Sloooooowly but surely our living room is taking shape.
If I were only allowed to decorate one room, the living room would totally be it based on how much time we spend in it. I talked in a recent post about how much life happens in a living room, so I envision ours to be max comfortable but also well-put together and strategically designed. Most importantly, I want to do it all within our single-income means. I’m quickly learning that decorating a great space doesn’t have to require a bunch of cash!
So here’s what we’ve been up to.
After weeks of trying to figure out where to put the piano, we finally found a great spot – the entry way!
Once they moved it and I decorated it similar to how I had the original entry table, I stepped back and surprisingly loved what I saw. Jamie quickly let out a sigh of relief and a loud “Happy wife, happy life!”. He kills me. 🙂
I debated moving Hadley’s toys out of the way for this picture, but I figured that I’d just keep it real. 😉
Our handyman is finally starting work on the trim, door frames, and doors tomorrow, so soon that coat closet will have a six-panel white door with a white doorframe. I’m also shopping around for a new light fixture, but I’d say that actually purchasing one is about #20 on my priority list.
I used the following inspiration picture as a semi-guide to decorating the original table/now piano.
I decorated the piano with a tall glass cylinder that we used at our wedding.
Side note about this portion of our wedding: Our parents spent time with our preacher the night before the wedding collecting ocean water (in the smaller glasses) and in prayer over our marriage. During our wedding, we combined the water similar to how many light unity candles. I love any excuse to talk about our wedding because it was absolutely the best. day. ever. so I apologize for this random info. 🙂
Anyway!
For the rest of the decorating, I grabbed some faux flowers that I had hanging around as well as an old cheapo gold frame, elephant statue (I’m considering spray-painting this guy white), and an old Walmart table lamp. I’m satisfied.
I also finally found some curtains. I knew I wanted to incorporate some blue ikat print somewhere in my living room but wasn’t sure where. While browsing Marshalls with my mom Saturday morning, I found this 96″ curtain panel pair for $30 total! I was so pumped. I also grabbed a $16 rod and then $15 in matching rings from Home Depot. An hour later I had less hair (I loathe hanging curtains) but curtains on the wall!
I stepped back and didn’t love how sheer they ended up looking when the sun was shining through. As you can see below, the deep navy color and beautiful pattern basically disappeared when the sun shone through.
I quickly dove through the house to find the set of black-out panels I’d purchased from Amazon months ago for Hadley’s room but didn’t end up using (they weren’t wide enough for her windows). My mom and I clipped them right in behind each panel, and then I stepped back and stared at them for an hour with giddy. I love how they look and love that they were so inexpensive. Marshalls for the win!
Now I just can’t wait to kiss those brown windows and blinds goodbye!
Finally, my first gallery wall is complete! I still need to swap out some pictures, but that’s the easy part.
I did some research over the weekend about how to put together a gallery wall, and I ended up reading the same tips over and over again.
1. Keep some type of general shape (I stuck to the common rectangle).
2. Don’t have an obvious center.
3. Only use pieces that you love.
I looked at a bunch of inspiration pictures on Sunday, and this one was my favorite.
My sister came over yesterday while her house was being appraised, so while Hadley napped she and I ventured down to the dungeon (our basement) and sorted through piles and piles of home décor. I haven’t hung much on our walls because I have only painted a few rooms and plan to paint almost all of them. Trying to remember to enjoy letting the house evolve.
Once we each had a pile of things we liked, we came back upstairs and had this little collection assembled on the floor in about 20 minutes.
I’m so glad my sister reminded me to snap this picture before I started hanging everything on the wall. I referred to it before I hung up every new piece.
Hanging everything was really easy because there where no exact places where everything had to go.
This project took a total of about an hour. I can’t wait to add some new pictures.
One day I hope to have a gallery wall like my aunt’s. Her gallery wall tells a family tree story that dates back to the late 1800s, and I’ve always been fascinated by the history hanging on her walls. Isn’t hers beautiful?
Time to go put on my mama hat and get Hadley and me ready for toddler story time at the public library. I’m totally not ashamed that playing with her at the library with other mamas and babies is one of my favorite times of the week.
Have a good one, and as usual thanks for reading!
Hi! I’m Erica, and I absolutely adore sharing my life on this website with you! I come here almost daily to blab about all of the things related to being a regular wife and mother in today’s ever-evolving society. I share about our new home, what’s on our kitchen table, what we’re hanging in our closets, where we’re traveling to next, my crazy 5 a.m. work outs, how I make time for girlfriends, our faith, and much more. We always have a lot of balls in the air and somewhat thrive on the chaos. I believe in the power of story-telling as a form of inspiration and entertainment, so I’m here to do both! I was born and raised in north Alabama and recently re-planted roots here again after my husband transitioned out of the Army (he is now in the Reserve and it’s going so well!) I’m a super proud mom to three little girls (ages 7, 4, and 1) who seem to be the stars of the show around here (for good reason – they’re pretty great!) I’m so glad you found me and are here reading! I hope we can get to know each other here on the blog as well as Facebook and/or Instagram. xoxo