welcome home

When we moved into our home about a year and a half ago, it needed a lot of work. Everything was beige, I mean everything. Beige carpets, beige walls (you can see the carpet on the stairs, it's still there and upstairs and kind of gross). It offended me on a very bland level. Before we moved in, Ryan put hardwood floors in the downstairs, and we painted as much as we could. Since then I've been working on decorating, and it's sometimes been a struggle. I'm very particular about my surroundings and I want it to feel 'right'. I've settled in on a mix of new and old things and have finally found some harmony here. Now that I'm in a comfortable place with how the living room looks I'm ready to show it off. I've put a lot of time into it! If you know me, you know I don't half ass things. It needs some more stuff on the walls, and some work  here and there, but I finally feel that it's coming together. I've been working on the dining room as well and it's getting closer, so that will be next.

The upstairs needs a lot more work. My studio is up here, and besides that, just about everything needs to be renovated.

Here are some shots of the living room as it is now. I'm switching all of the pillows over for spring to make it feel a little more summery, but I'm not ready yet. I really love those damn fur pillows.

It's hard to see, but that white elephant above the entryway is from Etsy. The butterflies are real butterflies that were mounted (by Ryan and I) in shadowboxes. The ship was a thrifting find, along with the red chair and the white sofa table (you can see it in a few pics below) that I repainted. It was originally black gloss and painted terribly.

That red poofy thing? That thing is ridiculous. I saw it, thought it was both hideous and intriguing, and left the store. Needless to say I couldn't stop thinking about it and brought it home the next day (I tend to do this often).

This is what it looks like when you come in through the front door and foyer. There's the table that I painted several times, until I finally realized that it would be perfect in white. The chairs on each side of the fire place are both thrifted. The green chair is velvet and was left as is. I painted the other chair metallic silver and reupholstered the chair with a burlap fabric. When I bought it, it was a dark wood with a very 60s orange and red fabric seat. Kinda cool, but definitely didn't work for what I wanted. It was $8 for the chair and maybe $10 for the materials to redo it. I really love when that happens.

Here's a little shot of the desk/filing cabinet in the corner of the room. Both are from Target. The alligator is a bank that I found thrifting and of course had to have. The chair was $8 and it's awesome. The fabric on the seat is a darker shade of red and perfectly faded.

And here's a little shot of the entrance. You can probably tell by now that I have a thing for graphic rugs. In fact, my favorite one isn't in any of these photos so I'll have to get on that. I have a really hard time not buying them when I see them.

I hope you like it! I am proud of it so far. If you have any suggestions on what I should do with the walls (paintings, mirrors, etc), feel free to leave a comment below!