I had a love/hate relationship with the plantation shutters. I love the shabby feel that they bring to the room but I found myself rarely ever opening the windows.

I’m a huge fan of natural light so I wanted to bring some consistent light in through new windows.

Also notice that the tv/plantation shutter combo seems distracting. They just didn’t compliment one another, so one of them had to go. Like that was a hard decision!

My wonderful dad did ALL of the construction work on this project (and all the other updates on our house). He’s made our house look SO much better! Thanks Dad :)

Notice that even with the windows open, it just looks awkward.

Not for long :)

Windows out! Time to start deconstructing/reconstructing this wall

Woo hoo! Look at how pretty those new windows look!

Right after these were in, the room seemed to grow. The extra light created such a spacious effect.

Notice the window on the left is new as well. It’s amazing how new windows alone can make such a difference in the look of your house.

I decided to play it safe with paint this time and pick my favorite Behr Ultra Tea Bag green color. Almost every other time we’ve painted, we’ve had to repaint a different color because I don’t end up liking it.

We painted the green color in our bedroom last year and I absolutely LOVE it so I thought we would do the same here.

I wanted a color that was soft and soothing and that’s exactly how it feels when I walk in the room.

This next part is probably my favorite part of the whole room.

I’m slighting obsessed with old things. They have so much character.

These reclaimed barn wood planks are from a 150+ year old barn from Pennsylvania. Talk about character!

Sigh…in LOVE with these!

Here’s a peek at some of the details before I show you the whole room :)

The curtains and roman shades were made by my lovely mom. Thanks mom!

DIY remodeling in action:

We reused our old bar stools by recovering them.

My mom made these great curtains.

I bought one new eye-catching piece (the driftwood mirror) and paired it with an old desk that I already had to give it an overall fresh look.

Once again…what it looked like before.

The After!!!

The Before

The After!!!

And this is the view into the ‘dining room’. I forgot to take a before picture (sorry).

My mom had this great idea of doing a dual-color wall to make this feel like a separate space from the living room.

This is still a work in progress. We’ll be focusing on this room next!

So…what do you think of everything?!