I’m so excited to finally share the progress on this living room project that we’ve been working on for quite some time over here at the Herr house! The first major update that took place in our home was having the interior walls completely repainted. When moving in, the majority of the house consisted of peach colored walls with a couple of green colored rooms, a few red and one blue… and I’m more of a neutral wall kind of gal, so you can imagine why painting took priority! Aside from having all the interior walls repainted, this was the first major project we wanted to tackle to begin the journey of transforming our house into a home that we could love and enjoy for years, and I’m so happy with how it’s turned out so far!
There are still a couple of things that are being finished this week (i.e., the sconces still need to be installed above the shelves and a little DIY project is happening on both sides of the sconces to camouflage the vent above the shelves), but I really wanted to go ahead and post some before & after pictures with some details from this project. Although I would have loved to have waited to post before & afters until it was COMPLETELY finished, the fact is…by that point, a Christmas tree will be blocking half of the shelves, the furniture will be rearranged to make room for the giant tree we bought and all my Christmas décor will more than likely have overtaken the room!
With that being said, I wanted to be able to give at least a preview of our ALMOST-finished living room before it gets all decorated for the holidays within the upcoming days! So here we go!
(FYI sources for some of the décor and furniture that I used are included throughout the post and in a list at the end of this post if you’re interested!)
BEFORE
AFTER (SO FAR)
It all began with an obsession with modern farmhouse style homes… Although we don’t actually live on a farm, I really wanted our house to incorporate that kind of modern farmhouse style that I love so much. We wanted our living room / great room to be the heart and soul of our home, so it really needed to embody the style that we had envisioned for the house. I wanted the room to have a mix of modern, industrial and rustic style elements to give it that modern farmhouse look. I imagined clean lines, white walls, rustic and natural wood touches + some industrial / metal features throughout. Although I tried to stay consistent with these styling elements throughout the decorating as well, this style really shines through the brightest in the fireplace remodel.
The Fireplace Remodel
I dreamed of white walls with bright white shiplap up the fireplace all the way to the ceiling, a new modern yet rustic wood beam mantle, wood floating shelves on both sides of the fireplace and black industrial sconces above both sets of shelves… And I’d say this dream is close to coming true!
My hubby, Brad (with his handy degrees in interior design and architecture), actually drew out the vision over a pre-existing image of the room on his iPad on the plane ride back from our honeymoon. Shortly after moving into our home, we went to work getting all the pieces put into place and the necessary help scheduled to get this living room project accomplished. We had the shiplap installed and painted, new cabinet doors with a cleaner, more modern look made and installed and a new, less ornate fireplace surround installed to match the minimal, clean-lined style of the shiplap. We also had custom wood shelves and a mantle made out of poplar wood with a pretty English Chestnut stained finish.
In addition to all these new installations, there was a half wall on the upper right side of the fireplace wall that we had finished out to add a sense of symmetry around the fireplace—this little bit of drywall installation made a huge difference aesthetically! (Thank goodness for a family of designers who can point out the little details that make a big difference.) Also, the walls in the room were painted in a Sherwin Williams match of Benjamin Moore’s White Dove to give a light and airy look to the room. (Picking out the right white was an adventure of its own—but that’s a post for another time!)
The Furniture
To keep a balanced and symmetrical look, we decided this space would look best with a rectangular coffee table in the center of the room with two sofas facing each other on either side and two accent chairs side-by-side facing the fireplace.
We decided on two identical almost white colored sofas from Bliss Home, knowing we could easily rearrange them in a different layout if needed. I planned on the two accent chairs to have a somewhat mid-century modern vibe, but until I find what I’m looking for at a good price, we’re using two wicker accent chairs that used to be in my parents’ living room as substitutes! Although it’s not the look I was originally envisioning, I’m kind of not hating the wicker chairs… They’re definitely not the modern style I was aiming for, but they were free! And you can’t pass on free when you’re furnishing your first home (especially after living in a small apartment for a good 8 years of your life prior!) A whole house can be a lot to furnish, and it takes time to find the perfect items to fill it…and, in my case, I’d rather wait to find the perfect piece than end up hating something that I’ve just settled on.
The next major piece of furniture that I bought was the coffee table. I was pretty excited about checking this one off the home furnishing to-do list! Sometimes it feels impossible to achieve the look you’re envisioning while staying within a reasonable budget, and I couldn’t for the life of me find the perfect sized coffee table in the style I was looking for at a decent price until I ran into these two square beauties from Target! We combined them to make one rectangular piece and it created pretty much the exact size and style coffee table that I was seeking! Win! 🙂
Here’s another before & after for you…
BEFORE
AFTER
Another piece of furniture that took me forever to find was the perfect console table to place below the stairs. Aside from having a pretty specific vision for what the console table would look like and a strict budget for what I was willing to spend, the most difficult part was finding one that was narrow and long enough to fit perfectly in the space while still leaving plenty of walking room between the table and the couch. Luckily, I ended up finding this perfectly sized console table that blended seamlessly with the style of the room at Macy’s during one of its big sales. Another win!
Lastly, two end tables were purchased to go on both sides of the accent chairs. The marble top and metal base table is from World Market and the white mid-century modern looking one was found in the Macy’s Backstage Outlet Store. Pacey popped in for the picture above as well… He is also an essential element to our home décor and somehow manages to make it into most of the pictures I take… And he was clearly super happy that I was taking pictures of the room instead of paying attention to him 😉
The Décor
Before I start, I’ll just go ahead and tell you my favorite stores in terms of affordable and stylish furniture and décor: Target, TJMaxx, World Market, and Pottery Barn (when there is a good sale going on). I’d say that a good 80% of my décor and furniture has come from these 4 stores…
I decorated the coffee table with a woven tray from Target to add a little texture and a natural element to the table, and I really love the look it created. Using the rule of threes, I tried to create an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of items within the tray and across the coffee table. I’m pretty sure the gray vase came from Hobby Lobby, but I couldn’t tell you where the hexagon candle holder came from…my mom actually gave that to me (I think she got it from Goodwill!) I used a couple of the many Reader’s Digest books that I’ve collected for décor over the years and bought some wood beads from Amazon (you can find the ones I used here) to create a little DIY accent piece to place on top of the books (or wherever really!). The two wood pillar candle holders are from Pottery Barn and I snagged the gold vase on the end at the Nashville flea market. Of course, the cutest element out of all the coffee table décor is the pup who decided he ought to be in the picture too—sorry, you can’t have him though! It never feels quite like home without Pacey!
If you continue to follow my home decorating adventures, you’ll learn that I have a slight obsession with mugs, among other things… but I absolutely love these buffalo check mugs I got from Pottery Barn! (You can find them here – P.S., they’re on sale right now!) Can’t forget your copy of City Farmhouse Style by Kim Leggett either!! There is lots of inspiration in this book! (Side note: It is the perfect gift for that home décor/ farmhouse / rustic / design lover on your Christmas list!) Lastly, the cozy plaid throw blanket in the picture above is from World Market (you can find it here).
I recently attended the Nashville Parade of Homes and in one of the houses I noticed that they had used yearbooks from my elementary, middle and high school alma mater, Battle Ground Academy… Of course this gave me the brilliant idea to use the 12 years of yearbooks I had stashed away as décor on my own shelves! (Thank you BGA for making pretty year books for all of those years!)
I was really indecisive when choosing the rug, but in the end I decided on a light ivory toned / neutral jute rug layered with a smaller dark gray rug on top (both from an awesomely priced local furniture store in Franklin, TN called Head Springs Depot)…I doubt the gray rug will remain for too long here, but by choosing a neutral and inexpensive bottom rug, I knew I would have the ability to change around the look more often by layering with smaller and less expensive accent rugs rather than paying more for a new large rug each time I want to change the look out. This is a great option when you’re on a budget but really don’t want to have to commit to one rug / look for too long!
I won’t go into detail about all the shelf décor, but basically, I just played around styling each shelf with all the stuff that I had been hoarding until I finally felt content with how they looked for the time being. Here is a link to a blog post from Jessica Devlin Design that I found really helpful when styling my shelves though! Sources for many of the décor items that I used and can still find online are included in the list at the end of the post!
Source List for the Decor and Furniture I Used in This Post:
Coffee table – two square tables from Target
Marble Top Side Table – World Market
Console Table – from Macy’s (but currently unavailable)
Jug Vase Lamp – Target
Oval Woven Tray – Target
Textured gold vase on console table – Target
White vases on both of the bottom shelves – Crate & Barrel and Crate & Barrel
Teak wood vase on second left shelf – Target
Round gold tray on bottom right shelf – Macy’s
Black Vase on bottom right shelf – Target
Metal framed vase on third right shelf – Magnolia Market
Trophy shelf decor – Target
Decorative wood bowl on top left shelf – Target
Overall, this project has been a dream in the making, and I’m so grateful for all the help and support from family and friends throughout the transformation process! Couldn’t have gotten it done without all my design savvy fam 🙂 I’ll continue to update once it’s all completely finished! (Sconces, vents and all!) Thanks for stopping by!
<3 Kelsey
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