Home Series: Living Room

If you’re following along on Instagram, you’ve probably my home tour posts in honor of our house’s 100th birthday (yay)! This old gal was built in 1919, so she’s officially a century home this year. When we bought the house in 2012, we thought we’d likely still be here for the birthday,

I realized that several of our rooms haven’t been published yet on the blog, mostly because they haven’t faced any massive renovations. However, I think they still deserve their moment, as they’ve still evolved a lot since we moved in eight years ago (still can’t believe that). Our living room is the first space you see when you enter the house, and it makes me SO happy when people immediately comment on how welcoming and cozy the space is. We felt the same vibe when we stepped into the house with our realtor, even though it looked very different, it still feels incredibly charming. So, come on in!

The biggest project we tackled in this room was replacing the ceiling – there was some existing water damage (all good now) that left the ceiling worse for wear. It was also a popcorn ceiling, so we replaced it with drywall and added some decorative trim pieces to complement the crown molding in the room (shown above). And speaking of trim – the decision of whether or not to paint the wood trim weighed on me for the first few weeks, however I knew it would be a crime to do so. It’s the only room in the house with the original, unpainted cherry wood trim, so we knew it was best to leave it. Initially I was struggling with how to approach the design of the space, make even tricker that there’s not a lot of modern inspiration of rooms with dark trim (although I’m seeing a lot more now). It grew on my quickly and we love it now, it has such a beautiful pattern to it and it adds a historic Lakewood feel to the space.

I’m firmly in the anti-TV-over-the-fireplace camp, so we decided to wall mount our TV and add a gallery of frames and artwork around it. I still have some plans to update the frames and styling, since we did it so long ago – but we’ve kept the layout of the furniture and the space mostly the same. Our brick fireplace was the dark, original brick when we moved in, and stayed that way for a couple of years before I finally whitewashed it. I’d like to give it another coat to make it bolder, though, so that might be one of our winter projects!

With decorating this space, I really wanted it to evolve over time and have a really “collected” feel. Most of our decor and objects have some sort of meaning attached to them, which I think makes the space really reflective of us. The living room of all places should project that warm, embracing feeling and having personal items around really does that. I try to avoid filling a space with “stuff” and allow things to enter the room as we gather them. I used to be more of an impulse shopper — that’s how stores like Target and Home Goods will get you — but now I really don’t feel compelled to buy decor items unless something really speaks to me. Picking things up on vacations is one of my favorite ways to add that special touch to our home — along with just letting things happen as they may. The little skull below was something I picked up for Halloween, but loved it so much, so he stays out for most of the year. I don’t know – just have fun, and don’t take your decorating too seriously!

Since these photos were taken, we’ve added a bit to the space (including our huge faux fig tree that sits to the left of the fireplace) but this is mostly where we’re at! I’ve tagged most of the sources down below; if there’s anything missing that you have questions on, drop me a line! We’ll be covering the dining room next, so stay tuned for that!

Photos by the lovely Kayla Coleman Photography

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SOURCES:

Couch: West Elm | Throw Pillows: Caitlin Wilson, CB2 | Leather Chair: Pottery Barn | Area Rug: Rugs USA | Accent Rug: Rugs USA | TV Stand: West Elm | Coffee Table: Wayfair | Round Mirror: West Elm | Floor Lamp: West Elm | Rope Bowl: Areaware | Curtains and Rods: West Elm | Crock and Jug: Flea Market