Living Room Makeover: Pillows + End Table

Lately, I've been on the hunt for some colorful pillows for the living room. I found these at World Market and love the style and how the dark colored buttons tie into the dark wood in the furniture. They are very close to the color of our chair and ottoman, but just a tad too green, so I had them by the back door to return. Boo. 

Image Credit: World Market

Next, I found these gorgeous pillows from West Elm. I loved them and decided to splurge on them with my birthday money gifted to me by some of my sweet family. When I got them home, I realized they were too blue. I loved them way too much to take them back and thought the ivory in the pattern really tied them into the couch. But, the blue was bugging me.

Image Credit: West Elm

Then, as I passed by our entry table, I noticed our vase that faded from green to blue and it hit me. COMBINE the World Market and West Elm pillows! So, I did, and I LOVE it! When the pillows are together, the colors mesh and flow really well with the chair and ottoman.  I bought the smaller version of the vase for the end table in the living room. Check it out! I couldn't find the vases online, but they're from Target. 

Can you spot our new lamp? It matches our washed wood floor lamp. Both the lamp and shade are from Target. I've been eyeing the picture frame for months and finally found it for 50% off! Yay for waiting for a sale! Also from Target, of course. 

We finally replaced our old, beat up end table we bought off Craigslist for $10 six years ago. It did not go at all and was too short. The new one is a much better height and matches the TV stand!

Still lots to do, but it's starting to come together! The rug is ordered and the paint is picked! I'll update you soon!

Linking up to Migonis Home Summer Celebration!

The Art of Simplicity

In a world of Pinterest, glossy magazines, and blogs galore, it's easy to feel like every project you do should be perfect and "pin worthy". However, sometimes the simplest projects are the ones that bring the biggest smiles.

I was planning on building a giant bulletin board or frames to display the kids' artwork over the desk in the playroom. But, as you may have read, our lives have been upside down this year between having a baby and losing Jeremy's dad. We are weary and just trying to keep our heads above water. I decided instead of building a fancy artwork display, to simply string up a piece of bakers twine to hang Little One's creations. I gave him some clothespins to paint, then used them to hang his artwork. Simple. Free. Love.

Little Man has already filled all the vacant spots. He's so proud!

Sometimes the simplest projects are the perfect touches that make your house comfortable and feel like home.

Living Room Makeover: Furniture Edition

Update: The sectional ended up being defective, so we had to exchange it. Click here to see our fabulous new sectional!

Sorry for another extended absence! Jeremy's mom was here for the past two weeks. It was really nice to have her here! I really wanted to do things for her and make her feel loved. Instead, she did that for me. Mom's have a way of doing that, right? Seriously, though, she played with Little Man and fed Little Girly while I got cooking and cleaning done. She helped me with the kids while we were running errands, helped me pick paint colors (more on that later!), helped me fold laundry, played with the kids, read Little Man approximately 1,472 books, and got totally addicted to Parks and Rec with Jeremy and I. Haha! I'm glad we had the time together!

The day she arrived, we moved our living room furniture to the garage and made her sit on the floor. That's some good hospitality, right? Ha! But, it was necessary to make room for our new living room furniture! I feel like there should be some kind of celebratory confetti or choirs singing right when I type the words "new living room furniture"!

Our green couches were finally evicted. We bought the sofa for our tiny 1 bedroom apartment the week after we got married, then two years later when we bought our first house, we bought the matching love seat. It was pretty miraculous that Rooms to Go still had the same couches two years later! We really loved those couches! They were overstuffed and super comfy. We hadn't even considered replacing them until we moved into our current house.

When we moved into our current home, we quickly realized the couches just didn't fit well in the living room. They were too big and bulky for the living room and left a big, awkward corner between the sofa and love seat. Below is the best picture I could find of the corner. That's a full sized end table and a floor lamp back there and there's still about a foot of space around the end table.

We've been brainstorming for the past two years about what would be a better fit for this living room. Smaller sofa + love seat? Sofa + Chair? Sectional? We had our eye on this type sectional, but because both sides were equal lengths, it would not have been large enough for the long wall. Plus, sectionals are super, super expensive!

Image Credit: Pottery Barn

Fast forward to this spring, the carefully planned and budgeted time when new living room furniture was saved for and on the top of the priority list. We had pretty much given up on affording a sectional, so were just looking for a generic couch and love seat. We stopped by Haverty's to look at a chair I had been drooling over and right in the doorway was the Amalfi sectional! It came in the exact configuration we were looking for and was actually affordable! We were super excited!

I was tired of dark colored couches and was looking for something neutral and light. We went with the "oyster" color pictured. It's a nice, basic neutral!

Image Credit: Haverty's

We loved the configuration shown above, but it was too big for our living room. Sad! We did the 2pc sectional. 

Now, back to the chair that brought us to Haverty's in the first place. I saw the Melody accent chair online last year fell for it hard. If I had to show one thing to describe my decorating taste, it would be this chair. Blue is, hands down, my favorite color to use to decorate and I love the classic lines of the chair. It is just as beautiful in person as it is online and is very comfy. I love, love, love it!

Image Credit: Haverty's

The chair was definitely a splurge. But, considering we keep our furniture for years and years and will get lots of use out of it, we decided it was worth the price tag. We are very frugal and try to DIY as much as possible to cut costs, but sometimes it's worth it to save your pennies for the perfect piece! Here's the chair in our living room!

The chair is the perfect size for the empty space in front of the windows. It's so light and cheery! I'm loving the new lighter, calming color scheme!

We were going to get a couple Melody throw pillows for the sectional to bring the pattern over to the couch. However, the pillows were $119 PER PILLOW. I actually laughed out loud when they told me the price. No way could I justify that, so we decided to go with the Melody ottoman instead and forgo the pricey Melody pillows.

Ignore all the crazy paint samples going on, the rug that's about to be switched out, the beat up end table, the off centered pictures, and the curtains that need to be hung higher! The living room is a work in progress!

We love how well the sectional fits in our living room! No more awkward corner!

Our bedroom furniture is from Haverty's circa 2010 and has held up beautifully and is great quality. We're hoping the new living room furniture holds up just as well! 

We still have lots to do in the living room. On the agenda... new rug, new curtains (sneak peek at those in the above picture!), end tables, accessories, and wall paint. I'll keep you updated!

Linking up to Creativity Unleashed!