Our Living Room

I have a love affair with houses in that I just love to look at them! One of my favorite things to do is to look at the houses for sale online at real estate websites. I like to look at how people decorate, get ideas, and/or decide what it would look like if I lived there.

So, of course last year when Kelly from Kelly's Korner did the "Show Us Where You Live" I thought it was so much fun to see everyone's houses! Unfortunately at the time we were in the midst of packing up our apartment to move across the state, and therefore our home wasn't in any kind of shape to show anyone.

When Kelly said last week that she would start up the home tours again, I was so excited! Another chance to be a house peeping-Tom and look into other people's houses and hopefully get some inspiration for my own! A virtual parade of homes! FUN! Since I enjoyed looking through everyone else's houses I thought it would only be fair if I shared my own.

Our house isn't much, it's always a work in progress, and it's a rent house, so there are things we can't change, but we've really enjoyed living here for the past year. Let me preface these pictures by saying today was incredibly cloudy in north Texas and we only have windows on one side of the house, so the lighting in all the pictures is crazy.

Entry way, (I don't think it's large enough to actually be a foyer):


This is the view from the front door:


I love our couches! We ordered them from Haverty's a few months ago, and we've been so pleased with them. They are big enough for lots of people to hang out on them, and they're so comfy!

Our drapes are the ever popular in blog-land drop cloth drapes. They were cheap, (especially since we had to buy 12 panels to cover our 6 living room windows), easy, and really do block out a lot of the hot, hot Texas afternoon sun.


Our coffee table was a Craig's List find for $5, we got it with the intent of making a tufted ottoman out of it, similar to this one from the movie "The Holiday":


but it took me months to decide which fabric I wanted to use on it. The fabric is finally picked:


this beautiful brown velvet.


Now I just have to muster the courage to complete the ottoman. I'm a little nervous I'm just going to ruin 2 yards of fabric and make a huge mess! ;)


If you can't tell from our bookcases, we love books! The bookcases are Billy bookcases from IKEA with one height extnesion. A month or so ago I painted the back panels black (you can read about it here), and arranged the books by color and I think it made a big difference! The pottery lined up on the top was mostly made by my little brother, but a few of the not-as-good ones are mine.

I am currently on the hunt for a vintage metal and glass bar cart to go beside the chair. Something kind of like this:

But not $900. I found saw one in an antique shop a few months ago for $100 and could kick myself for not getting it, even if it was a little small.


I wish I could paint the fireplace mantle white instead of it being that orange oak stain color, but once again we rent. Do you think our landlords would notice if it magically turned white? ;)


One of these days I need to take that poster to get framed, I tend to spend a long time making big, (i.e. expensive), decisions, and I think I've finally decided on a frame for it-black with a little gold.

We bought this dresser to use as a tv stand in July. I shopped around quite a bit before we found something I really liked. I originally thought I would like to have an antique dresser, but then decided I didn't want the tv to scratch up the top of a nice antique dresser, so we started looking for something new.

The dresser we ended up with is actually a child's size dresser, which works perfectly for a tv stand because it's a little shorter than a typical dresser, and therefore the tv is at a more comfortable viewing height.


So, that's our living room; I hope you enjoyed it! I tend to rearrange, paint, and switch things around as much as my imagination and budget allows, so it will probably look completely different in a few months. We've been focused on buying new furniture this year, and I like neutral basics so I can change pillows and accessories on a whim, and as a result it's kind of beige for now. Thankfully I'm getting to the point where the big stuff is taken care of and it's about time to start adding color in the form of more pillows and an area rug.

Thanks for stopping by, hopefully I'll see your living room on the tour as well! :)

Jennifer