Living Room Tour for Fall 2018

Living Room Design Ideas

It's been quite awhile since I shared my Living room in a blog post, so I decided since it just had a major cleaning due to a party we had, now was as good time to let you see the updates I've made.

I also want to discuss decor trends and encourage people to make up their own minds when it comes to design trends and what works for them. I don't know about you, but I find difficult sometimes not to fall for the "I have to have this syndrome". Especially with bloggers all showing us the latest and greatest new fad or trend. Looking at a ton of beautiful homes and tablescapes it sometimes is hard not to shop til Greg drops. 

Some of the best tips I have ever read, heard or learned the hard way, come from years of decorating rental properties I lived in. Years of decorating and taking advice from my gut. Years of trial and error. Years if beer budgets but champagne tastes. To me it's a learning experience. You have to find what works for you. After all, you're the one living in the room, not me.

It is all so subjective also. The size of the room, how much you can spend. How much light comes from windows? Do you have small children or pets? Also a big factor is people seem dead set on getting things done right away. Myself included, patience is something I have never had. Whatever happened with taking your time and finding the right piece while out on a scavenger hunt or a local flea market?

Let's take for example the white couch debate shall we?  I have to admit I get angry when bloggers discuss their white couches and how they stay clean. Because they're lying. I had a white couch in my 20's and I worked two jobs and was barely home. The damn thing got dirty and had to be cleaned every 6 weeks. I didn't even have kids back then and no I didn't work at the dump. 

Ok even if you don't believe me, go buy a huge white T shirt and wrap it around your couch cushion where you sit.  Walmart has cheap t shirts for ten bucks, you can avoid the mistake of having to buy a cover for your couch. Test out how long it takes for it to darken just from you sitting on it in clean clothes. I don't know about anybody else, but I only have one Family/Living Room, and we use it. Every single day.

That's decor tip #1 - don't believe everything you hear or read.

Decor Tip #2 - If you see a room you love, pick it apart to determine the function of it so you can apply it to your space. 

Let me explain what I mean. You see a gorgeous living room. The colors are your favorite and the space feels welcoming and balanced. Why does it feel balanced? Did they use the same color on all the larger furniture pieces, like the chairs and couches? How did they repeat the color in the room? How did they place the texture in there? Notice the wood surfaces. See how they repeated the same wood tones. There's a trick to it, did you know you could use more then one type of wood as long as you repeat it 3 times? 

That trick is one that I have always followed because I like symmetry in my decor. If you like say; Bohemian style or Eclectic, then matching will drive you crazy. 

By the way; using wood picture frames counts if you don't have a need for more then 2 end tables. You can match your coffee and sofa table and then use a black dresser for your TV and then use black accents and picture frames to balance things. Spread the same color throughout.

I have had various cream colored chairs in here and they looked good but made my symmetry brain twitch because they didn't match the couch. 

So I waited and waited. Albeit I got frustrated at times because it's hard to wait for the right pieces and the $$$ to do it but it paid off in the long run.

One of the newest updates we did was the rug and two arm chairs. I got the Safavieh rug 70% off online. Its 10' x 14' and I love it! I cannot believe I got that large a rug for that cheap. (no I am not an affiliate, I just adore the rug and the price and wanna share)

The other good score we got were the two chairs from of all places Costco! I sat in this chair in the store for ten minutes and just told myself to go for it and I am so glad I did. They sold out in 2 weeks.

I found a round mirrored side table at HomeGoods on clearance also. Not a thing wrong with it.

I was looking at this room and it needed a bit more shine, glass or mirror. That's another decor tip. No matter what your style or budget, every room needs shine, wood and texture.

Decor Tip  - if your room is falling flat, take pictures from every angle and view them on your computer. Just flip back and forth and see what it looks like. Pick it apart. What exactly is bugging you about it. Does it look crowded? Do you have too much bling and not enough wood or wicker as texture? Too much clutter and not enough visual break from one spot to another?

Because the eyes need to rest. That was a bad habit I had. I always felt the need to have pictures up on every. single. wall.

Believe me, the empty wall space only emphasizes what decor you have and makes it more impactful. So don't feel the need to nail every thing up on your walls. If you do, please put them at YOUR eye level. 

Another tip is the center point of what ever your hanging, should be at your eye level, when you hang it. Not 7 feet tall. Unless you are 7 feet tall.

Decor tip - Don't be afraid of using different shades of the same color. I have a light grey on my walls, a dark one on the furniture and a completely different shade on my curtains. I used to think they had to be the same. But the varying shades look different depending on how much sunlight or lamp light is hitting them and it adds a certain ambiance to my living room, which I like. Its a lot more calming when I walk in here now. Plus the purple just seems like a focal point now and I love how my eye is drawn to it more so now then when I had it everywhere.

I found a desk that I liked also online and tucked it in the corner so I could blog and pay bills on it. I have not found a chair that I liked. Well I did, but it was on back-order and was going to take 3 months to get it. I think that's a bit excessive to wait for a silly chair. So I cancelled the order and will keep looking.

I hope you've enjoyed my opinion and tips on decor. Plus the tour during the fall season of my Living room space. I added small touched of Fall without going overboard and left myself a ton of time to relax. Who wants to be a slave to decor, that's not fun! This room gets used every day and I wanted it to feel like a space where we can be a family and just be ourselves and I did it all on a budget.