living room redo

when it came to decorating the living room, i knew i wanted to do it with a travel theme.  i am addicted to traveling.  i will use every ounce of my time off from work to see some place i've never been.  i even have 'wanderlust' tattooed on my foot in my grandmother's handwriting.  i want to travel and see the world as much as i possibly can while i'm on it.

wanderlust - the desire to travel and see the world

so, i went around and collected all the little nicknacks i've collected over the years and printed off some of my favorite photos and have combined them to create my living room.

the living room is the first room you walk in to entering the house.  there is no entryway or anything.  so, i needed the room to be perfect.  to describe me and express what the rest of the house would eventually look like.  so here are the before pictures of the big open plain room when i first bought the house.

BEFORE

BEFORE

as you can see, there is no defined entryway after entering the front door.  the walls were plain off white and some wood floors.  the door you can see in the second photo leads to the master suite.  there is another door not pictured that leads to the kitchen and then a hallway past that kitchen door.  i really had a large blank canvas to start off with.

of course we started with painting three walls a light grey and the wall that the tv will be on a dark grey.  and then we filled the space with furniture.

AFTER

on the dark wall you can see my tv.  the tv stand is from walmart.  it has 2 cabinets to hold movies and a cubby for the cable box and has a small fireplace in the middle.  on top, i used a photo of me and the boyfriend and a photo of my grandfather.  the truck in front of his photo was his when he was a little boy.  and in front of the boyfriend picture is a scentsy burner.  the other picture frame has our wifi password on it. and then i have ohio state coasters propped against it along with a fake succulent since i couldn't keep the others alive.. (oops)  in front of the fireplace is a small rug i found at marshall's but it's available for a reasonable price at ikea.  the large grey rug is from ollie's.  the black accent chairs i got from wayfair.  the fuzzy pillows (both black and grey) are from marshall's.  the rocking chair was the one that went along with my baby furniture when i was a baby.  the standing lamp is from home depot.  and the red 'you are here' sign is from mod cloth.

AFTER

AFTER

AFTER

on this side wall that separates my living room from the kitchen, are two tall bookshelves that hold my travel pictures and movies.  the masks on the left are from my travels - top from costa rica and the bottom one from the bahamas.  the table lamp is from home depot.  the table is from target.  another black accent chair and fuzzy pillow.  the map is from value city furniture.  most of the smaller accent pieces (car, globe, clock) are from marshall's.  and other small accent pieces are souvenirs from my travels.

AFTER

AFTER

i used this couch to create an entryway.  this couch is a brownish grey and i got it from the same friend that gifted me the kitchen table i spray painted black.  the chevron blanket and window curtains are from kohl's.  the two black pillows are from walmart.  the entryway table and coat rack are from target.  most of the items on top of the entry table are from marshall's.  and the mirror is from target.  the side table next to the couch is my puppy's cage.

here is a closer look at the puppy's cage.  i removed the tie dyed pillow and replaced it with a small dog bed.  that allowed me to place two small bowls with water and food for her.  i do leave her in this cage all night and while i'm at work.  she hasn't messed in the cage and it really helped with getting her potty trained.  prior to this cage, i had her in a larger cage that gave her a lot of room to move around and so she would go to the bathroom in it and then would make messes around the house.  after putting her in this cage, she very rarely makes messes in the house anymore and potty training was a breeze.

puppy side table

puppy side table

here's a picture of the happy puppy :)