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It’s time for another room update! This time I’m sharing one of the rooms we spend the most time in: the living room!
It was pretty solid room to start out with. There’s hardwood floors that have been recently refinished, plenty of natural light, two beautiful arched doorways, and a wood-burning fireplace.
Here’s a quick before and after comparison:
This is what the room looks like when you enter the house or come down the stairs from the second story. On the far wall is a sunroom (we still have to figure out what we’re doing with that space), and through the other archway is the dining room.
This is the view from the sunroom. Through the far wall is the entryway and the stairs to the second story.
And finally, the fireplace! We thought it was a functioning wood-burning fireplace, but then we got it inspected and… well, it’s a good thing we never lit a fire in there. Some of the tiles in the chimney have shifted, which has left a gap in the chimney right at the roof line. Translation: if we lit a fire in the fireplace, there’s a very real possibility the roof would light on fire and the whole house would go up.
Womp.
But we’re glad we know that, and we’re currently saving up money to install a liner that will make the chimney fireproof again. At the same time, we’ll probably convert the fireplace into a gas fireplace, because neither of us have ever had a wood-burning fireplace and have no idea how to use or take care of one. Turning the fireplace on with a switch is much more our speed.
One of the things I love about this space is that almost all of it made the trip from Cincinnati with us. Once we moved in, we had a perfectly functional living room without having to buy any new stuff.
However, we did make three life-changing purchases for this room: a rug that helps it feel cozy, some cheap but high-quality blinds, and a robot vacuum.
We’ve been slowly letting our house get taken over by robots, and we’re totally okay with it. We got a Deebot (I named it Mmmbot), and it runs every weekday at 10 a.m.
At first our animals weren’t crazy about it, but they got used to it and it hardly even bothers them any more.
Because we have two pets who shed, I need to empty it daily. If I don’t, it gets clogged quickly. We hardly ever vacuumed in Cincinnati, which we’re now realizing was really gross based on the amount of dust and pet hair the Mmmbot is picking up. It’s so nice to have our house cleaner without having to vacuum ourselves!
The previous homeowners left us most of the window treatments, but they really weren’t our style, so we took them down almost right away. The only problem? That means we had basically no window coverings. Then Sean found some amazing blinds on Amazon for about $65 each. They’re cordless and really high quality. We love them!
They also make the kind that can be moved from the bottom and the top, so we’re going to upgrade these soon. We wish we would have realized there were two options when we first ordered them, because we would have gotten those from the start!
We keep our decor pretty sparse and minimal. Right now our mantel only houses our Amazon Fire TV Cube, a sound bar for the TV, a fake plant, our wedding photo album, and our wedding guest book.
Because the couch is almost the exact width of the wall, there’s no room for a side table in the corner. Luckily, we found a slate cheese board when we were in Cincinnati that’s the perfect size to fit right on top of the arm of the couch! It stabilizes it enough to keep food and glasses level.
So there you have it! The first version of our living room. I’m sure there will be more updates, because we already have plenty of plans! I’ll be updating the blog and my Instagram as we cross things off our list.
Things We’d Still Like to Do to the Living Room
- Rehab the windows
- Repaint the trim
- Make the fireplace functional again (and preferably gas)
- Replace the Cincinnati photo above the couch with something else
- Find a chair for the other corner (where the Mmmbot is)
- Replace the blinds with the same kind that go up and down
- Replace the couch or couch cover with something darker
Sources
- Couch
- Fuzzy Throw Pillows
- Octopus Throw Pillows
- Paisley Chair (cover is no longer available)
- Rug
- Grey Chair in Sunroom
- Ottoman in Sunroom
- Wicker bin is old from IKEA
- TV is old
- Coffee table was made by my dad
- Deebot Robot Vacuum
- Magazine rack
- Blinds
- Fake plant is old from Target (similar here and here)
- Succulent in pink pot
- Succulent in grey pot
- Cincinnati photo
- Picture frames
- Amazon Fire TV Cube
- Ecobee3 Smart Thermostat
- Sound Bar and Speaker System
- Essential Oil Diffuser
- Tray Table
- Lamp is old from IKEA
- Slate cheeseboard is old from Kroger (similar)
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