Welcome to Our Home: Living Room

When we first got this place, we made a pact to stay home more.  Our goal was to make special family memories in our new space and really, truly enjoy those little things about life.  I wanted to make our living room a place where the kids wanted to play, a place where the adults wanted to relax, and a place where we were excited to host friends.

When we first moved in I was totally stumped by the layout of this living room.  It's not super narrow, but it is very long.  Our last home had a small, boxy living area, so this was all new territory for me.  It took me quite a while to figure out how to make such a long space work, but eventually the room was divided into two sitting areas.  I tried to keep the openness of the room by utilizing smaller pieces of furniture like loveseats and chairs.

Getting some help from friends (I'm looking at you, Rachel) really helped me gain some decorating confidence.  I had all the pieces, but I was really scared of cluttering up my nice white walls, or committing to art.  There was one night when my dear friend, Janae, came over and helped me get all of those things I'd been stockpiling up on the walls and off my floor.  I owe her big time for that.  After that night I was ready to really dive into the rest of the room.

More than the importance of decorating, I wanted to keep our living room personal and functional.  I know what you're thinking... "um, you have a WHITE rug..." The girls have been amazingly careful around the rug.  We've had a couple of spills, but spills happen.  Some of the furniture in the room is still around JUST because it's a jungle gym for giggling little girls.  I love that.  There will come a day when I don't have to worry about Poesy coloring the back of the couch with a red magic marker (yep, that happened), but for now I don't even think twice about it.

You might notice that there is no tv in here.  After some discussion, Johnny and I decided that we would leave the tv out of this particular area.  We have been guilty in the past of leaving the television on at all times, so we decided if we were needing background noise, we would much rather put on a record and listen to music than to have the tv going constantly.  There is a tv upstairs in our bedroom, so when we have family movie nights we all curl up in "mama's bed" (haha- sorry, Johnny!) and watch whatever Netflix pick everyone can agree on.

I'm happy that this room is our dance party room... it's the girls' gymnastics gymnasium (the yellow couch is their balance beam)... it's our "sit and visit with friends" room... it's our music room... it's the place where I sit to have coffee and just relax... it's so many things to us.   I'm happy to be making progress on our home, A) because I enjoy it and B) because it's the perfect setting for us to make more special memories.

Here's a short list of where I found things: leg print via Jordan Grace Owens, family portrait via Pop Pop Portraits, heart garland via Strawberry Moth, white rug & chair cover via Not Too Shaggy, chalkboard USA: thrifted, all furniture: thrifted, record player via ModCloth, flower print w/black background via Amy Blackwell, black mirror: thrifted, plastic canvas cuckoo clock: thrifted, paper dolls and 3 girls art via Wool and Water, Instagram plaques via InstaThis, apple pillow via this DIY