Living Rooms Are For Living

Living Rooms are for living. We use our living room every single day, and it is just as much of the heart of the home as the kitchen is. Although we don’t watch that much tv, we almost always hang out in here with tunes playing on our Bose Sound bar. If you follow us on instagram you know from our stories we almost always have music playing in the house. I feel like it sets the mood and tone of the house.

I have a serious obsession with design and decorating, and I truly thrive in spaces that are esthetically pleasing. I know this is first world problems however I cannot function in my own personal living spaces if they aren’t pleasing to the eye. I have discovered the amazingness for wanting every single thing in our home to be something I love. So, maybe not every wall is filled with something around here, and maybe the furniture seems minimal. But that is intentional. I’m not saying I won’t ever add more furniture or things, I just pick out the things in our home very carefully.

This living room ended up getting a facelift in the past month or two. We ended up giving the parlor a facelift before Christmas, which triggered the need for updating the living room. Don’t get me wrong. That dark blue paint in the parlor and living room was amazing, but I quickly grew sick of it. I did live with it for four years but who’s counting. I also like to be different from other homes, and I found the navy blue trend showing up everywhere. So why wouldn’t I want to change. I thrive on being different and decorating with unique things.

I’ve also learned that I like to keep large things fairly neutral and then like to decorate with pops of blue typically in things like rugs and pillows. I find it easier to change things out and coordinate with the rest of the home. Another thing I enjoy, Is having a similar flow throughout. It doesn’t have to all be the same, but I do try to maintain somewhat of the same vibe. My favorite combo is white, grey, wood, and pops of black. Mixing white with wood is one of my favorite parts of that combination and it never gets old to me.

We ended up adding crown molding to this room, as we know there was some sort of crown molding in here originally. When we removed the wallpaper we could see marks from some sort of crown, but it had sadly been removed. We went with a pretty large stacked crown for drama, as I cannot get enough of crown molding. I just love it. I find it to completely change a room and make it feel so clean and crisp. One of the challenges of having a very old house is there aren’t very many straight lines. The house is old and has settled. It’s one of the quirks. But you can fix that visually with things like crown molding.

Another trigger of giving this room a facelift was the new couch. The old couch that we had, I hated since day one. It looked pretty, but it was the biggest piece of junk ever. Terrible quality complete with a broken leg that we never had fixed even though it showed up that way from delivery. So yea. I finally pulled the trigger and ordered a big girl couch. You know when you are first buying furniture and things for your house are a lot of hand me downs, cheap things, or whatever. I was finally ready to invest in something that would hopefully stand up to the two wild little boys that live here. I went with a classic Chesterfield from Pottery Barn in a medium gray with the basketweave fabric. It’s supposed to be there most durable fabric and hard to stain. Going with a couch that was lighter in color certainly needed to be durable around here.

The rest of the things you find in our photos are all old! The Eastlake dresser you see for a tv stand, the Eastlake Victorian Pier mirror, and the leaded glass windows all came from the holy grail, craigslist. My all time go to when shopping for our house is Craiglist. I don’t buy used when it comes to something like a couch or mattress (barf) but everything else is free game to me. I buy and sell on Craigslist all the time, and it’s absolutely my favorite website when it comes to shopping second hand. A lot of people tell me that they never have luck with craigslist. The biggest secret isssss there is none. You just have to constantly look. Most people scroll facebook on their phones, I scroll Craigslist. Multiple times a day. I must say the late 1800s Church board you see in the photos came from Facebook Marketplace. That may be the only thing I’ve ever bought on Facebook Marketplace. Another fun place to look but not my favorite. The leaded glass window in the big picture window came from a cute flea market in the north woods of Wisconsin, and the gold hooks I’m using for blankets came from Goodwill. My point is, I love to look all over the place for second hand treasures. I get this addiction from my mother, as she loves the thrill of a good find as well. When I think of childhood some of my favorite memories are going to rummage sales and estate sales with my mom. She’s the reason I’m like this and I wouldn’t change it that’s for sure.

Enjoy some Inspo from this updated living room post, and check out the links below to create a similar look in your own homes!

Check out the links below if you’d like to create a similar look in your home. I always treat home decor and Inspiration found online as just that. Inspiration. Take the ideas of someone else to spark your own creativity, and make it your own. The options are endless and there are no rules with decorating. For me it is my creative outlet to create beauty in my home and share it for the world to see.