brushing and rolling, it was awful. We’ve had much better success with Behr, for a lot less cost. Hope this helps.

Thank you -- very helpful. I was looking for a warm white, which is what made me look at it in first place.