The Heart of Our Home

SHOP OUR LIVING ROOM:

Yesterday I took you on a tour of our renovation process and today is the fun part!  New paint and refinished hardwoods were both completed prior to us moving in.  Once all of those major construction details were finished up it was time to shop, shop, shop.  There honestly wasn’t too much living room furniture that we transferred to our new home from our previous one.  As I talked about before, our former home was about eight years old and my style had changed quite drastically from my 20’s to my 30’s.  Our ottoman, distressed blue hall table and black/gold mirror were the only repeats.  Here’s the full before/after view…

AFTER

Although my obsession with color is quite extreme, I do strongly believe in some great neutral basics.  Throw on some fun summer, spring or Christmas pillows, add a colorful  throw and you can completely change up the look.  Our sectional was my first purchase and we absolutely LOVE it!  When I was pregnant with Addison eight years ago we purchased our first sectional.  I always envisioned these as huge, fluffy, pop-up foot rest, eye sores.  However, I found more streamlined options and one week in I was obsessed.  We now have two in our home and two in our cabin.  This one is the Elliott Fabric Sectional from Macy’s.  I think the color is either creme or stone.  I honestly can’t remember!

I’d like to take a quick moment and address a question I am bombarded with ALL the time…  “How do you keep white furniture so clean with kiddos??”  First, I am crazy about two things in my home: toting food around the house and wearing shoes inside.  I always have been and always will be a stickler on those two things.  And let’s be honest, our breakfast room table is a whopping six feet behind our sofa.   Mickey might be about 1″ smaller from that vantage point but I think my kiddos can handle that.  So given those two things, we don’t really have any problems with keeping things relatively stain free.  They get dirty fingers and marker spots every so often but this fabric always cleans up nicely.  No lie my hubby spilled an ENTIRE glass of red wine on it once and it all came off.  Microfiber, faux siede and textiles like that with a short pile are much easier to clean than a cotton duck fabric.  I do always purchase the Macy’s furniture protection plan which is HUGELY helpful and will help any “uh oh” moments for up to five years!

Okay, moving right along…  my inspiration color that I used to tie together each room on our main level is Really Teal by Sherwin Williams.  Even with the wonderland we have going on in our home, this common theme helps create a sense of cohesion.  I found these AMAZING teal chairs and I knew they would be the perfect touch to accent our fireplace wall.  They are seriously TO. DIE. FOR.  We don’t sit in them often but they are comfortable and such a statement piece.  With these accent pieces, I can then add any complimentary color to the room and it all works with the room and with the adjoining rooms.  There’s a little peek at my color secrets!  The gold striped pillows on each chair are from HomeGoods and the fringe throw is from Anthropologie.  For more details on the bookcase wallpaper, read “Renovating Our House Into A Home.”

Next up on the social media comment list, OUR RUG!  Holy moly do I get asked about our rug.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  It’s the perfect patterned, yet still completely neutral, soft and cozy area rug.  WARNING: it sheds more than a log haired German Shepard for the first month!  And yes, I know because we have one.  However, once you vacuum, vacuum and vacuum some more it will all be okay and your sanity will return.

Another big statement piece in our living room and something I almost love as much as my first born is our chandelier.  Kidding, kidding…  BUT it is pretty dang amazing.  We had a ceiling fan installed and it quit working in no time (wonder who did that?!?) so my hubby let me replace it with this wood beaded beauty.  It’s larger than it looks in pictures too.  I always encourage clients to play with scale in a large room and especially a large room like this with high ceilings.  Something small would be totally lost in the room.  This piece measures 46″ tall.  You can read more about this installation in “Oh Happy Day”.

Wood Bead Chandelier

Sconce Lighting…

Sinuous Metal Sconce

Last and most certainly NEVER least, accessorizing!  Aside from lighting, accessorizing is my absolute favorite part of design.  If you are afraid of incorporating color but would love to, adding pops of color through throw pillows and decor is the easiest way to do so.  I wish I could take you on the crazy tour of how my brain works pulling things together.  That’s one question I get asked so often but it’s hard to sum up in a blog post.  Like I said I would start with an inspiration color or inspiration piece and some great basics.  Use pops of that color here and there and then to fill in, buy what you love.  I usually purchase things that catch my eye and then find a spot for them later.  Usually once a room is somewhat accesorized, I am able to fill in knowing exactly what is missing and exactly what I am looking for.  And what’s the worst that can happen?  If it doesn’t work, return it!  I also love mixing patterns and things that don’t “match”.  Matchy-matchy is not my personal cup of tea.  Don’t worry I will be doing a lengthy post soon on mixing patterns.  In the meantime, here’s a full living room tour and scroll WAY on down for the lengthy break-down of where it ALL came from…

SHOP OUR LIVING ROOM:

XOXO, Brittany Hayes