Living Room Updates and a Tour

Ok, first let me set the record straight, this is not a post you will see very often.

I do not typically move my furniture around or redecorate my home very often. Once I have things the way I like them, they pretty much stay that way until I redecorate for Christmas and Halloween…or move. That’s about the only time it changes or occasionally when I get something new.

Since I don’t like chotchkies (they tend to make small spaces look cluttered and I hate clutter), and I really only keep things I absolutely love around me, I really don’t need to move or change much…once it finds it’s perfect home.

That is the key part here…once it finds its perfect home. That usually doesn’t take me long since I mentally decorate a room well before my stuff ever makes it there.

But with that said, since purchasing my home a year and half ago, I’ve had a vision…a vision that would require new furniture and new things. You know how it is when you are a renter, you work with what you have because you don’t know might work in your next place.

But when I bought my home, I no longer needed to work with what I had. I could purchase with ONLY this house in mind!! It’s exciting to know I won’t be moving anymore and that THIS is the home I will be in for many years (hopefully).

So, slowly I have been making this house the home I envisioned. Like this summer when I was able to trade in my 6 year old couch and chair (which I purchased out of the classified from a rich lady who had never sat on it…SCORE!) for the sectional I knew was the perfect solution to my small living room (which I got off Craiglist for half the price of a new one…with a pullout bed…SCORE again!).

I had planned from the beginning to modernize more in this home. Not modern by any stretch, but not so “Granny’s Cottage”. I wanted something ‘cleaner’ looking. This look was too busy for what I knew I wanted in this home ultimately:

So, it wasn’t long after I moved in and got settled that I began to go from that look and started to make the transition.

Enter this room:

I traded my ex-husband the ottoman for the coffee table I now have, figuring it was going to be a temporary placeholder until got what I really wanted...but that big old thing is growing on me, darn it!  We use it almost daily to do crafts on.

So, after I got the sectional, I went to this look:

Getting there...but the pictures weren’t quite right. They really bothered me. They were too straight, or too sterile or something. Plus I really needed light on that side of the room.

So, I moved them and added light:

I got the wall lamps back in July on a road to trip to Ohio to visit the nearest IKEA. It had become clear I needed more lighting for things like reading, crafts, etc. Since I couldn’t lose any space by adding something like a table behind the sofa, this was the next best solution.

But still, something wasn’t right. It was warmer, yes, but still kind of sterile or too symmetrical. I lived with it for awhile and I knew it still had to change. So, a couple weeks ago I made some more changes.

I added sheers back behind the orange curtains again. I used to have them there but loaned them to my friend for staging his house. Don’t you know…the woman who bought his house included the curtains in her contract! So, I finally replaced them.

I added nesting tables I got on my trip to IKEA to replace the small black table. I added a cozy animal print throw and the biggest change…I added a shelf behind the couch and removed 2 of the pictures!

I think I may FINALLY have it!! (On this side of the room anyway! LOL)

This is ME!!! Warm, cozy, inviting, clean, organized, and not sterile or boring!

I only kept my two favorites of the pictures up (which was cut from a larger print – it was WAY cheaper than having the odd sized original framed), plus to the shelf I added a fake plant from IKEA, the blocks I made of the Doodle and the cats earlier this year, an awesome little plate I just got at JCPenney’s on clearance (for $3.20!), and a finial-y-fleur-de-le-y-thingy (also on clearance for $3 and change at Garden Ridge several months ago) and a battery operated candle (on clearance at Target for $9!).

Oh, and um, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m CHEAP!! And proud of it!! LOL

I added a box to the coffee table to store the remotes in because they make me nuts sitting out. Have I mentioned I LOVE leopard print?? :) I got that at Home Goods not long ago. It was a little on the pricey side for me at $15, but I had to have it!

There’s the succulent I got on clearance at Michael’s (ok, yes, it’s fake…I’m having some plant killing issues lately…I've lost my confidence momentarily...sue me) and a warm candle (which I’m going to figure out a way to cover the labels very soon!).

On the nesting tables, I have an older but favorite picture of the Doodle, the Dollar Tree box and bird I redid and another fake plant from IKEA.

Oh, and something I’ve not shown you yet (because getting a good picture is near impossible), which I did about six months ago and LOVE…my orange accent wall!! You see this as soon as you walk into my house.

My beloved pie safe.

You’ve seen the technique I used on the lamp shade here. The frame is another Dollar Tree redo (which I never showed you because it was pre-blogging), scrapbook paper covered old dictionaries, another fake plant, and my little plaque my friend got me that says “I’m not a crazy cat lady, I’m THE crazy cat lady” :), with my Kirkland clearance plates over to the side that I’ve had for years.

The vignette on top of the TV cabinet, with my garage sale lamp, books I actually like and read, a birdhouse I’ve had forever (but recently added to the top of a Goodwill candlestick for height), another Dollar Tree frame redo, and a topiary (whose details will be shared soon in a No Function Friday).

And that’s it! This may be the last real look you get of my living room for awhile because I think it’s finally found its perfect balance between modernized and cozy!!!

Oh, and let's not forget...I plan to have Bamboo floors put in the living room, kitchen, and hall in the spring!  Good-bye nasty stained carpet!  Our parting of ways can't come soon enough!  :)

Until next time…