Disclosure: I received a product from CommercialSilk.com in exchange for my honest review. This post may contain affiliate links.
It's been awhile since I last posted about how our house is coming along. To refresh, we bought our house in August 2015, just days before our 3rd anniversary which was really special. Since we bought our home nearly three years ago, I quit my full-time job and we've really had to pinch pennies so that I can stay home with the boys part-time. I've grown to love decorating and making our house a home. Unfortunately, due to our budget constraints we haven't been able to do any of the BIG projects that we envisioned when we bought the house. Instead, I've had to satisfy myself with taking baby steps toward creating a home that is a reflection of us.
I made it one my 2018 goals to tackle our living room. Back in January, we had our first kid-free weekend since Crosby was born. Rather than spending it doing fun things in Cincinnati like normal people, we snuck back home from our hotel room and spent the weekend painting the room. I admit, it was a completely lame way to spend our weekend together. However, it's literally impossible to keep our house clean with two toddler boys underfoot, let alone get any painting or decorating accomplished! Before I painted, I posted some "before" pictures of our living room, so you can see what the space looked like.
Although there are still a few lingering items on my to-do list, there probably always will be. I've reached the point where I'm pretty content with the current state of the room so it felt like it was finally time to share! Without further ado, here's a tour of our living room:
Our Minimalist Happy, Hippie Living Room
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| AFTER |
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| BEFORE |
This is a picture our realtor took before we bought the house. It makes me so happy to see our personalities infused in what was truly a blank slate! The paint color is Valspar Laguna Green. It's a little bit darker and greener than it appears in these pictures, but you get the idea.
The front door opens up to our railing-less porch. The stairs lead upstairs to Crosby's nursery and our attic/bonus room. The coat rack was a birthday gift I bought for Chuck several years ago when we lived in Pittsburgh because he was always complaining that he wanted something to hang his keys on. We never actually used it for that and it stayed in our basement for a few years before I realized it was the perfect little coat rack for the boys. The cuckoo clock was my Mom's. She bought it in Switzerland and it took up residence in the dining room of my childhood home. As she's moved and downsized in recent years, she lovingly bestowed it upon on me.
We bought our couch at Big Lots a couple years ago when they were having a Friends & Family Sale (similar here
). I think we only paid about $300 for it and let me tell you- it was the best investment ever. This couch is the perfect, kid-proof piece of furniture. It's so easy to wipe down when the boys' sippy cups leak or their cereal bar crumbs get everywhere. The curtains are from World Market and I spray painted one of our cheapo floor lamps gold.
If you remember me talking about my Dad's health issues in recent months, you may know that we moved my Dad out of his assisted living apartment and into a nursing home back in January. It was really hard to part with a lot of his possessions (and let me tell you, there were lots). But I claimed a lot of his music-related stuff for our home. The Beatles poster was my Dad's and the guitar was my great-grandfather's. The chair, and it's matching ottoman, actually came from Goodwill! I fell in love the instant I saw it. Admittedly, it does clash with the pattern in our curtains, but I loved it too much to pass up!
On the other side of the room, we've got our bookcase and fireplace.
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| Somehow, the Windex escaped my notice! Haha |
The bookcase was the first purchase I made with a Target gift card we got for our wedding. The elephant bookends were a Secret Santa gift from my sister-in-law and the rainbow woven basket was another wedding gift from Ten Thousand Villages. I use it to keep my library books separated from my owned books.
It's hard to believe, but the gorgeous ficus tree on our side table isn't real. I received the tree from CommercialSilk.com. The shipping was super quick and the quality is fantastic. When I picked it out, I was a little worried that it would appear obviously fake and would stick out like a sore thumb surrounded by my live plants. But it blends in so well and does a great job of hiding our electronic cords. If you have a black thumb, but would like to add some greenery to your home, check out their selection of artificial plants- they have a HUGE selection of trees, bushes, flowers, succulents, and more!
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| AFTER |
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| BEFORE |
The fireplace is non-functioning, so for now it just makes for a pretty focal point in the room and a place to hang our stockings at Christmastime. It's still a bit more bare than I'd like and I'm trying to decide about hanging something in front of the brick, like this macrame garland
. In looking at the original realtor photo, it's still come so far, though!
I love the IKEA picture ledges I found to fit our awkward triangular wall. I am terrible about keeping up with the boys' baby books and our family's photo albums. But I love that I have a place to showcase them...even if they do need some TLC.
Our house is not trendy or chic, but it's ours. I'm really proud of what I was able to do with such a limited income. Our living room is the central room of our house and I love that it finally feels like a true reflection of our family- a happy, hippie oasis.
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