If you've been following along on Instagram and Facebook, you've probably seen some photos of our home improvement projects! Last week we celebrated the one year anniversary of getting the keys to our house!! It is hard to believe that we've already had the house for a year…and even harder for me to believe that none of the rooms are completely 'finished'!! HA!
As so many friends and family members have told us…when you tear down a wall, you almost always find something!! There have been several 'uh oh' moments and some setbacks, but I'm excited about the progress we've made so far! My goal is to have all of the rooms (renovations & decorating) finished by January 2016!
I've decided to share our renovations as part of a blog series that I'm calling "House to Home" : Living Room | Our Home which will feature our house projects & our progress room by room! Like I said above, none of the rooms are TOTALLY FINISHED, but some are very close with just a few things to tweak! So, for now, I'm sharing the 'before' & 'in between' photos…the 'after' photos (when everything is COMPLETELY finished) will come later :)
I want to let everyone know that Robert and I were new to home renovation/beautification when we started all of this! We've learned a lot (and made a lot of mistakes!!!) throughout the whole process. Advice, tips, and lots of help from family, friends, and other DIYers has been and still is a huge part of the process & the reason that we were even able to DO some of the things we've done! (To everyone who has pitched in, thank you!!!) Now that we know what we're doing (ish!) we want to be able to help other new home owners who are on a budget with their projects!!
We have been on a tight 'newlyweds' budget ;), so most of our belongings are 'hand-me-downs' or from places like Home Goods, Ikea, Kirklands, and Target! If you see anything that catches your eye, please comment below, and I will do my best to let you know where we found it!! If you are starting a DIY renovation or home beautification project and have any questions or comments, please ask & share!! Also- any of my friends who have an eye for interior design, if you've seen something in a store or online that would look good in any of the spaces that I post during this "House to Home" blog series, please let me know!! I LOVE getting new ideas & different suggestions!
I often have a vision of what I want a room to look like, but I have trouble making that vision happen. I go to a place like Home Goods, find a bunch of pretty things- some might be what I'm looking for, but the others are just things I like. I end up overwhelmed and with a bunch of different decor that doesn't necessarily GO together!! I've found that what works well for me is having a few images that have the 'look' that I'm going for, and then recreating parts of those images in our home. So, when I started dreaming about what I wanted our home to look like…I took to Pinterest to make an inspiration board!! Here are some of my favorite images from my 'Living Room' board!
It's a blurry iPhone photo, but you can see where we started!! Two full size, mismatching couches, the rug from Robert's bedroom at his parents' house, Robert's coffee table from college, a side table (also Robert's from college), and black blackout curtains (that came with the house)!
Now...here's a 'before' photo of our living room... right before and right after we moved in!!
These next photos were taken about 2 months after we moved in! We were making some progress, but it still didn't feel quite like home! (That orchid on the TV stand was one of our wedding centerpieces!)
After talking with a few people, I decided that changing the paint color was what we needed to make the living room feel like our living room. We went from a light yellow-ish beige to a dark gray!! Benjamin Moore's Chelsea Gray to be exact! We LOVE it!
I'm still calling these 'in between' photos, because there are still a few more things that I would like to tweak in the room! BUT we are almost finished, and this is how our living room looks currently!
So, what all did we change from the original room?
- instead of two full sized couches, we opted for one couch, a bench (Kirklands), and a chair
- we changed the paint color (drastically!!) from light beige to Chelsea Gray
- we added a new rug (Tuesday Morning) , an entryway table (Home Goods), some throw pillows (TJ Maxx), artwork (Kirklands), new lamps (TJ Maxx), a mirror (Kirklands), and some other fun accessories to make the room feel more like home
- we also said 'goodbye!' to the black out curtains and added shades for privacy (Blinds.com) and lighter curtains (Lowe's)
My goal for this spring is to finish this room...to do that I need to:
- find some pops of color (like the pink, blue, and green from my inspiration board!) for this room
- find some pretty flowers (probably faux flowers) and/or greenery for our vases and our coffee table
- find a piece of furniture under the large photo on the hallway wall (Photo credit: Katelyn James!!!)
- possibly find a new home for the large art piece over the couch and replace it with something else
Well, that's all for now! I'm excited to share another room soon!
Are you doing a home renovation project or a DIY project of some kind? I'd love to hear about your experience & see your photos!! Please comment below!
xo- Ashley