HOME TOUR | Our Living Room

Disclosure: I received a product from CommercialSilk.com in exchange for my honest review. This post may contain affiliate links.

It's been awhile since I last posted about how our house is coming along. To refresh, we bought our house in August 2015, just days before our 3rd anniversary which was really special. Since we bought our home nearly three years ago, I quit my full-time job and we've really had to pinch pennies so that I can stay home with the boys part-time. I've grown to love decorating and making our house a home. Unfortunately, due to our budget constraints we haven't been able to do any of the BIG projects that we envisioned when we bought the house. Instead, I've had to satisfy myself with taking baby steps toward creating a home that is a reflection of us.

I made it one my 2018 goals to tackle our living room. Back in January, we had our first kid-free weekend since Crosby was born. Rather than spending it doing fun things in Cincinnati like normal people, we snuck back home from our hotel room and spent the weekend painting the room. I admit, it was a completely lame way to spend our weekend together. However, it's literally impossible to keep our house clean with two toddler boys underfoot, let alone get any painting or decorating accomplished! Before I painted, I posted some "before" pictures of our living room, so you can see what the space looked like.

Although there are still a few lingering items on my to-do list, there probably always will be. I've reached the point where I'm pretty content with the current state of the room so it felt like it was finally time to share! Without further ado, here's a tour of our living room:

Our Minimalist Happy, Hippie Living Room

AFTER

BEFORE

This is a picture our realtor took before we bought the house. It makes me so happy to see our personalities infused in what was truly a blank slate! The paint color is Valspar Laguna Green. It's a little bit darker and greener than it appears in these pictures, but you get the idea.

The front door opens up to our railing-less porch. The stairs lead upstairs to Crosby's nursery and our attic/bonus room. The coat rack was a birthday gift I bought for Chuck several years ago when we lived in Pittsburgh because he was always complaining that he wanted something to hang his keys on. We never actually used it for that and it stayed in our basement for a few years before I realized it was the perfect little coat rack for the boys. The cuckoo clock was my Mom's. She bought it in Switzerland and it took up residence in the dining room of my childhood home. As she's moved and downsized in recent years, she lovingly bestowed it upon on me.

We bought our couch at Big Lots a couple years ago when they were having a Friends & Family Sale (similar here). I think we only paid about $300 for it and let me tell you- it was the best investment ever. This couch is the perfect, kid-proof piece of furniture. It's so easy to wipe down when the boys' sippy cups leak or their cereal bar crumbs get everywhere. The curtains are from World Market and I spray painted one of our cheapo floor lamps gold.

If you remember me talking about my Dad's health issues in recent months, you may know that we moved my Dad out of his assisted living apartment and into a nursing home back in January. It was really hard to part with a lot of his possessions (and let me tell you, there were lots). But I claimed a lot of his music-related stuff for our home. The Beatles poster was my Dad's and the guitar was my great-grandfather's. The chair, and it's matching ottoman, actually came from Goodwill! I fell in love the instant I saw it. Admittedly, it does clash with the pattern in our curtains, but I loved it too much to pass up!

On the other side of the room, we've got our bookcase and fireplace.

Somehow, the Windex escaped my notice! Haha

The bookcase was the first purchase I made with a Target gift card we got for our wedding. The elephant bookends were a Secret Santa gift from my sister-in-law and the rainbow woven basket was another wedding gift from Ten Thousand Villages. I use it to keep my library books separated from my owned books.

It's hard to believe, but the gorgeous ficus tree on our side table isn't real. I received the tree from CommercialSilk.com. The shipping was super quick and the quality is fantastic. When I picked it out, I was a little worried that it would appear obviously fake and would stick out like a sore thumb surrounded by my live plants. But it blends in so well and does a great job of hiding our electronic cords. If you have a black thumb, but would like to add some greenery to your home, check out their selection of artificial plants- they have a HUGE selection of trees, bushes, flowers, succulents, and more!

AFTER

BEFORE

The fireplace is non-functioning, so for now it just makes for a pretty focal point in the room and a place to hang our stockings at Christmastime. It's still a bit more bare than I'd like and I'm trying to decide about hanging something in front of the brick, like this macrame garland. In looking at the original realtor photo, it's still come so far, though!

The remaining wall next to our stairwell is the one that still needs the most work. The wall leading up the stairs is really tall and awkward, which is why I chose not to paint it the same color as the rest of the living room. The boys have a little table that usually sits in front of the stairs, but they happened to be eating lunch on the back porch so Mommy could take these pictures without tiny photobombers. I've been on the hunt for a Church pew to put there. It would be an awesome way to add more seating and under-storage and would add some more personality to a super bare area of our home. The stair area is about 9' wide, so it's been a struggle to fine one on Craigslist that would fit.

I love the IKEA picture ledges I found to fit our awkward triangular wall. I am terrible about keeping up with the boys' baby books and our family's photo albums. But I love that I have a place to showcase them...even if they do need some TLC.

Our house is not trendy or chic, but it's ours. I'm really proud of what I was able to do with such a limited income. Our living room is the central room of our house and I love that it finally feels like a true reflection of our family- a happy, hippie oasis.

See more of our house:

OUR DINING ROOM | OUR GUEST ROOM/CROSBY'S NURSERY

A Happy Home

Yesterday was an "at-home" day with my boys and for the first time in weeks, I felt relatively well-rested and itching to get some small projects done around the house. I started by hanging the framed Beatles concert poster that I claimed when my sister and I cleared out my Dad's apartment a few months ago. I hung the wire fruit baskets above our kitchen sink that I had ordered from World Market a couple weeks ago. I finally trimmed down a print I had ordered from Shutterfly and inserted it into the empty, thrifted frame that's been hanging in our dining room for an embarrassingly long time.

And after I checked each of these minuscule tasks off my list, I felt a sense of pride and peace wash over me. 

I love making our house a home. 

I come from a pretty creative family. My Dad was an incredibly talented musician. He was an amazing vocalist, as well as guitar and bass player. He was also a skilled carpenter by day; something I've always admired and wished I had the ability to do. My mother went to college for fashion design and you should see her with a sewing machine. She is incredibly stylish and just has a natural talent for making things beautiful. My sister also inherited the artsy gene- she majored in Art History and is one of those annoying people who can quickly master whatever hobby she sets her mind to.

Me? The genes must have skipped me. Sewing? I don't have the patience for it. Carpentry? Too many numbers. Music? I can't sing and though I dabbled in guitar lessons when I was younger, I lacked both the natural rhythm and self-discipline that playing an instrument requires.

But home decorating? I think I found my artistic outlet. I love to inject color into our lives. I love following other designers on Instagram to see how they're using light, and plants, and textiles to make their homes a thing of beauty. I love thrifting to find the perfect piece for a neglected corner of our living spaces. I love making our home a cozy, hippie oasis that reflects our style and personalities.

But more than that, interior design is my way of cultivating my happy home.

I've moved around a lot throughout my life. Home was never one place. Nor was it even a feeling. For a long time I thought it was because I was meant to be a gypsy soul. I didn't realize until we bought our house in 2015, that although I love to travel and see the world, this couldn't be further from the truth. I am a homebody, through and through. I just never had a home base until now.

My home is my happy place. It's the place I feel safe and comfortable. It's the place I feel loved and content. It's the place where I get to invite in my loved ones. It's the place I want my boys to grow up in and have as their home base. This is all new to me, but it gives me the warmest of fuzzies. After so much instablity growing up, and especially after spending six years of my life under the roof of an abusive person, I don't take this feeling for granted. I appreciate the contentment this roof over my head provides in a whole new way.

So while decorating my home is a creative outlet at best, and a silly, superficial hobby at worst, I'm embracing it. I am so happy to have a happy home. A home to call my own. And I cherish that I get to make it my own personal brand of beautiful. 

Our First Home: Two Years Later

Two years ago, Chuck and I sat at a table across from our realtor and mortgage broker and signed the dotted lines that declared us homeowners. Not a day has gone by when I have regretted that decision or wished our home was bigger, better or different. It would seem that in our case, home ownership is much like marriage- we only grow to love our home more and more over time.

Although we haven't made nearly as much progress as I would have hoped in the last two years, I thought it would be fun to journey back and see how our house has become more of a home over time.

We first spilled the beans about our new house in August 2015. It had been purchased by our realtor at a Sheriff's Sale and then flipped. The instant we walked through it, we fell in love. It just felt like ours. Unfortunately, when Chuck called to put in an offer, someone had beat us to it. We were so disappointed. We'd only been house hunting for a few weeks, but this house had truly felt like the one. So, imagine our surprise when about a week later, our realtor called to tell us the other offer had fallen through and were we still interested? Our gut instinct was right- this was our house!

We brought our brother and sister-in-law and our family friend/handyman with us since we knew nothing about real estate. They managed to talk our realtor into throwing a new roof into the price and he agreed. We submitted all our paperwork and a few weeks later we had a closing date. She was ours!

Somehow the stars aligned and we got our house just before our third wedding anniversary. Since we have a tradition of taking anniversary pictures every year, we asked our photographer if she would take the pictures inside our new home. These are among my favorite pictures ever taken of us and our family- it was such a happy, joyous and celebratory time.

Since then, I've daydreamed about how I want to design and decorate each room. Initially, we wanted to start tackling our upstairs spare room/attic and turn it into a fourth bedroom for Charlie. Unfortunately, because we needed to install a window and do some actual construction, we put it on the back-burner in favor of easier and cheaper DIY projects.

Becoming a stay-at-home parent was the catalyst that jump-started our stalled progress. Although I didn't have any money to spend, I wanted to do little things to brighten up the spaces in our house if I was going to have to stare at them day and in and day out. The first room I painted was our dining room. I probably spent about $40 on paint and painting supplies- all of the rest of the decor I already owned. In a matter of a day, our blah dining room was suddenly this peaceful, green, nature-inspired oasis (or at least that's how it felt to me).

We planned to have our boys share a room until our fourth bedroom project was complete and Charlie had his own big boy room. Unfortunately, room-sharing did not work out. Charlie would climb in and out of Crosby's crib, steal his binky and keep him awake at night. No matter what we tried, we determined the only logical move was to separate them. We moved Crosby's crib and dresser upstairs into our second blah room- our guest room. We planned for that room to eventually become his bedroom years down the road. But since our timeline got moved up a smidge, I set to work making it more of a little boy's nursery and less of a plain, character-less space. For less than $50, I purchased some paint and new bedding. Over a few days, I slowly added element by element and now my sweet Crosby Loren has a navy, elephant-themed nursery just for him!

We still have about half a million things on our growing to-do list, but we're taking it room by room. I like concentrating on one room at a time because I like the feeling of completion and accomplishment when each room is done. One of the reasons we chose our home is because it was move-in ready and didn't need any massive updates. I'm not someone who would do well living in a permanent state of flux and remodeling.

I'm not sure which room I'll tackle next- we are hoping to get a king-sized bed in the next year which would set into motion getting our master bedroom how I want it. We also want to add some color to our beige living room and possibly add some more seating. I'd still love to plug away at getting the fourth bedroom in order for Charlie and I'd also like to convert our gross, semi-finished basement into a playroom for the boys. I dream of a kitchen with white cabinets and copper hardware, and I long for some updates to our front and back porches.

But for now, I'm happy. We have a roof over our heads and food in our pantry. I have everything I need in that sweet little white house of ours, and I couldn't feel more blessed.

HOME TOUR | Crosby's Nursery + Guest Room

This month marks two years since we bought our house. Two years ago, I couldn't imagine we would get pregnant much sooner than we planned. Two years ago, I never would have imagined that I would quit my full-time job to stay home with my kids. And yet here we are, two years later- Our home is low on cash, full of love, and a constant work in progress.

A few months ago, I finally painted our dining room. We're a family who loves food so we spend a lot of time in this room and it was time to give it some personality.

Although, I've had plans for two years to transform our awkward fourth bedroom/attic into an actual livable space, or convert our semi-finished basement area into a playroom for the boys, both projects require some money. Since money is not something we have growing on trees in our backyard, I've chosen to focus my attention on house projects that are actually doable.

We had always planned to have the boys share a room. But after four months of terrible sleep for all involved, I resigned myself to the fact that our boys would do better in their own spaces. We moved Crosby's crib and dresser upstairs into the boring, beige spare room that functioned as a guest room and we've been (mostly) sleeping ever since.

We knew we eventually wanted to transition Crosby into that room, but we thought it would be a year or two down the road. So I had made zero design/decor plans. But now that he's officially settled, he deserves a cheery space that's just his.

Crosby's Navy, Elephant-Themed Nursery

The room isn't perfect- I'd like new window treatments and some more decor on the walls. Most everything I already owned. But I am proud of what I was able to accomplish spending next to nothing.

Total, I probably spent about $20-25 on paint and painting supplies and then I spent $25 total on new bedding from Aldi and Ohio Thrift. That's right- a brand new comforter from Aldi's bonus aisle for $15- is it any wonder I love that place?!

SOURCES:
Paint- Sherwin-Williams Commodore / c/o Sherwin-Williams Greek Villa
Wooden "S"- Ohio Thrift / Krylon Navy Blue spray paint
Navy blue striped comforter- Aldi
Navy sheet set- Ohio Thrift / Red sheet set- Gifted from my sister
Nightstand- Pre-owned / Krylon Banner Red spray paint
Red elephant tapestry- Gifted from my sister
White crate shelf- Gifted from a friend / c/o Sherwin-Williams Greek Villa
Grey and white rocking chair- Target
Jenny Lind 3-in-1 crib- Target
Mudhut Xavier crib bedding- Target 
TARVA dresser/changing table- IKEA / Sherwin-Williams Banner Red paint

And just for fun, here's a "before" shot:

Two rooms down, six-ish more to go!

HOME TOUR | Dining Room

We will have owned our home for two years in August. Nearly two years we've lived here and I just painted for the first time. It took awhile because 1. We really couldn't justify the expense when we need to pay for things like you know, groceries, bills, and gas and 2. Because painting is kind of a commitment, and I was scared to commit. Well, thanks to Swagbucks, I earned a $25 Lowe's gift card, which took care of the expense part. The commitment part I got over because I was just plain tired of staring at boring, beige walls all throughout our house.

I neglected to take any quality "before" pictures to compare, but here are a couple just to give you an idea of what I started with:

When trying to decide on a color, Chuck and I were stuck between Valspar Brisk Olive and Brush Meadow. The olive color was pretty and I felt like it was the "trendier" color of the two. The meadow color was a little bit lighter, and felt more garden/springy. I posted to my Instagram stories to get a second opinion and every single person that responded chose the olive color.

We started second-guessing our decision, because we had been leaning more toward the Brush Meadow. In the end, we stuck with our gut (after confirmation from my sister) and went with the latter color. We're so happy we did! Our dining room gets such beautiful natural light and we worried about going too dark and ruining the aesthetic of the room. In the end, the meadow color plays off the natural, earthy vibe we're both drawn to and looks beautiful in the morning sunshine.

Our gallery wall is a mishmash of old frames that I had laying around or that I got at the dollar store. The "S" I scored for $3 from Ohio Thrift and the woven bowl was a souvenir from my semester abroad in Uganda. The large framed print is from Keepsake. If you need a portrait framed, I cannot recommend them enough. I went on their website, uploaded the picture I wanted, cropped it to my liking and then picked my favorite frame. It was literally the easiest process ever, and a few days later it arrived at my doorstep perfectly packaged and ready to hang! I genuinely can't say enough good things about this website and I fully intend on using them in the future.

There are still a few more outstanding to-do's before I consider this room done. I really dislike the cold, harsh-looking chandelier so I want to eventually replace it with something warmer, and more earthy like this. I'd also like to hang a coffee mug rack next to our coffee station and we're also going to be hanging a crazy heavy mirror on the bare wall to the left of Charlie's easel. It seriously weighs more than me, so we're getting some professional help so we don't risk being crushed to death.

One of my 30 Before 30 goals was to finish decorating an entire room in our house and I'm so glad I'm nearly there!

Disclosure: I received a complimentary framed photo from Keepsake in exchange for my honest review.

The Beans Have Been Spilled!

At long last, I can stop with the cryptic "I'm so busy" introductory sentence and say the words out loud (err, write them out loud?)- as of about 4:30 pm, August 26, 2015, Chuck and I can officially say, we are...

HOMEOWNERS!!!

If you were thinking there was a bun in this oven, I apologize for the disappointment. But guys- we own a house! That's a big deal!

My mind is currently fixated on packing, buying about a thousand curtain panels and rods and moving all of our stuff into our bright, shiny new place! Oh, and also, our dishwasher. Guys, we have lived the last three years without a dishwasher. Do you even know how it feels to once again have a sink free of dirty dishes?! If you think I'm overstating my excitement, please see this photo that I insisted on taking when we finally got the keys to our home:

And because I am nosy and love looking at pictures of other people's homes, here are a few pictures from the realtor:

There are four bedrooms (well, technically three, because one of the upstairs rooms doesn't have a window. Weird) and a partially finished basement. And did I mention...a dishwasher?!

When we started house hunting we really debated what to buy. There are very few new homes in our area and leaving Chuck's hometown wasn't an option for us, so we had to decide if we wanted to buy a big, older home that needed some work or a smaller home that was move-in ready. I quickly realized that 1. Neither Chuck or I are handy and 2. I cannot live in a state of half-finished chaos. I'm in love with our quaint little house- it really does feel perfect for us and I cannot wait to create a lifetime of memories in it with my two favorite guys.