We’ve been buried in home decor books, pinning to our home boards, moving furniture around daily and trying to give this sweet old lady of a house the best layout we can give her. It’s been a month and a half since we moved in and we are slowly figuring things out. When we moved in the night before Thanksgiving, we knew it would be full holiday mode for a while before we even got to the “normal” home style, so when we took down all the Christmas decorations a few days ago (that wreath was the last to go — it still smelled so good!), it was the first time since we moved in that we got to take a really good look at our Tudor. Our sofa has been moved to three different places since we moved in, and we’re thinking the third time was a charm. Our living room is a narrow rectangular shape, so we are trying to create an intimate seating area that allows for conversation without having to yell across the room. Bigger isn’t always better, and we found out quickly that we’d rather have a functional space than a space that just holds a lot of our things.
We have some big plans in the new year for our home. We’ll be sharing the befores and afters, as well as the in betweens on here, along with a few of those not-so pretty, not-so styled corners of this humble abode. We’ll be switching out many of the items we’ve come to love as the layout is just very different from any place we’ve lived in previously. Many of our things are piled up around the house until they find their permanent home, and our plans to create a studio space out of our garage is encouraging us to hold on to the things we are swapping out. We’re getting there though, and our late-night photoshop mock-ups of each room are definitely helping us visualize the final product that will be coming down the line.
As far as renovations, we have a few of those in our plans as well. Keep an eye out this week for a post on the biggest reno we want to tackle first. For now, we’re just trying to get the living room/entry area to be a functional and comfortable area for us. It’s the first thing you see when you walk into the house, so mentally it’s important to us to get it in order. We love this home and how the previous owners cared for it and loved it, but we want every inch of this place to be a reflection of us and that will require a little tweaking with some of the rooms and design. Friday we have the electrician coming to switch out the fans, change out the switch plates and electrical sockets to white for a cleaner look, and moving around the internet hook ups and bedroom light fixtures. We also want to get a painter in here to paint the window frames and then figure out window treatments. We’re stuck between curtains or roman shades. Thoughts?
Our mock-ups and ideas for each room will be shared here and we’d love to hear your feedback and input on the direction we move in as this is our first time owning a house and going through this process. We are overwhelmed, excited, terrified, and a little impatient, but we know if we do it right, we’ll have the home we have always wanted. Our goals are hefty, but we’re hoping to achieve most of them (emphasis on the word “most”) by April/May. We’ll see.
Okay, so living room design! We played very heavily into the mid-century and boho look in our old place, which we still love, but now we’re in a 1930’s home and want to incorporate a few different pieces, even if it just means a change in the textiles to make it feel more period appropriate. We’re envisioning a more neutral color palette, with gray and black accents, minimal accessories and a big focus on art work. We also have been eyeing a few fabric sofas, but are still on the fence about that.
Here are a few images we’re loving below:
What do you guys think? We’re hoping to have this space all put together by the end of the month.
You can see more of our favorites for the living room on Pinterest too. Follow along with us!
It’s looking good! x
Jessica — NinetyCo
Your home already looks GORGEOUS! Good luck with the decorating -can’t wait to see what you guys come up with! <3
http://www.wonderlandsam.com
Can’t wait to hear more about your renovations. I love the third and fourth pictures for inspiration.
I love your style and look forward to seeing how your space turns out. If your on the fence about an upholstered sofa, I absolutly love the West Elm Andes sofa or sectional in Worn Velvet. I’m moving to Arizona next summer and that’s my next sofa. 🙂
I adore the ideas you have for your living room! My fiance and I are also working on bringing in more pieces to our living space and giving it just the right feel. It’s a stressful process, but also so much fun! Hope you guys can enjoy every single second of this new journey with your first home!
Love this! I can’t wait to follow your renovation process and see the plans for your home! We’ve owned our little home for a little over a year and a half and my biggest piece of advice is to not rush the renovations! Our home was a total fixer upper so we had to get the basic things done like painting all of the walls and refinishing the floors right when we moved in. We were SO eager to get things moving on renovations but we waited and let ourselves live in the space for a while before jumping into anything and I’m honestly so glad we did (as much as I can’t stand our current kitchen!!). We finally gutted our bathroom this week and started renovating there which is so exciting! But after living in the space for a year and a half we have such a better feel for how we want to renovate the rest of our home. When we first moved in we had all these ideas but a lot of them changed after living in the space! Hopefully this makes sense 🙂 I can’t wait to see what you guys do!!
Oh, I’m so pleased to have discovered your lovely blog! I think your living room looks amazing already, but love the ideas you have for it too. I’m putting my hand up for the roman shades vote! xxx
Well that gallery wall is perfection. If you ever want company looking for art, you know where to find me. Maybe we need to take an antique road trip 😉
We would love that! We still need to check out that antique mall by your house! 🙂
Hi Christina- Beautiful ideas here :).
I was just wondering- where is your magazine rack from??? Thanks!
Thanks Rachel! We got it from a vintage shop in Seattle – Trove boutique. 🙂
This is very unique designs . feel so good.
I absolutely love your home, style, and blog! I am trying to re-do my apartment similar to the style of yours, but my budget is very small! I was wondering in your living room, where did you mount your TV? I too have a fireplace and don’t want to mount my TV above it, but was thinking about to the side of the fireplace, a little off-center.
Thanks!
Kylie
I miss seeing all of your plants…can’t wait to see them in their new home!
I love your couch!!! Where did you all find it?
Thank you! It’s from West Elm. You can see more photos of it in our old apartment here:
I’ve been going backwards through your content for the last week, and it’s SO cool to see how your mock-ups and inspiration ended up translating into the final reveals later in the year! You guys have done such a good job at transforming your visions into tangible reality—and a BEAUTIFUL reality, at that! I’m hooked on your style 🙂
Hi Carrie – Thank you so much for going through everything. It definitely was a process. I’m so thrilled that everything translated well from start to finish and the process was shown. Interiors are our favorites. Thanks for following along and for the kind words. xo