Build it in, build it in!

Who loves seeing the evolution of a room? We do! Today we're talking about our living room! When we house hunted back in April and fell in love with our sweet, little home on Adventure Lane, we flew back to Durham chatting about little tweaks we wanted to make IF the old owners accepted our offer. Well, as you know, they did accept our offer, and one of the changes we had talked about was installing built-in shelving and cabinets on either side of the fireplace in the living room. Here is a photo of the room as it was when we house hunted.  When I see it like this, I'm really struck by how long the room looks and how much we don't miss the old carpet!

As you all know, we pulled up the carpet and refinished the hardwoods before we moved in...and gave the room a fresh coat of paint.

Then a few weeks back, we met with the carpenter/fix-it couple recommended to us by the previous owners, so we could discuss that type of built-ins that we were picturing! It's safe to say that they hit the nail on the head (literally). What do you think? They make us VERY happy!!

Suddenly, the room is less long and much wider in appearance, don't you think?

One more time...here's the far wall when we first saw it back in April...

 

And here it is now. Such a great change!!

P.S. We're especially in love with the "dental work" trim (right below the ceiling molding) that we used to match our favorite part of the fireplace mantle. Can you see it?