Formal Living Room - Before and After

We have been working a lot lately on the formal living room.  There are soaring cathedral ceilings in the formal.  It was INSANE to paint the largest wall behind the fireplace. It was so scary watching my husband teeter on his tippy toes on the ladder. He rocked this wall though. We most recently painted the largest wall and I've been working on the mantle decor.  We shall not be defeated by this house!

Here is the Before:

Plain Jane walls, but it was awesome to start from a clean slate. By the way, this fireplace is huge.

My 2 year old can walk into it without bending.  It has to be one of my favorite things in this entire house. I have always dreamed of having a big BIG fireplace. 

Here are the latest pics of the room now:

Not too shabby, eh?

I am usually messing around with the mantle decor. I can't seem to get it just right.  I really don't want to clutter it up and I think it only looks right with a few big items on it.  These candle sticks are about 2-4 feet tall and yet they still look dwarfed by the big wall. Hopefully, someday I will get it perfect.

This is my favorite piece in the room. We are Disneyland freaks:

Have you ever seen hand-cut sillouettes made?  We had them done at Disneyland on our last trip and it took the woman about 2 minutes....yes, TWO minutes to cut all of these by HAND by just looking at us.  It was A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.  You HAVE to check that out if you are ever there. It is a must see. (I told you we were freaks)

One more shot of the living room from the staircase:

Ok...one more:

We still have a little more painting to do. You can see under the window area that is not yet done.  I also want to get something to put on top of the curio cabinets.  Any ideas?

Let's review, shall we? :

Before: 

                                After:

Have a productive Thursday!