First Home: Living Room

Well I finally got my living room picture collection together! I’ve been running around the country these past couple of weeks getting my stuff together, moving, and starting my new job—so things have been pretty crazy for me. The living room was kind of hard for me to set up, with the big sliding glass doors on one side of it that kind of eliminate space that you can put things, but I eventually figured out a decent set up. The main thing I learned about interiors while putting together this room is about rugs. The rug in this picture is the third rug. The first one I had was a super plush white one that I could not resist purchasing. It was so soft and thick I could have slept on it. Now, I highly do NOT recommend purchasing a fluffy white no matter how badly you think you want it or how capable you think you are of being able to clean it. It turned gray within six months, could not be vacuumed because tiny threads would get forever caught within the fluff, and it also weighed quite a bit so there was no way I was going to casually drag it out of the house to a laundromat with mega washers every month. I did away with that cute fuzzy one after I couldn’t stand how disgusting it looked and opted for a natural cecil rug with massive weaves next. This one was cool looking and went with my natural, rainforest-y theme I have going but it refused to stay in one place and at one time, the Mastiff I was fostering pooped all over it, and the internet’s recommendation for cleaning poop out of a thick natural fiber rug is getting on your hands and knees with baking soda and a spoon and spooning it out. The last rug, pictured, is like a partially weaved and sort of plastic-y option which is not exactly my favorite but much more functional. Nothing gets caught in the weaves, you can vacuum it just fine, but I definitely wouldn’t take a nap on it.

Overall, I had fun putting it together—my mom gave me the art, vases, sticks, lamp, chandeliers, and the leaf pillow, so that helped me out a lot. The sweet chairs (which are actually for the outdoors) I got at Home Goods, as well as my little embroidered puppy pillows! Couch is from Furniture Mart and the plants are from Lowe’s. :) The buffet is a custom renovated piece from my parent’s old house!

The buffet pictured below is actually a combination of my mom’s designer brain, my dad’s handiwork, my painting efforts, and my boyfriend’s drilling skills! This piece came out of my parents’ old kitchen—it was actually a cabinet unit that existed over the peninsula as seen in the picture of the orange-y kitchen below. When my parents first moved in, they found this piece sitting in a storage room—already taken out of the kitchen. My mom looked at it and immediately saw a new vision. She had a concrete slab made for the top of it, my dad welded together a new stand, and voila—a new piece of furniture! My mom ended up remodeling her own kitchen so she gave me the piece for my home. I decided to paint it white, to match my space, and I picked out the pull handles to match my kitchen. Turned out pretty good for a four person collaborative effort! And I really love being able to transform otherwise useless and wasted objects into something new and trendy.

This is my parents’ kitchen when they moved into it 15+ years ago. It definitely looks different now :-) Peep the chandelier tips in this photo that I also am now adorning in my new living room! Thanks to mom for all the decor :D