Challenge: Making a small living room feel LARGE!

A black depressing end table

Alright, I've explained before that my house was built in 1860 and that the rooms are quite small. My living room is 12 feet by 12 feet. Really it's not so bad until you try to fit more than 4 adults in the room. And as I've mentioned before my four children crowded in the room  leaves me feeling rather claustrophobic!

Keeping all this in mind, Chris and I had a conversation at the table this afternoon about trying to make the room feel larger. Right now we have a coffee table in the middle of the room. I've on occasion moved it out to make more room, but always thought that Chris preferred it as our living room center piece. At lunch today he cleared up that assumption. He also would like to take it out to make more room, but thought that I liked it. Isn't it better to communicate these feelings? Well, now we both know the coffee table is going somewhere else!

The other thought we had was lightening up the colors of the furniture from black to white and then painting the walls a lighter color to make the space feel bigger.

So, I have a long check list of things to do to my living room. Oh, but I do love a list!! I set to work right away lightening the furniture in the room starting with one end table (the black monster above.)

Using my trusty liquid sand paper- have you heard that this stuff is not available in some places because it's a health hazard? Anyway, using my trusty poison liquid sandpaper, I prepared the surface of the table for it's makeover.

Whew! It took a lot of layers of paint to cover that black paint- guess I should have primed! Oh well.

I sprayed the hardware with Krylon aluminum and already my spirits are lifted!

Funny how you notice something way less when its not bold black!! Only two more furniture pieces to go and my living room should feel 15 feet by 15 feet... what a mansion!!