Living Room Restyle

My talented and lovely sister visited this past weekend.  Her hubby and kiddos came too!  It was so awesome to have them here as it has been a couple years since they have been up this way.

My sis happens to have a knack for decorating and design-in fact, she has started her own design consulting in Los Angeles/Long Beach. 

Anyways, I always have a list of projects to get her help with or advice on when she comes to visit.  Sometimes I send pictures or facetime for help but that is just not the same. :)

Steve has been wanting to update our living/dining room spaces a bit and add some modern touches.  However, we wanted to do it without spending any or much cash.

 To take a trip back down memory lane, here is our living room on inspection day 7 years ago.  Gross, I know.  Check out that sweet paneling and faux brick.  How about those aluminum windows-purrrr!    How did we see the potential?

In between-serious work done but nothing pretty about it.

Here is the living room after major progress.  This photo leaves out the leaded glass in the built-in and baseboards.  We actually rearranged since this picture to have the couch under the window and the chairs on the wall behind where the couch is in this picture (it totally opened up the room), but I can't find any photos of it-boo!

And here it is now.  We swapped out the small 5x7 dark rug for the 8x10 light rug that we had in the dining room.  We currently are not using that rug due to a certain messy 3 year-old so it was great to pull out of the attic. 

We moved the coffee table trunk to the side of the couch and pulled my grandma's 50's Lane coffee table out of the attic. 

Rearranged the table and standing lamps. 

Swapped out a couple kick knacks. 

The Lane coffee table could seriously use a refinishing but I love how it makes the room less heavy and the proportions are awesome if I do say so myself.   Anyone know of a way to spruce up the table (think water stains and light scratches) without totally refinishing it? 
Added bonus: makes a great fort structure and hiding spot.

Other than that, we didn't do much but I can't believe how much bigger and brighter the room feels with just these few little changes.  I would like to purchase some dramatic 50s sculpture type piece for the coffee table and some fun pillows as well as hide all those cords by the TV but other than that, I love the new room! 

And best of all-FREE!