Let's start at the very beginning...

Formal living room/dining room...  Or at least that's what the home builder calls them.  Um...  Eat on carpet?  I don't think so!   So I call it the living room/game room.  One day when the boys know better, maybe my old dining table can be the game zone (though now with 3 chairs since Ro brought about the first demise of my VERY long lasting Ikea chairs today).

I hate heights, so to bring in some color to the rooms, I painted to the lower ceiling height level and brought it across, and then painted a tree mural with specks of color from around the house.  AND THERE ARE BIRDS!!!  And some cactus, and some very flat rocks.

The living room furniture is B'sold bachelor stuff, and the wall art represents his trip to Africa when he was in the Air Force, a giant R which I painted, and a picture my mom got him when I was first allowed to redecorate his bachelor pad (remember that).  And it all works!

The faux stained glass is vinyl cling (thank you, Lowes).  We get relentless sun down here, so anything helps.