One of the things I was most excited about when we moved into our new home was decorating. However, one of the things we neglected to account for was when you buy a larger home, you have to buy more furniture and decor to fill it up. It’s been more than two years since we moved into our home and we aren’t nearly close to being fully “moved in.” One of the rooms in our home, though, that I have close to complete is our living room.
Our living room doesn’t get much use. Aside from the occasional visitor and quiet mommy time while my daughter is sleeping, it’s basically just there to look pretty. Prior to moving out of my parents’ home, I was mostly into Asian-inspired design. However, I opted for a different style with our home. For our living room, I decided on a lighter color palette with black to balance things out and little pops of color in certain areas.
Freshly moving into a home, we decorated on a budget. One of the first things we bought for the room was a sofa. I wanted a white sofa but the thought of someone sitting on it in brand new denim and leaving a mark scared the heck out of me. We found this one at a random furniture store in Buena Park (I forgot the name of the shop). It’s a good compromise between what I really wanted and what was practical. It’s a light cream color what satisfied my need for something bright and it’s also microfiber material so it’s easy to clean. The bottom cushions are firm which I much prefer versus softer cushions that you sink into. Added bonus: it folds out to a full-size bed. Yay for sofa beds! The frilly throw pillows are in an ivory color that I purchased I believe from Ross for around $15.00 each.
The next thing we bought was this FAB rug. It’s a low pile rug which was important to me so dirt doesn’t hide in there but it’s still super soft. It’s a large floral design with black, different shades of gray, and a muted cream color. The colors go very well with our window curtains which are also black with a grey embroidered designed (you can see a glimpse of them in the first photo of this post). My mom fought me for the longest time when I told her I wanted black curtains but I told her to trust me. Anyway, I got the rug for a great price– $99.00 at Home Depot. Best score!
Our coffee table is the Lack coffee table from Ikea in white. Initially, I wanted it in birch but it was sold out when we went to Ikea. We went with white instead and I am very happy with that decision. You can find the table here. It’s lines are simple and clean, there’s a shelf underneath for storage, and it really pops against our rug. I believe it’s also the same coffee table that ThatsHeart has.
I got two of these arm chairs from another random furniture shop for, I think, $60.00 each. You can’t really tell from the photo but they’re a dark chocolate brown color. Originally, I was going to use them in our family room but our sofa takes up so much room that I just stuck them in our living room for extra seating.
Our mantel is cluttered with lots of fun stuff: Khloe’s 1st and 2nd birthday photos (both photos were taken by me), a family photo from the L.A. Zoo, some fun lanterns from Ikea, shiny silver candle from Michaels, three little white birds also from Michaels, a couple of “vases” I made out of empty wine bottles wrapped in twine, another vase I DIY’d with pink silk tulips, and an abstract painting I made a few months ago.
Next to our sofa, we have this simple metal side table which is also from Ikea called the Lindved (you can get it here). We actually got the Klingsbo side table for this spot but my mom liked it so she took that table and we got the Lindved. On top of it are another vase I DIY’d which you can’t see (it’s another white and silver vase), filled with silk peonies which are one of my favorite flowers, a digital picture frame that is only turned on when we have visitors, and a couple of recent DIY projects I did.
I’ve been wanted to make another painting for our living room for the longest time. Yesterday, I let my daughter do some painting since she’d been asking to for a while so at the same time I plopped down and made this initial painting. The A stands for “amazing.” Oh, and it’s also the first letter of our last name. The three guys in front of the painting are some plastic animal figurines that I handpainted in white and have gold and rose chrome details. I’m thinking about listing them in my Etsy shop— what do you think, yes or no? They can be used simply as room decor, I’ve even used them as ring holders.
And, of course, our daughter has her own special spot in the living room:
Her grandma got her this Hello Kitty tent from a yard sale or something for $3.00. Not bad but it got a reeeeeally deep cleaning before Khloe even got to step anywhere near it. She doesn’t use it as often and she did when she first got it but it’s a nice place to store some of her toys– she’s got LOADS of them. Oh and, yes, those are Christmas lights still hung on our stairway. They’ve been up for this long, I might as well leave them up for next Christmas!
There are just a couple other things in our living room that I haven’t shown you– our bookcase which isn’t anything exciting, and my new sewing/craft area which is in the works.
Hope you enjoyed!
mahalmade 