living room {it's making progress}

Our living room which also happens to be the room we live in most has been the hardest to decorate. Partly due to funds needing to go elsewhere and partly due to the fact I could not get a vision for it.  In our last home we worked with more sepia tones, but I wasn't loving it here. It needed more black and gray without going overboard in this mid-century house. The other trick was to make the space feel clean and clutter free even though we have an obscene amount of built ins. Don't get me wrong I adore them, but the room can easily feel too busy especially with the wall of windows which I want to keep as the focal point. Anyhow, this is where it is today and it's starting to feel better to me. This is the second rug I tried and I love it. Light enough to brighten up the space yet with enough texture to hide dirt. It also brought in the grays I was looking for, but in a subtle way. The price was rather good too. I hung art we had from our other house and I am eager to replace our New York photo with an even bigger one. Have you all tried Simply Framed? I'm thinking of going that route once funds allow. I went down to only one lamp and may trade it out with this one. It's on back order so I will have to wait and see. The pillows on the wicker chairs have just the right amount of texture without feeling too busy. I had one on our bed already and bought a second for out here. I like how they work with the rug. The mirror still needs to be hung and now that we are in our permanent home I am going to transplant the fiddle fig so it can hopefully become huge. Give me a couple more months and I am sure this space will evolve some more.

pillows | sofa | rug | wooden planters | marble and wood bookend | brass frame that still needs photo | baskets in bookcase |  mirror | end tables | black and white abstract | silver bowl | leather poufs {similar} | New York print

Mornings

Are you a morning person? I have never been one. Slept through the night easily as an infant my mother praises and as I entered my teen years my mornings soon vanished to afternoons. Of course now that I am a so called adult I in turn morphed into a want to be morning person. It was more out of need than want really. The kiddos need to get to school on time and a hectic morning is not becoming for me. It can leave the whole day feeling rushed and flustered. I now have a routine that serves me well. I rise around 7:15 wake the kids and as they bustle around getting all their stuff together I sit with a cup of tea {used to be coffee, darn dr ordered detox diet} and read. Most times it's the bible. Other times it can be a good book that I have trouble putting down or school papers from the day before. When needs arise the kiddos come dashing in with a question, comment, or he said she said. They can find me here, at our kitchen table overlooking our garden.

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When we first moved in I had trouble finding my morning spot to perch. So many of our spaces were too disheveled to enter into the day peacefully. I am a creature of habit and in need of constants. I knew this space was meant to be that. Close enough to the activity center, but still outside of it. Without chairs and having only mismatched stools to occupy my old desk, now turned kitchen table, it was not possible for me to feel at rest here waiting to concur the day. Instead it served me a list of to-do's that grew every day. That's when Industry West so graciously asked it I needed help with any areas of our new home. YES!

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New chairs  with legs to long after for an old table now has become my morning space of solace. Best part is that when the kiddos have friends over or we have our weekly small group this space can continue being surrounded by laughter and good food. This space has not only become my perch, but also for the ones I love.

{CHAIRS GIFTED BY INDUSTRY WEST}

The Little Things

The house projects have pretty much come to a stall as of late. Now that work is slowing down a tad I am hoping to have a bit more time on my hands to tackle big projects like getting paint on the cabinets till we can afford to re-do the whole thing. I did make time to work on the shelves that I may never get right though. I must be going through a true minimal stage because every time I added more I felt like the room looked chaotic. Anything less looked as if I didn't even try. For now I am content with this little setup. I did second guess my decision of showing where our wii u and u-verse box sit, but then again this is real life and EVERYTHING can't be pretty all the time. After all I do have a ginormous tv over our fireplace that the whole neighborhood can see with our wall of windows so technically I already lost the pretty game. Ha.

The wire you see attaches to the wii u and can easily be removed. Eventually we will get a longer cord that can feed through the wall with the rest of the wires so it won't be seen. The dough bowl was my grandmothers and was always a favorite piece of hers. I feel so privileged to call it my own. The the bowl is a piece of Peter's Pottery that was a wedding gift. The mirrored houses the Mr surprised me with after I eyed them on sale at West Elm. I like how they fill the space without feeling too heavy. The first piece I bought specifically for this house besides lighting was the funky little vase that is on the 2nd shelf. KJ then decided to bring a neighbor friend over to show the weird things his mom buys. I still like it. He can not shake me. I think this little pot may make it into the mix soon too.

A few fun books and a old target pot filled with air plants pretty much makes my heart happy. Isn't that what making home is? Creating little vignettes and spaces that bring you joy? I say if you don't love it why have it? Oh, wait that may have been Marie Kondo.

Habitat | A Perfectly Kept House is the Sign of A Misspent Life

On the other side of fireplace is another set of shelves that we have stocked with books, but it also has fancy little rounded shelves at the end that I have no idea what to do with. Currently it houses our piggy bank and a bowl for the Mr to throw all his keys and wallet type stuff in when he walks in the door. The bottom shelf still sits empty. Any thoughts of what else to put there? Keep in mind many of my friends have babies. Not sure why I am finding this room so hard to decorate.

The highlight of the week for the kiddos was not me finally figuring out the living room shelves, but our pup moved back in. He lived with my parents since Christmas due to our move, crazy traveling schedule, and I swear our rental was making him sick. KJ left him a little note before leaving for school so that when Mellow arrived he would feel like this was now his home too. Oh how that boy can melt my heart.