My imagination is going wild thinking of all the possible ways I could design our new home! Let’s start with one of the main, and most seen, spaces of the home - the living room. The way I imagine our living room to look is vastly different from what our first home’s living room looked like. For our first home, I was all about color play. I wanted bold, happy colors such as pink, yellow, and cobalt to greet me when I walked through the door. In fact, you can see what our first living room looked like in this post.
This time around, I want the living room to give off more warm, relaxing vibes rather than energizing. Hence, the shift towards neutrals! The photo above is my inspiration for styling this space. I love how bright and airy it looks. I’m sure those couches are comfy too!
New Living Room - Before
Here is the new living room that we’re working with:
I love the amount of light this room gets from those two big windows and SKYLIGHTS!! At first, I didn’t even notice them. But as a plant parent, I am so excited that these skylights will bring more light into the room. I am already trying to think about which plants I can put in here. It’s a bit tricky since this side of the house is north-facing, so there won’t be abundant amounts of light coming in all day, but hopefully the skylights will help.
The next thing to note is the fantastic PINK FIREPLACE!!! I could not have imagined anything better. Praise God for whoever decided that, because after touring so many homes with ugly fireplaces I was sure that we’d inevitably have to remodel one. But this pink terrazzo tile makes my heart sing. Blush pink is never going away in my book. I had it in my first home, and I will have it in this one as well!
There’s also this random little nook. I’m not sure what I want to do with it yet - maybe build in some shelves? HB and I plan on living in our home for at least a year before doing any renovations. This way, we can first figure out what our needs and problem areas are before addressing them. So who knows, maybe we will turn into wine people and want to put a bar there instead!
My Living Room Mood Board
With that in mind, here’s the mood board that I had dreamed up:
gray couch | leather couch | console | cream chair | marble coffee table | white area rug | mantel mirror | light pink curtains | arc floor lamp
I am re-using as many existing pieces from my old home as possible. Luckily, my tastes have stayed approximately the same, so a number of them can be transferred to the new home. We already have a gray couch, marble coffee table, gold arc lamp, and TV. The rest of the pieces will have to be bought. I am hoping to get most of my furniture from vintage or secondhand sources. I wish I could say I’m doing it for the environment, but in reality, it’s just cheaper this way!
The exception to that rule is original mid-century modern pieces like that console. I imagine a beauty like that is going to cost a pretty penny. A friend convinced me to invest in original MCM furniture as I was purchasing furniture for my first home, and I’m so glad he did. MCM furniture actually increases in value over time. I’ve noticed that their quality is also unbeatable compared to mass-produced MDF dupes that you can find at West Elm or Target. I was insane - I found a dining table from West Elm, dragged it home with the help of several people, found a better vintage table from a local dealer, then dragged the West Elm table back to return. Anyone else have shopping regrets?!
It will definitely take some time to find/collect all the pieces I want organically. In the mean time, I am pinning away! Half the fun is also finding inspiration…and the other half is actually shopping for it. Who else finds joy in making mood boards?!
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