The Teal & Lime 5-Day Do-Over: My Living Room

First, a nice glossy after pic...

AFTER photo

Now that I've got that out of the way, here is what happened when I took Jackie Hernandez's (AKA Teal & Lime's) Five-Day Decorating Do-Over. I won't get into all of the steps since you can buy her book (it is her method after all), plus this post is more about what happened to me when I used her method of no-cost decorating.

Day 1 (in a nutshell)
First, pick one room. Do NOT try to do more than one room, seriously. Make a list of all of the decorative items in the room. Next, circle the items that do not seem to fit in.

• For my room, I cirlced the rocking horse, the Marimeko flower pillow, the tiny bunny rabbit pillow, and the painting of a winter tree.

My pre-cleaning BEFORE photo

I eventually did clean, just look at the after photos!

This dark blue throw blanket is actually staying in the room, but it's in the laundry now, so add it to the after photos using your imagination

Day 2 (in a nutshell)
Use Jackie's Decorating Staples Checklist and cross out items that you seem to have too many of. Then, remove a few and look around your home for some items with more variety to add to the room.

• For my room, I noticed that I had a bizillion square pillows, and also quite a few family photos. So I removed a couple of pillows and one family photo. I added a vase and a couple of sculptural items (in my case, a couple of decoy ducks).

Day 3 (in a nutshell)
Use Jackie's Decision Tree and the list you created on Day 1 to evaluate each item in your room. Remove anything that is not beautiful, useful, or meaningful.

• For my room, I noticed that the bar I set for "beautiful" was actually pretty high, and so I was able to remove things that I thought were pretty, but not as pretty as the items that remained in the room. The same goes for the bar I set for "meaningful."

This is more of a MID-WAY photo than a DAY 3 photo

Another MID-WAY photo - note the absence of the toy chest in favor of some dark blue IKEA trunks that the kiddo can actually reach into himself

Day 4 (in a nutshell)
Do NOT rush out and buy things. Instead, write a "wish list" of items you would like to add to the room. Revisit the list in a couple of weeks - you may be surprised to find that you no longer want all of the things that are on your list.

• On my wish list I put silver frames, less-sheer curtains, and a ceiling light. When I "shopped" my home on Day 5, I actually found some curtains that would work that were being stored in our guest bedroom.

Okay, and maybe a new gaming system is on the wish list too (XBox One, we covet you)

Day 5 (in a nutshell)
Choose a fresh accent color to add to your room, and add it in at least three places (e.g. in a throw blanket, in a pillow, and in a piece of artwork) by "shopping" your home for things to add to the room. Optional: Remove an existing accent color from the room.

• My existing room colors were light green, gray-brown, pale blue and dark blue. I tried to add either white or red, but I did not have quite enough things elsewhere in my home to add. So, I'm still going to tentatively try to add more white over time (I did add a white lamp and curtains that had thin white stripes). But the biggest change for me, I think, was removing light blue. I had already bought a replacement rug and a replacement coffee table before taking the Five Day Challenge, so this was still no-cost decorating for me. The rug change was purely pragmatic - the blue one shed too much. And the coffee table change was also purely pragment - toys and books were getting stuck under it, plus it had sharp corners and I have a kiddo running around.

Yep, I clearly did not stage this AFTER photo

Note that I added more light green to this room, shown here via the green vase; although changing the curtains actually made a huge difference to this room, this is apparently the only AFTER photo I have that shows them

That white nightstand is just temporary - I'm tackling one thing at a time here

These are the two pillows that I loved, so they stayed (again, totally not a staged photo)

As I mentioned before, I added more of the light green accent color

This room feels very livable to me (and I'm not drowning in pillows, although having one more pillow couldn't hurt)

Yes, we have an exercise ball in our living room - that is just how we do

Notes:
I know there is not a lot of art on the walls. I am getting around to that, I promise. Some previously ordered blue bins to corral the books below the TV are also on their way.