Front Room- before and progress

I made a little progress on our front room over the summer. This room is basically a formal living room, but that sounds so stuffy so I like to call it the front room. It's the room you see when you walk in our front door.

When we first moved in this room was obviously empty and because we knew the style of this house was going to be so different than our last we didn't keep a lot of our furniture, which meant that this room sat empty for a long time. My mom loves playing the piano and we did know that this room was the perfect place for that...but that was about all that was in here.

When we moved out of my wedding planning office it got a bit of an update, we put a rug in here, and a Christmas tree, and then when we hosted my family for Christmas we put a long dining table and chairs in here (all rented)- it looked beautiful!

We also found that gold mirror, which was tricky as those types of mirrors can go for a fortune, but we snagged this one for $450 at an antique store. Everything else was temporary since the real dining room is right next to this space and we don't need two dining rooms on a regular basis.

So after Christmas the room was pretty much empty again for awhile. Then we started moving things around in the living room, which is right behind this room and decided to try out the sofa and coffee table from my old office in here and that's kind of where we are today.

The curtains were here when we moved in and although they aren't awful they are a bit on the yellow side for me. I also think the walls would be better suited painted out in white. I'm also dreaming of adding wall molding in here- wouldn't that be so pretty?? All of our house inspiration images have so much beautiful molding I really think that would make this room feel more special than it currently does. We also need a bit more seating in here. I'm thinking a few low stools, a pretty armchair (the navy one is just a place holder), and a side table. So I'm on the hunt for all of those pieces. I've said it before, but the type of antique pieces I'm looking for are hard to find- they aren't just something I can usually order online (although there are certainly exceptions). The pieces that I like are usually thousands of dollars so I typically find myself hunting facebook marketplace, craigslist (which I think it on its way out), antique, and thrift stores. It also usually requires a bit of luck, being in the right place at the right time, and finding the right piece. And sometimes, that piece needs some love- like these chairs that I snagged on marketplace.

I could tell the chair frames were lovely, but the seats were completely destroyed and needed some serious love. I was able to do a little DIY reupholstery (I have the whole process saved under my "reupholstery" hi-light on instagram stories if you are interested) on these guys since it was just the seat and save them. Anything more complicated than this I would definitely have taken to a professional.

I love how they turned out! I also styled out the top of the piano and hung some DIY art on the walls. You can see in the photo below that our dining room also needs some love, but we'll get to that...

So this is where we currently are. It's come a long way from this...

But we still have a long way to go to get this room finished.

I can't wait to see how this room evolves! In the meantime, keep me posted if you find any great places to scour antiques for a reasonable price! My friend told me I needed to start hitting up estate sales, but I have yet to try that- it's definitely on my to-do list!

Sources: rug | piano- antique | pair of chairs- antique | sofa- antique | coffee table (no longer sold) | mirror- antique | gold frames |