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Bold & Eclectic Log Cabin Living Room | The Big Reveal | One Room Challenge

The living room is finished!  We worked on it for the past six weeks for the One Room Challenge and had two big projects to complete.  If you're just visiting from the One Room Challenge linkup, a little history on our home is we've been renovating this log home for a little over three years now, starting with the structure and systems which took a lot of time since we are doing almost everything DIY. It feels so good to have such an important room in the house finally finished.  It's a fun room with lots of meaningful pieces for our family.  Because it's a huge room divided by the main walking path through the house, it's like we did two rooms.  Here's the main living room side.


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My vision for this room was a rustic but colorful eclectic space.  It's automatically rustic because this is a log home.  It's no secret that I love color, so each room we have renovated so far is colorful.  I also love elements of traditional, midcentury, boho, global, and lodge design.  I know what we ended up with here may not be traditional log cabin decor and design, but we love it!

Really quick, here is what we started with:


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I've always envisioned wood floors and a big antique red Persian rug in this room, so that was my starting point.  Everything else kind of built off that rug.  


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We attempted this whole renovation and design with the previous One Room Challenge, but cutting out a huge section of log wall to open the living room to the dining room and installing the new wide plank pine floor took the entire six weeks. You can see all of the details for that Living Room Sort of Reveal here. This time we finished it all!  The most important thing we accomplished was fixing a safety issue, an open staircase.  My amazing husband fabricated and welded this rustic industrial staircase enclosure.


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Catch up with all of the project updates and see how we did it:  

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 Week 5 

And I finally got to paint that staircase wall a big bold color, Great Falls by Sherwin Williams (with 8 drops of black added! it's a long story) and hang the thrifted antique and vintage mirrors I've been collecting over the past few years for this purpose.


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I was happy to be able to include this gold upholstered mid century chair that belonged to my grandparents.  I love how it plays with the gold frames and brass accents in the room.  That German cuckoo clock was theirs too!

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The other big project we accomplished was installing a mantel on the fireplace using a 100 year old beam that has a great story I told in last week's update.  And my husband also made those awesome steel brackets.


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That hammered metal tray holds a lot of treasures that our four kids have gathered from our property, camping, and beach trips. Rocks and leaves and moss covered sticks get added daily.  (plus a super cool thrifted geode!) There's a magnifying glass too so they can examine everything closely whenever they want.

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The rest of the room is finished off with lots of thrifted finds that just spoke to me, like all of the blue and white pieces and a Bolivian poncho, family pieces like pottery and vintage glass, and an antique copper fire extinguisher that was a gift from my oldest best friend.


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That poncho is on a ladder that was originally attached to the end of one of our porches.  It was too rickety to leave there with our four monkeys who would definitely climb it, but I wanted to honor the history of the house and re-use it somewhere.  

So that's all of that side of the living room!

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Ok, I know this is a long post but this is a big room.  This is the other side, grounded by a new leather couch, one of my paintings, and one of my best thrifted finds ever!

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We live in coastal North Carolina and the water is part of our life.  One of my favorite scenes to paint are our local salt marshes and waterways.  When we are out on the water I love to take pictures to paint later.  I call this one Storm Moving In.  The shadows from the clouds that day turned the water gorgeous navy and deep turquoise.

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And I can't say enough about how much I love that vintage Sarreid brass trunk I recently found at a yard sale.  I told its story here in my week 3 update.

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I know usually I would be giving sources for the things in the room at this point, but there are so few things I can do that with since pretty much everything was either made by us, thrifted, gifted or hand-me-down.  I'm cool with that though. And I guess that's my usual decorating philosphy.  Use pieces that speak to you and pieces that have importance to you. I love finding things like that brass chest, the rug, place mats I made into pillows, a funky vintage olive velvet chair, a vintage crewel embroidery piece (for $1.80), and combining them with my grandma's end table, the lamp my husband's family gave us for our 5th anniversary almost 15 years ago, and an antique dough bowl he bought me last year (because he knew I wanted one) that I filled with white starfish from a local beach shop.  (That may be my longest sentence ever!)   It's bold and colorful, rustic, eclectic... do you have any other adjectives to describe it????  Basically this room is the story of our family and I love that. Also I was mortified to discover while I was editing my pictures for this post that there is a tiny LEGO creation under the gold chair.  I seriously considered editing it out, but hey I have three little boys and things like that are real life!

So we are done with the biggest room in the house and it feels great!  I can't wait to move on to more rooms now.  Thanks so much for checking out our renovation progress!  And please go see all of the amazing room renovations that are linked up to the One Room Challenge.  There are well over 200 rooms that give so much creative inspiration!




34 comments

Cassie Bustamante said...

i just love your house- all of those natural elements! and i love love love the teal wall- what a great pop of color! beautiful job, friend!

Lisa @ Shine Your Light said...

Dara your house is so unique and interesting, I just love it!!!! You've done an AMAZING job adding your own family's interests and personality to these rooms between your blue wall with the mirrors, the incredible metal work, and all the treasures you and your kids have collected! The floors from your last ORC look beautiful, and I love how you brought color into these rooms and played off of the wood tones. Hope you are enjoying it all. And Happy Mother's Day!

Unknown said...

Well you did it again. You and Mike amaze me. This room is a beautiful story of your family. I loved reading about every piece you incorporated. I can’t choose a favorite but the painting, staircase and fireplace are all tied for first place!!!

Myeclecticnest5 said...

Dara I love it! My favorite is the amazing staircase��! Team work makes the dream work����

Kim - KnockitoffKim.com said...

Dara, this is the kind of room (house!) that one can get lost in for hours upon hours, just exploring every nook and cranny. I just LOVE how you've incorporated everything old and new, as well as different decorating styles. Normally, I'm not sure I would say it would work, but you can tell that every piece is loved and has a story for you - maybe that's what makes it all come together with a common thread. Whatever it is, it's perfect! Fantastic job and such a great find on that brass crate. Your husband's metal work - fabulous!

Unknown said...

I love it Dara! So well curated and loving the mix of styles/colors. Perfection!

Emy said...

Oh my goodness! I love how your living room turned out! So much vintage goodness! And it looks amazing in a log cabin!! Those stairs are so gorgeous, as is the mantle. You guys did a fantastic job!

Unknown said...

SO gorgeous!! It's amazing how light you made the room feel, even with the natural wood in the logs. I love how your brought in pieces from your grandparents, and all of those vintage touches. This is my kind of room!!

Anonymous said...

I love this! I love all of those vintage, eclectic touches-what a perfect spot. We just started gutting our cottage so I'm gather up some ideas. Fantastic ORC! Kristin @ Postbox Designs

Susie @ The Chelsea Project Blog said...

Love, love, love your space. The mix of rustic with modern, the mix of color, and the use of scale in the space. Great job, Dara! Oh....and can I borrow your hubby?? Geez. That stair rail..... swoon!!! Congratulations on a truly great makeover. Susie from The Chelsea Project

Unknown said...

You nailed it! No pun intended! I don't even like log cabins, but thus place looks fab!!!E

Unknown said...

Dara - this space is just beautiful! Love the pops of blue against the gorgeous wood. You did an amazing job in such a large space. Your attention to detail is amazing. Well done!

Lindsey at HilltownHouse said...

So excited to see this space come together! I remember it from the fall and I think you finished it off beautifully. That pop of teal, that chair, and that rug are the perfect colors to pair with all of your rustic elements and that beautiful woodwork. Would love to curl up in this room on a cold winter night!

Salvage Sister & Mister said...

Just breathtaking. Bravo!!!! Now I have some new projects to work on :)

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thank you so much Cassie!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thanks so much Lisa! I really appreciate all of your encouragement!

Vanessa said...

Your living room is stunning! I am drooling over all those gorgeous details. Thank you for sharing your home at last weekend Dishing it and Digging it link party. You are one of our features for this coming Sunday party. Thank you and have a great week.

Jessica | Petal + Ply said...

Beautiful! Love your mirror wall, that fabulous mantle, and the contrast of rustic and vintage touches.

Susanne said...

It looks great Dara!! I love the vintage mirrors and your grandparents chair...heart eyes for that!! You guys did an amazing job. Congratulations on a wonderful makeover!!

Mary K. said...

Dara you have done a great job of filling in this beautiful and so large room.I love your fireplace and the decor on the mantle and who can say enough about that pretty brass trunk. What a find. It is hard to decorate large rooms like this one but you have pulled it off beautifully and making the space feel cozy.

The Home I Create said...

Wonderful makeover Dara! Great mix of styles. I love all the blue and white pieces and that mirror wall!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thanks so much Jess! I'm so glad to get the staircase and fireplace done finally!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thanks so much Tiff! I'm happy that it's safe now!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thank you very much Kim! I'm glad you like the room and my husband says thanks!!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thanks so much Chris! I appreciate you reading it!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Hey Emy! Thanks so much!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thank you Jenny! I love having pieces with a story!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thank you Kristin! That sounds like a big project! I'll have to come check it out.

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thanks so much Susie! I'm glad you like it because I felt like I was taking a big risk!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thanks!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thank you very much! I appreciate you coming by to see it!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Thanks so much Lindsey! Thanks for coming back to see it finished!

Dara - The Roots of Home said...

Oh wow! Thanks so much Vanessa!

Pam Richardson said...

Wow, what a wonderful makeover! I love your log home!

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