As mentioned {previously}, my hubby and I have done some work on The New Place since moving in two years ago. In fact, we did have quite a few things jam-packed into The Old Place that we were able to fill up some rooms with. However, when going from about 700 square feet up to around 1500 you're bound to need a few new pieces - especially for a brand spanking new living room!

One thing I knew for sure was that our old Tylosand couch from Ikea, that my hubby just loved and had to have, was NOT going to be on display in my glorious new upstairs living space but would be relegated to the basement {den}. Don't get me wrong, I love Ikea and the Tylosand is just a huge comfy beast, but that couch was never what I had wanted for The Old Place's living room and it certainly wasn't going to work with my new aesthetic either.

I still wanted a neutral sofa, just something a little more sleek and sophisticated. And of course I needed a new coffee and end table and a few new chairs to really round out the space. Instead of sticking with a brown and beige palette this time I wanted to expand my colour repertoire. How can you not want to try some colour when you see images like these bursting from the pages of a magazine?!:

Top left: House and Home; Remainder: Elle Decor

I love how there are still neutral elements in each of the rooms, but with hits of colour everywhere really livening things up. From paint to upholstery to rugs to cushions - the possibilities to add pop to a space are virtually endless.

So hubby and I went on the hunt at one of our new fav stores Cornerstone Home Interiors. Both the Toronto and Cambridge showrooms are just massive and the room displays are so inviting. This is where I spotted the first gem - a beautiful tub-style chair upholstered in a rich brown fabric - Wait, you say? BROWN? OK, OK, so it was still brown, BUT here's the kicker, it has a lovely green floral motif - something The Old Me would have simply admired from afar but never even considered purchasing. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted another find, a curvy tufted slipper chair in a luxurious green velvet - that's right, totally GREEN! That was it. I was sold. Hubby and I decided to just take the plunge and we picked up both!

Cornerstone: Floral Chair (left); Velvet Slipper Chair (right)

For a while these two lovelies were all that we had in the living room - admittedly I am super picky and terribly indecisive (especially when it comes to spending the money we had saved up so long for, even if this was it's intended purpose) so the hunt for these two chairs took months, along with each and every other item for the room.

Eventually we did find a comfortable couch from Urban Barn with nice clean lines that fit the bill for sophistication - but also wasn't hard as a rock like so many of the other sofas we had tested out:

Urban Barn: Sean Sofa
(ours is upholstered in Polo Oyster)

And back at our old haunt, Cornerstone, we found a great coffee and side table constructed of solid wood and metal - although still quite dark in colour, I did deviate from my norm in that we went with rounds instead of my usual rectangular inclinations:

Cornerstone: Coffee Table

We found some plush pillows from Pottery Barn in a bold strip and graphic crewel with punches of reds, yellows, and greens:

Pottery Barn: Susanna Paisley Embroidered Pillow Cover (right); Paolo Stripe Pillow Cover, Red (left)

The rug took the longest to find because I had imagined that it should be a large floral print which would match the pillow's colour scheme - but Pottery Barn did manage to hit it out of the park with the Brianne Floral Rug sporting the exact design I had envisioned (well, pretty darn close anyway; after all, Pottery Barn isn't reading my mind). The colour, of course, was perfect!:

Pottery Barn: Brianne Floral Rug

I swear to you we don't only shop at Pottery Barn - but boy did they have some awesome stuff when we were shopping for this space. On another trip we found this gorgeous industrial style birch mirror and we just had to have it (although it was a HUGE pain to actually get it up on the wall - imagine me, this tiny out of shape thing, desperately trying to hold up this big honking mirror with my hubby yelling "hold it steady, lift it higher! HIGHER!!" We were literally in fear of being crushed):

Pottery Barn: Benchwright Mirror

And here is the final result... so far (we're still looking to replace the terrible lighting - yeah, I wasn't kidding {here}, I literally have a ton of these lamps! - and are at a complete standstill with window treatments, but we'll get there... some day):

Advert for Pottery Barn & Cornerstone? Ah well, I still love it!

I think I managed to break free of some of my old limitations - and you've got to admit, there is some colour in here now! I'm even thinking of papering the wall with the window in a green damask print... but still haven't found the perfect one yet.

Tell me what you think:

How do you think I did with changing my style between The Old Place and The New Place? Have you gone through any similar changes in style, and if so, how did you manage to do? Of course, if anyone has any suggestions on lighting, window treatments, or even some great wallpaper finds, please do let me know!