After somewhere around 7 years of apartment/duplex living, we are finally living in a house! We went from a 1000 square foot apartment to a 1700 square foot house and are so happy to have the space. In fact, it’s so much space that we’re having to budget out every month the things we want to fill it! That’s why today’s post is just a sneak peek, instead of the fully finished product.
But I honestly couldn’t wait to show you the space after I polled everyone on Instagram stories and they said they were all about seeing some home content. I think it’s fun to play with interior decorating just like it’s fun to play with fashion…the only thing is that it’s more permanent! Unless you have money to change out your design all the time (umm I don’t).
Since we’re renting the house there are some things we can’t change that I would REALLY like to. The fireplace mantel, dining room light fixture, and curtain rods/fixtures really aren’t my style, but that’s okay. Since we’re a military family who will end up moving in a few years, it doesn’t make sense to spend money on changing things. Instead we focused on what we could add to the room to make it our own style.
I love mixing prints, textures, and styles together in a living space. Matchy matchy is just too boring to me! So we have a chesterfield style sofa, midcentury modern style chair, antique style chair, and glam coffee table all on top of a boho rug and accented with patterned pillows. Makes sense, right?!
I actually love the way it is coming along so far! Even though it’s a more formal living area, I still spend a good amount of time here. I love having my coffee here in the mornings or taking time in the evenings to work on my blog on the couch.
…or having a glass of wine while I hang with Rascal 🍷🐾
So you’re ready to decorate your living room? Or bedroom, family room, dining room, any space! Here are my tips for getting your interior designer on.
Make A Pinterest Board for Inspiration
I have this problem where I like a ton of different styles; I love a little farmhouse, a little modern, a little glam, a little midcentury modern, a little boho. Depending on the day of the week, I’ll probably tell you a different decorating style is my favorite. Which is not great if you’re trying to nail down how you actually want your space to look in real life.
So I started making a Pinterest board with all of my favorite living room spaces and I was finally able to see what they had in common, and what I would ACTUALLY want. Not just what sounded good based on my mood. Most of the spaces I pinned had clean lines, a mix of modern and antique styles, printed pillows, and boho rugs. This really helped me style what I already owned into the space and figure out what I wanted to buy to complete it.
Budget Your Purchases
Our new house has both a formal and informal living space, which we’ve never had before. So we need to buy basically a whole new room’s worth of furniture to fill it up. And even if you’re buying things on sale or at more affordable stores, it really adds up! The first thing we bought for the space was this gold and glass coffee table that I had been eyeing FOREVER.
Even though it’s not that expensive (under $150), we still waited to buy it about a month after we moved into our place. And about a month after that, we ordered a large mirror for over the fireplace and bookshelf for the corner behind the couch. When it comes to finishing a space, give yourself time for your budget and also to find the right piece.
Make It Personal
My husband and I both hate when spaces feel generic…like hotel lobbies or rooms. When there’s nothing special or personal about the space to say what kind of person lives there. It’s just boring! So I made a point to bring books to the coffee table that mean something to us. There’s one about champagne (we love to drink it and have been to Champagne, France twice), two books about Richmond, VA (a city we’re dying to get back to one day), and one about weekend travel in the US.
As of right now I feel like our living room is lacking in the personality department besides the coffee table, so we have a bookshelf coming in that I’ll use to put photos of us along with our friends and family. It will go where the white ladder is in the photo below.
Once we finish up the living room I’ll be sure to post the full reveal. I’m excited to share more about our first house together and how we’re making it a home!
