We finally redecorated our living room!
When Mal and I were cleaning the house on Sunday afternoon, we were suddenly inspired to rearrange our living room, which, eventually, led to us to wanting to redecorate the whole, darn thing. Hey, when you’re feeling motivated, you might as well act on it, right?
Our first stop: Target!
When we arrived, we had a vague idea of the things we wanted to purchase for our living room, but we definitely ended up buying a lot more than we originally planned.
In a matter of minutes, our shopping cart was full!
We actually went to Target to buy a leaning bookcase that we saw online, but when we got there, it wasn’t in stock.
Thanks to the powers of my iPhone, I found a similar leaning bookshelf at Crate & Barrel, so I called to make sure they had it in-store and then we went to buy it.
Back at home, the redecorating continued”¦
Mal and I purchased a couple of things for the walls that needed pictures, so I went to CVS the next morning to print out some photos.
Things that needed photos: Windowpane Collage Frame from Target.
And a couple of frames on our collage wall.
One reason that it was so hard for Mal and I to commit to hanging things on our walls was because we didn’t want any old, generic thing hanging up in our house. We wanted to see things with meaning. It took us a little while to gather the pieces to create our framed collage wall, but it was well worth it in the end since all of the pieces mean something special to us.
- Photo taken at the start of our hike at Diamond Head in Oahu.
- Photo of Murphy P. Haupert as a puppy.
- Keep Calm and Love Pugs poster that my sister gave me.
- Painting of Paris that Mal gave me when we first dated in 1998.
- Photo of Paris that a friend took and gave to us as a wedding gift.
- Photo of Mal’s parents and their cat “Ho” (named after Ho Chi Minh).
- Photo of Mal and me from Castle Hill Inn in Newport, RI, which is one of our favorite places ever.
We also kept this idea of displaying things with meaning on the shelves of our new bookcase.
I placed the traditional kukui nut leis that we received in Hawaii in a bowl from Mal’s grandma’s china collection. (Remember the Great Wall of China? Haha!)
I also added a few pieces of corral from 7 Mile Beach on Grand Cayman to the bookshelf. Oh, memories”¦ that beach was amazing.
And, finally, the rug really tied the room together. Seriously. I think it adds so much to the room!
The final product:
It wasn’t a bad living room before”¦
But it’s so much nicer now. I think it’s a lot more cozy and homey!
Questions of the Day
What is your favorite store/website to buy things for your home?
What was the last room you redecorated?
Where do you typically get your decorating inspiration?
Looking good guys! Loving the collage wall…
Looks great! I love the book shelf! And at our house, we went through and repainted the whole house. It looks so much nicer!
Looks wonderful! I agree that the rug is great. 🙂
Can you please tell me what paint color is on the walls? I love it!
@Carrie: We used Valspar “Cinnamon Hotel” on three of the walls and “Milk Chocolate” on the accent wall: http://carrotsncake.com/2012/12/winter-wonderland.html#Hwy7aEFvqDptFuP1.99
We spent the last two weekends adding picture frame wainscoting to our dining room. It looks so polished now! I find Pinspiration (obviously), and then on decorating blogs like Young House Love and Teal and Lime.
Very home-y and sophisticated! I like how important it was to ya’ll to have items with significance in your living room. It makes the room full of memories!
I am loving that rug. The whole room is beautiful.
The room looks fantastic! and I love the rug! I’ll be making a trip to Target soon…
Love the feeling of redecorating, even if it just means changing furniture around and swapping out photos in frames. I definitely always go right to target when I want something new to hang on the wall or use for storage. Love the rug, and the bookcase!
You and Mal are too cute!
I like looking through the pages of Pottery Barn for ideas and re-creating with consignment store finds and TJ Maxx (sometimes). Our house was a foreclosure so we have been redecorating the whole house 🙂 I like to see things and touch them so I usually don’t shop online except for The Container Store because there isn’t one where I live.
Have a great time in Vermont…did they get more snow than you?
I love the photo collage wall! We are picky about only having things with meaning as well, so most of our decorating is from things that we’ve picked up along the way. I do love Target though… I always spend too much money there!
I’m feeling inspired to refresh my own living room now! What about adding a couple cool patterned toss pillows to your couch? I always hear from my designer friends that toss pillows really refresh a room.
Where are your couches from?! I love them!
Thanks! We got it off Craigslist 7 or 8 years ago.