Living Room Updates

I haven't done a home decor post in awhile---mainly because I can never get it clean enough to be photographed!

Our living room has become a collection of normal living room things and baby toys/containment devices (lol!) everywhere. Literally. Everywhere. I'm eating my words and laughing at my assertion, before I had a baby, that I "would absolutely NOT have baby stuff everywhere." Yeah, right! The way her face lights up when she plays with her toys, on her activity mat, etc is worth the mess of colors that now surround our main living space (though you can't see them in these photos as they are all in an area in front of the couch and coffee table where there's lots of free floorspace).

We've had our West Elm Tillary sofa for a few years now and I still get emails (sometimes weekly) about what we think about it.  So here is my updated review: don't buy this sofa!  West Elm has beautiful sofas and this style appealed to us at first, but over the years we've experienced its impracticality.  

Namely:

• The backs come off, and although they are weighted, if they're not up against a wall or furniture they fall if someone's been leaning back on them. It's not fun to have to warn guests that they might make your couch fall apart.
• The areas where you sit most do get worn and the fabric becomes looser and because it's so tightly fitted at first, you can see a ton of looser fabric and "wrinkles" where you sit a lot
• Overall, I wish we would have gone with a more traditional, less modular style

On the plus side:

• It's comfortable (when you sit on the parts that are against a wall)
• It's so wide someone could sleep on it 
• You can configure it many different ways though we never have because we like the "L" shape

So overall, we do regret the purchase but it's been a comfortable couch and we are going to keep it for a few more years and not worry about it since it now has spit-up and drool all over it anyway (wheee!)

I think because of the layout of our home, it might have been nice to have two couches and some chairs or something to make the space feel more separated from the rest of the house. The current sofa placement does make the space feel very open but it doesn't really have a cozy feel. However, our home is very open-concept so I'm not sure how achievable that is anyway. Maybe we can try for a more cozy feel in our next home! I do really love this house but having a baby I totally get why people want even more room---baby stuff is big!

Among the things we've updated:

• New sofa pillows- Kevin has officially given up on trying to curb my pillow obsession. Pick your battles.
• Coffee table now used as diaper changing station (no, seriously, we aren't going up a flight of stairs every time Harper needs a diaper change)
• West Elm 2x2 console desk behind couch- it also acts as storage for more baby things, books and magazines---but it's all hidden- yay!
• New mirror on wall
• New artwork on wall and on desk
• Toy basket for Harp's books and other plush objects
• New faux cherryblossom stems

Here are the wrinkles I was talking about- the fabric just becomes loose

||| source list |||

All Gray & White Print Pillows- Jane.com* & GroopDealz.com*

*You have to check these sites daily as the pillow deals only come around every once in awhile. They cost between $7.99 & $12.99 each which is unreal since many home store charge between $30-$80 for a pillow cover (NOPE!)

Purple pillow covers and skinny pillows- West Elm

"R" monogram pillow- ComfyHeavenPillows on etsy.com

Tillary Sofa- West Elm

Geometric mirror- Kirklands

LOVE metallic print- MadeByGirl.com

LOVE frame- IKEA Ribba series

White desk behind couch- West Elm 2x2 console desk

Limited Edition Stop and Smell the Peonies print- SS Print Shop

Blue & white glass bowl- Marshalls Home Goods

"R" Plate- C.Wonder

Faux Cherryblossoms- Marshalls Home Goods

Mirrored Frame- Threshold at Target

Toy basket (on couch)- Target

Flower candle holder- ZGallerie

White Tray- West Elm

Elephant Bookends- Marshalls Home Goods

I hope y'all enjoyed this update! I really love the way the new couch pillows make the space feel fresh!  Have you updated your decor recently?

Home Updates: Restoration Hardware Curtains for the Kitchen & Dining Room Chandelier

On Saturday, we had Kyle, our handyman from One Call Home Handyman come to our home to install our Restoration Hardware curtains, our Overstock.com chandelier and to wall-mount our TV in the master bedroom.

Some of you may recall that Kyle installed our original chandelier over the island in out kitchen.  We were so thrilled with the work he did that we hired him for what I'll refer to as "round two."

I decided to order the exact same chandelier that is in our kitchen for our dining room as well.  Since our entire second floor is one long, large space, it felt more cohesive to have the same look in the lighting.  Here's how it turned out:

And now, to the curtains. As you may have noticed, our dining room doesn't have curtains. We had to return half of the curtain hardware and fabric we got because we realized that the curtains we got for the dining room just weren't going to work there because of the spacing.  Also, the dining room window is really beautiful and it's on the side of the house, so no one can see inside and it brings a ton of light in. So for now, the plan is to leave it bare.

We did have or gorgeous Thai Silk curtains installed on our kitchen window and we are thrilled with how it turned out.  It really look very elegant, light and airy. They're still a little wrinkled on the bottom, but I love them!

As a reminder, here is what the kitchen window looked like before with our Ready Blinds:

and here is the window now...

It's amazing how much elegance an extra chandelier and curtains can add to your space. Considering we were using $10 Ready Blinds from Home Depot on our window previously, the curtains are a massive upgrade.

Source List:

Chandelier- Overstock.com

Curtains- Restoration Hardware (curtains/hardware)

Barstools- IKEA

Dining Table- Restoration Hardware Flatiron Collection, 72 inches

Dining Chairs- Home Source Houston- Lawford Chair

Miranda Trifle Bowl- Crate & Barrel

Faux Hydrangea Stem- similar at Pottery Barn 

Some of you mentioned in my comments on my dining room post that I should change the way the chairs are set. I personally like having chairs at either end of the table versus having two on each side for the everyday. If we ever need to seat more people at the table, we can move one of the chairs to one side and use the bench in our kitchen on the other side.

Thank you for reading and have a great week!

PS- if you are in Houston and are ever in need of a great handyman, please consider calling Kyle from One Call Home Handyman.  He is very professional and best of all knows what he is doing. He also gives good advice on what will work and what will not.  I highly recommend his services (and no, I was not paid to say that).  You can call (832) 800-4441 to set up any kind of home installation or renovation.

Dining Room Updates- Almost Done!

I am so incredibly thrilled with our dining room!  We are still waiting on the curtains and the chandelier to be installed, but I wanted to show a quick update about how it's looking in our space.

As you know, we have an extremely open floor plan, so it was important for us to get a table that made a statement so that it stood out in its "own space" but not so much that it didn't feel cohesive with the rest of the space.  

We ended up keeping the Restoration Hardware table that had a tiny flaw on it because the replacement table had some broken parts under it and the color of the wood was not as nice as the one we have. Restoration Hardware had incredible customer service and we were able to get a discount on the table due to the stain.

I can't wait to put the finishing touches on our dining room. It feels so "grown up" to have a real dining room table and chairs (though we still at at our kitchen island).

Source List:

Dining Table- Restoration Hardware Flatiron Collection, 72 inches

Dining Chairs- Home Source Houston- Lawford Chair

Miranda Trifle Bowl- Crate & Barrel

Faux Hydrangea Stem- similar at Pottery Barn 

Do you have and use your dining room furniture? I think we will eat at this table for more special occasions and when we have guests over. I like that this table has sort of a rustic glam look (the glam will come from the Thai silk curtains and crystal chandelier) so it can sort of be dressed up or dressed down depending on the occasion. I can't wait to dress it up for the holidays!

Tufted Dining Chairs For the Win

I am SO excited to share with you that we finally purchased our dining room chairs today!  I am still contemplating doing different head-of-table chairs (either ones with side arms or maybe even doing something totally different like wicker for a mix of textures) but I'm absolutely thrilled with these tufted chairs I found at a local store called Home Source in the Galleria area. They have so many gorgeous, unique and affordable pieces.

I'll show more photos when it's all set up, but here's a little preview:

I am going to stain the legs myself (I don't mind the light color but would prefer the legs be super dark, like the floors) so that will be a fun little project.  They were such an incredible price that the DIY legs are worth it.

We still have to have our Restoration Hardware curtains installed and I'm also going to get another chandelier (probably the same as the one we have over the kitchen island) to go over the dining table. Sigh. It's gonna be pretty.

Have a great weekend!

Hung Up (on the walls)

In our last house, we didn't hang a lot on our walls because we knew we wouldn't really be there for a long time.  In this house, I want to hang more art, mirrors and everything in between to truly make it feel like a home (because, hey, walls get lonely).

Though I'd still like to add even more artwork and mirrors, I think we're off to a pretty good start.  I also have to give major thanks to my father-in-law because he did all of the work (and math) to hang all of this stuff!

First off is a mirror I got at Marshalls Home Goods for $34.99 (score!)  I may eventually paint it a glossy white, gold or a bright color...but for now I sort of like its distressed look.  I chose to hang it above our Crate & Barrel cabinet because that wall is so narrow and I thought it could use something to make it more of a focal point.

Next up, I got a super tall mirror (again, from Marshalls Home Goods, $79.99) for our stairway that goes up to the second floor of our home.  It's hard to get a good shot of it, but I absolutely love it in person!

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After taking these next photos, I realized that I've never shown our newly painted bathroom before on the blog. The color is called "Sienne" by Valspar. It's a very dark gray with brownish undertones. I chose to hang my ISeeNoise prints in our master bath since they seemed fitting for that room (hello pretty perfume bottles!) 

 

Finally, I hung the two dress prints I got at Marshalls Home Goods for $16.99 each in my master closet:

 

Next on our home to-do list:

• Refinish dresser
• New, larger nightstands
• New dining room table and chairs (I think we are getting these ones) 
• New coffee table (ours is on the fritz)
• Chandelier for master bathroom (because they are awesome)
• Side table for living room
• More mirrors and wall art

Do you have a lot of artwork or other wall art in your home?  I can't wait to hang even more (I'd like to make some of my own paintings and also hang my LOVE prints that I framed).
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