Colorado Home

OUR MODERN MOUNTAIN LIVING ROOM

Finally after months and months our new, modern, mountain-inspired living room is complete!  I am absolutely thrilled with our new space and can’t wait to share everything with you!  I’m also showing you our little dining area update and our new deck, since the area is one big connected area.  Before I get too far ahead of myself let’s see what this room used to look like!  Ew… it was bad bad bad!!!

After a miserable summer I am so happy this space is complete!  We hired out the wood ceiling, wall texture, and the fireplace but everything else we did ourselves, and trust me there was PLENTY of work to keep us busy.  From painting to installing baseboards to the hardwood floor and just coordinating the room, it was a TON of work.  Don’t even get me started on stripping and grinding those stairs!  But I’m happy to say I love it and I’m so glad it’s over!

Modern Colorado Mountain Home Before and After

So many big changes happed in our living area.  For one we took out the door to the left of the fireplace, ripped out the heavy stone wall, and sealed up the living room closet door to have extra closet space in the master bedroom.  We also decided we didn’t want the hassle of carrying wood upstairs to the living area so we went with a gas fireplace.   You can see more before photos on our cabin reveal post and see some crazy in-process photos in cabin chaos and updates.

Cabin stone fireplace and cedar ceiling

We really loved and instantly missed our Texas stone fireplace so naturally when we went to pick out stone I was drawn to light stone.  I think we took the look of our old fireplace and gave it some rustic mountain charm.  If you’ve just stumbled upon this blog post and your curious about our old fireplace you can see photos here.

Modern Mountain Home Living Room

I spent hours and hours stripping the carpet glue off the stairs and Brian and I took turns smoothing down the uneven welded spots with a grinder.  I finished the stairs with several coats of rich brown paint and added texture to the stair steps so they would be safer and less slippery.

Modern Mountain Home Living Room

Living in the Colorado mountains I wanted our home to look light and bright but still have the warmth and character of wood with plenty of nature mixed in.  I didn’t want our home to look like a ski lodge so I was careful to balance wood and white, and I love the results.  It’s the best of both.  My little black bear is a foot stool, isn’t he so cute?

Modern Mountain Home Living Room

Since we’ve downsized in square footage I’m constantly looking for space saving ideas and storage.  Naturally I fell in love with this wine trunk.  It opens and has tons of storage for wine, glasses, and other entertaining pieces.  I had the hardest time finding art I liked for over the wine trunk.  Nothing felt right, what I was craving was texture and this french wine bottle holder fit the bill.

french wine rack

Having such an open living and dining room floor plan has been a bit of a challenge.  Large spaces are definitely tricky to decorate, but at the same time my goal was to save space and create the illusion of space.  I’ve always wanted to experiment with banquette seating and this was an ideal situation to try it.  I love how banquette seating creates a cozy environment and saves space.  It’s almost like an extension of our living room, not having a chandelier over the table I happily settled on sconce lighting for warm ambience.

Our dining area is basically a wall.  It had a small off center unbalanced window.  Obviously we aren’t lacking light so out it went!  I love how this mirror adds light, sparkle and panache! We added a dimmer switch for our sconce lights.  It’s incredibly cozy at night!  Going with banquette seating we had to switch out our old table.

Modern Mountain Dining Room

The legs on the edge of the table made it hard to slide in and out.  It took me forever to find the perfect pedestal table but I found it.  We kept our old chairs and it looks great.  Not only does our dining area save space we can comfortably fit 6-7 people in the small space.

cedar tongue and groove ceiling with chandelier

When designing a room I love mixing different elements together.  Rustic and modern, light and dark… it’s what I’m drawn too and it never lets me down.  I knew we would have a rustic cedar wood ceiling and I kept envisioning a crystal chandelier against the wood.  The contrast is everything I thought it would be.

Crystal orb chandelier cedar wood stained ceiling

Since our deck is right off the living room I thought I’d share it too.  Our deck subfloor was partially rotted and only covered with a black rubber roofing membrane.  Brian ripped out all the layers, scraping and sealing any rust, and finished with deck boards that I stained with Ready Seal Cedar.

Modern Colorado Mountain Home

I found this incredible weather proof affordable bistro earlier in the summer.  It’s held up great, no regrets!  The seat cushions have washable covers and they’re super comfortable!

Modern Colorado Mountain Home

Ok, I have a secret.  Do you wonder how to keep perfect potted evergreen shrubs on your patio and in extreme weather?  They’re fake!  These are the same potted evergreens from our Texas home.  They were perfect for the extreme Texas heat and they work perfectly in the extreme Colorado cold and there is no mess from water or droppings.  They look real, you can only tell they’re artificial if you start messing with them up close.  Put them in a pot with some pebbles and you’ll be amazed how real they look, and they come in a variety of sizes too!

Modern Colorado Mountain Home

With all the light we have a tricky room to photograph but even though the room looks a bit dark I wanted to share our view.  It’s incredible, I took this photo just as the sun was rising.  If you look carefully you can see bits of snow through the trees.  It’s beyond gorgeous.  However in the late afternoon the winter sun can be harsh so we have ordered curtains for the window and a large custom rod, they just haven’t arrived yet. The window will almost always stay open except for those times that the sun is brutal.

Of course our modern mountain home has plenty of animal inspired touches such as this antler bowl.  It works great with a fall display of pinecones and pumpkins but I’m looking forward to jazzing it up for Christmas and the spring and summer seasons too.

I knew I wanted a blue sofa, it was an incredibly risky decorating choice but I wanted it. I knew the room would be mostly neutral so I wanted a bright pop of color.  Our first sofa from Restoration Hardware the delivery guys cut the fabric with a razor opening the box.  It was a disaster but they made it right by letting us keep the damaged sofa and a month later sending us a completely new one. I really love the color and look, however I do have some concerns whether this sofa will last.  It doesn’t feel as sturdy as our Pottery Barn sofa (that’s currently in the basement) at all… I guess time will tell.

Modern Mountain Home Decor

I find it a bit difficult to keep our cowhide rug clean but I love the look!  After having the rug out about a month I realized something was off.  It wasn’t warming the space enough so I bought a seagrass rug that’s perfect for layering under the cowhide rug.  Don’t forget you can layer rugs to suit your space needs!

Modern Mountain Home Living Room

I really don’t put too much thought into my throw pillows.  I’ll just toss whatever pattern and sizes on the sofa but when I came across these leather pillows I knew I had to have them.  They give some masculine balance to our girly blue tufted sofa.  I’m so glad I found them!

So that’s our living room and dining before and after!  Do you like it?  I do but I’m just so relieved it’s over.  Do you have any idea what it’s like to have 100 home projects going on at once?  It’s brutal.

Sofa | Leather pillows | Coffee table | Antler bowl | Wood tray | Seagrass rug | Cowhide rug | Leather chair | Fur pillow | Floor lamp | Chandelier | Wine trunk cabinet | Wall wine rack | Wine opener | Wine barrel tray | Sconce over stairs | Outdoor bistro set | Outdoor faux tree | Vase | Dining chairs | Dining table | Leopard banquette | Dining room sconce lights | MirrorBlack bear foot stool | Wood floor | Frame TV | Metal reindeer

Walls are Simply White and stairs are Appalachian Brown by Benjamin Moore.

Soon I’ll be sharing our entryway and staircase remodel along with Ashley’s room and the downstairs bathroom.  We’ve been busy busy and looking forward to stopping all projects for a much need break during the holidays!

Laura

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