Parlor Before, During and After

I realized I've never shown before and afters, or really, any pictures of my rooms in total.  So since my spring cleaning is nearly complete, and my shoulder is almost healed (see I'm Injured), I'll start with what I call the parlor.  I use it as a den.  See the explanation here.  Here are shots of when I took ownership, first moved in and now.  It looks weird to see the off-white wall color.  It's so not me--I need color!  I just cannot do white.  I'm trying to neutralize my previous choices but the closest I'll come to neutral is gray, sage or yellow.

 

The previous owner used this room for storage and had a drafting table in the archway, with a curtain blocking it.  The floors were dark and filthy before I had them refinished.  I hired someone to wallpaper the room in Waverly "Rustic Life" in watermelon, after my failed attempt and falling off the ladder.  He said my walls were very crooked, which was no surprise, really.  I installed the chandelier (in hindsight I probably should have gone bigger) and bought the Pottery Barn PB Grand slipcovered sofa (I have cranberry twill and white twill).  On moving day my siblings broke the leg off my beloved Domain floral sofa (so sad they were a victim of our "worst economy since the Great Depression"), so I bought two others, since I now had two living rooms.  When I first moved in I just had chairs in here and used it as a sitting room.  Then I got the sage couch a few months later (which is now in the living room) and moved the Domain couch in here.

This is now my favorite room--so feminine!

 

Please ignore the garbage.

I wanted to hang curtains like these in the kitchen but I don't think Ikea sells them anymore.