Our Living Room: A Work In Progress

We've lived in this house for a little over 3 years now. We've been slowly but surely making it our own. The house had been completely remodeled before we moved in so we had a blank slate: white walls and beige carpet. Our living room has been the slowest room to get done. We replaced the carpeting with laminate 2 years ago and I FINALLY just painted. So, it is still a work in progress as I am still working on getting frames for pictures, etc, but here is the progress we've made:

This is right after we put in the laminate flooring - we have since rearranged the furniture and the piano is now in the spot where the TV was and the TV is now where the couch was.

Getting started with the primer - Eric caught me writing love notes

This is red primer left over from painting our bedroom - I figured it would work just as well as any other primer and I'm cheap so I just used what I had!

This is after I got a bunch of the trim done with the "Deep Garnet" color that is to be the final color: Haylie wanted to help so I gave her a little brush and let her go crazy - she wanted to be naked so she wouldn't get paint on her clothes. Smart girl.

Here's the final color - 2 primer coats and 2 main coats later! I only painted one wall because the color I chose is very dark and the room is not very big.

So this is about the same view as the first picture. Like I said - it's a work in progress - I'm gonna have a few picture frames on the piano, I'd like to get a BIG plant for the corner - and I'm probably going to have a series of framed black and white pictures above the TV. Some day we'll be able to afford a nice flat screen for that wall, but we'll make do for now. ;-)

A huge thank-you to my friend Jennifer for teaching me how to quickly and effectively paint a straight line down my bullnose corners (the rounded corners in the doorway) and along the ceiling, walls, and baseboards. It involves painters tape and caulk! If you do not know about this little trick, ask me or Jennifer and it will change your feelings about painting forever!!! It is especially useful if you have textured walls. I'm thinking about re-painting my bathroom just so I have an excuse to do it again! hahaha!

I am totally open to suggestions for hanging pictures on the walls, etc. I'm interior-design challenged so if you have a good idea, please share! Also tell me what you think about the paint on only one wall - should I do more?