Living Room Refresh Reveal
We bought our dream home in 2016.
The previous owners used the house as their vacation home for 8 years before us, and the home had a very beachy vibe. Sandy colored walls in the living room and ocean blue walls in the kitchen. This influenced my decor style for quite sometime, I would call it “coastal farmhouse.” Picture driftwood decor, neutrals and soft textures. Then I had an awakening of sorts. Your girl is not a coastal farm house girl, anyone can tell that by looking at my gram.
I am lucky enough to call Erin of Kismet House a friend of mine, and she actually lives just 2 blocks away. She once told me that you needed to decorate your house room by room, not as a whole, in order to do so effectively. I used this advice to do our guest room and our master, both of which I am happy with, so I knew I needed to use this method in our living room. Try as I might, I never felt that our living room was cohesive, and truly expressed our style.
What is our style you ask? My husband says he leans more toward “minimalist”, where I err on the side of “hoarders paradise”. My goal while designing this room was to combine the two. Think “Eclectic Minimalist with a touch of Midcentury Modern… and color of course.”
I knew to start, I needed a round coffee table, there were too many sharp edges in my space, too many rectangles. I found a great, really reasonably priced faux marble round coffee table with gold legs. Beautiful right out of the box, this table added a touch of glam, a bit of modern, and a fresh feel to round out our space. See what I did there?
A new rug was in order as well. I did love my pink hued wool rug, but the dog had learned he could pull strands from it, and too be honest I was tired of its incessant shedding, the rug. Not the dog.
We have a bright pink Moroccan inspired rug in our bedroom that quickly became my favorite design element. The bright colors are so "me" and also bring a fun boho-feel to the space so I wanted to use that same idea in our living room. Our very blue kitchen is attached to our living room, so I wanted to play off of that palette and carry it through both spaces. The bold brightness of the rug compliment the fresh white walls and modern elements in the room. Mixed with live greenery, it adds the perfect amount of boho.
Paint. Who knew there are so many shades of white? White is possibly the most common and most difficult shade to pick when painting your walls. There is literally a tone of white in every shade of the rainbow. Our most difficult part of choosing a white was trying to match our doorframes. Though our walls were once a golden yellow, the door frames were white.
I wanted white walls because I felt like it offered not only a fresh slate but also is a modern classic. We chose "Snowy Pine" which you can find at Home Depot.
I also wanted to replace the awful “boob” flush mount light fixture. I searched for various flush mounts with no luck. Everything I found seemed outdated and bland. I wasn’t sure if a hanging fixture would suit the space but I decided to take a chance. I found a chandelier that I feel is a modern take on the midcentury sputnik. All the lights spew out on the same level and boast large bright white bulbs amidst gold brass arms.
My style is ever changing, so a gallery ledge seemed to be the best option for my artwork, as opposed to constant drilling holes in the walls. This would allow me to continue to evolve my style and swap out my art frequently. I am a sucker for art, and my husband is an artist so I always have new work to display.
I was lucky enough to partner with some really talented artists that I befriended through instagram that allowed me to feature their work on my walls.
Beth @doodlebotillustration, was kind enough to create this custom portrait of my little family. It is SPOT ON. I am wearing one of my favorite outfits in the doodle, featuring a shirt my best friend bought me. My husband, on the other hand, is living his best DREAM life in a Starfleet uniform, specific to the ones they wore on "Next Generation." Fun fact about us: my best friend officiated our wedding, and she knows all too well what big nerds we both are, so in our vows she quoted the intro to "Star Trek: Next Generation." It went something like this "Marriage, the final frontier..." Anyways, I absolutely cherish this little gem. I smile every time I look at it.
Shayna @shaynapiascik, freaking BLEW ME AWAY with her talent. I had envisioned her "Aloe in Pyrex" print for this space for quite some time, and when I reached out to her to collaborate, she went above and beyond. Included in my package of goodies, was an original drawing from her sketchbook of Ringo Starr. Fun Fact: I am a HUGE Beatles nerd. So much so, that in my single lady days, I traveled to Liverpool for International Beatles Week. If thats not Beatlemania enough for you, I also named my family dog, Ringo. So you can imagine my excitement when I opened Shayna's package to find Ringo's quirky face peering back at me. The stark black and white pen work, and the expression on his face, instantly upped the room's cool-factor tenfold, and quickly became one of my favorite things in the room.
With so much white, and modern design elements, I needed a place to express my "hoarders paradise" style and rainbow color palette, something that would scream "Alli". I swooned over other pyrex collectors Rainbow displays, like @vampyrex, @inthemorrow and @veesvintagefinds. I knew I had enough in my collection to do the same type of display, I just needed to replace my farmhouse style hutch with some shelving to accommodate so much glass. I decided to go with the Billy Bookcases from Ikea. Not only would these be perfect for displaying my Pyrex collection in an atheistically pleasing way, but it was also a versatile piece of furniture that could be used for, records, books, even toys for little ones down the line. It is said that an Ikea Billy Bookcase is sold somewhere in the world every 5 seconds. I figured it was a good choice.
I feel at peace with this space. As I worked on this room, I knew there would be projects and elements to this space that I simply would not be able to pull off in time to meet my self-inflicted deadlines. There are all some big-ticket items that are just not in the budget at the moment, I see you Joybird couch, frame TV, custom neon sign…. One day I will have those things, and I am ok that this room (and our home for that matter,) will always be evolving. But in this moment, I feel proud of what I have done with this space. I used only a budget of selling what I already had. Can you believe I pulled this off for less that $900? New rug, new light, new coffee table, new accent pieces, new gallery ledge, new art, new paint, new dream pyrex display! I feel like that is pretty impressive! I think when you open our front door and step foot inside this room, you truly get a feel of our own style. I had been wanting that feeling for close to 3 years now, and I feel such joy when I walk through that front door. I finally feel like our home is an accurate reflection of who I am.
Photography: Molly Hansen