Home Tour: Living Room

OUR FORMAL LIVING ROOM connects directly to the family room. The previous owners of this home had the walk-through between the two spaces blocked off by a sectional couch. I opted to keep the space open and re-formatted the layout so that the two rooms would flow nicely together. Now, while hosting guests, it can sometimes feel like one big great room where everyone is included in the party. My goal for this room, overall, was to create a space that was a bit more formal/contemporary than the family room, but still cozy enough for us to spend together as a family. Kiel and Alec spend a lot of time at the piano together and all the natural light has made the sofa a perfect spot for me to catch up on some reading during Alec's afternoon nap.

Because of our small budget, we tried to transition as much of our old furniture into this space as we could. We hung our ivory linen drapes from Pottery Barn, and our sectional floor lamp stands behind our brown leather arm chair. We purchased the Crosby Sofa from West Elm. We opted for the pebble weave material in a deep blue shade that I absolutely fell in love with in the store. We also purchased an ivory wool area rug to add a bit of texture to the space.

When I first envisioned this room, I knew I wanted to incorporate music somehow.  Just as we moved in, a free piano sort of fell into our laps, which really sealed the deal for me. The piano couldn't have fit more perfectly into the space. We did our best to bring it into the 21st century by re-upholstering the seat with the a basic ivory fabric from Jo-ann's. Above the piano, we hung an old sheet music map canvas print that I found online for a great price. We have our Crosley record player displayed on our old shelving unit from our previous home (similar here). Above the record player, we created a gallery wall of framed black and white family photos and two different art pieces, one of which Kiel made from old pallet wood. Many of the frames displayed are from Homegoods or the Threshold line at Target. 

There are still a few tweaks, here and there, that I would like to make, but overall this is probably the most 'complete' space in our home. I hope to eventually replace the tree in the corner with a live plant, but nothing I have found thus far has been quite large enough to fill the space completely. I would also like to eventually purchase a coffee table for this room (I've go my eye on this one), but for four hundred bucks, I think we will remain as is. Overall, I really love this room. Being that we were limited to a small budget, I think we did a pretty decent job. (For the record, I realize that I am by no means a talented 'interior decorator', but I do enjoy it so I thought I'd share. Any suggestions welcome!

The kitchen and dining room still need quite of bit of updating before I am willing to share. Over the fall and winter months, we are hoping to focus on these two areas of the house. We would really like to replace the kitchen cabinets, but the budget is limiting us a bit…so it is looking more like a fresh coat of paint and some new hardware. If we decide to go all out, we may try and create some open shelving and possibly a subway tile backsplash. Kiel is also planning on building a farmhouse table for the dining room. We've got big plans, here's hoping we can deliver. Stay tuned, our outdoor space will be up sometime soon!

Home Tour: Family Room

I fully recognize that the quality of these photos isn't stellar, but I did my very best. The lighting was super tricky. I am working on finding some before shots of the same space so that I can truly display all the changes and hard work we put into this home over the last four months. 

Trying to furnish and decorate a house on a small budget can be super challenging. Since Alec was born, I cut back my hours at work pretty drastically, so Kiel and I really had to sit down and focus hard on our finances. Fortunately, Homegoods and Target have been super good to me lately and, not to mention, the fact that my husband has suddenly turned into this incredibly creative handyman. He did a number of awesome things in this room. He ripped out some old built-ins next to the fireplace. He hand-made and stained two wooden pallet shelves. He painted our old coffee table a nice shade of blue and it works really well in the room now. 

We did need to purchase quite of few new items to fit this space; such as the henry sectional in heather grey. We opted for a marled microfiber fabric because of it's durability and of course, we sprayed on a thick coat of scotch guard. I found these patterned curtains  to frame the walk-out slider. The white shelving unit and television stand are both from IKEA. I replaced the hardware on the media stand with something a bit more unique. Much of the shelving and mantle decor comes from Homegoods and Target. The framed print  is from Society 6, a creative online shop full of interesting prints and designs. I also purchased this one for the formal living room. All of the greenery in this room are live plants or flowers. I change them out often, so there may be some inconsistency in the photos above.

Our family room is where we spend most of our time. You can't see it here, but we normally have our pop'n'play set up in one of the corners of the room. We fill it with a couple of Alec's favorite toys and it is a perfect little spot to put my boy while I cook dinner or clean. I hope to eventually change out the fireplace doors for a more updated look (the brass is killin me). I will probably try and go with something basic like this one I found at Home Depot. I am also hoping to replace our area rug with something a little larger and maybe a bit more plush like this one. 

More Home Tour posts to come later this week! Stop by to check out our formal living room and our outdoor space!