Picture Perfect

One of the biggest ah-ha moments I’ve had while blogging is how different my rooms look when photographed vs. looking at them in person. There are a few rooms in my house that I consider “done” or at least nothing needs to be changed immediately. I used to think of my living room as one of those rooms until I saw photos that I took  for a post last week.

Here’s the first photo I took:

The first thing I noticed in this photo was the lack of color in the room and how bare the back of the leather chair looks. The leather was screaming for some softness. So, I decided to put a throw blanket on the back of the chair.

Take two:

What was I thinking?  A throw blanket on the back of the chair was not going to take care of the problem. It was no mistake, those couch pillows had to be addressed–I needed to bring in more color.

So, take three!

Definitely liking more color on the couch and like the idea of four different pillows (I took these from our couch in the basement). I was making progress, but still felt like something was missing.  I emailed Tessa the photo and she noticed that the ottoman needed some interest and height.  So I added some flowers (these were moved from the side table in the original shot–as much as I love the idea, I won’t always have flowers on my ottoman), a throw and flipped the pillow over that was on the chair so that the beige linen side was showing.

Take four:

Not sure about the color orange for this room but definitely like the four different ones and pop of color. Maybe now I have an excuse to shop Fab and grab some of those awesome pillows I talked about last week.

So remember if you need help deciding if an item works in a room or the room is generally coming together, take a photo. Photos don’t disguise anything and will help you decide what the room is missing. I was probably most bummed about the pillows I originally had on the couch but for now they are tucked away in a closet–I’m sure they’ll end up in another room soon enough!