Back to another start to the week! The weather has been beautiful in Iowa, which made for great tailgating on Saturday and plenty of outdoor time with the boys. We made homemade pizzas this weekend, knowing our days our limited for our pizza oven. We have this one and love it! It takes a little work getting used to the timing, but a pizza takes less than 5 minutes to cook.
I’m hoping to set put up our Christmas tree this weekend, but wanted to share some of the details of our living room before we deck the halls! I didn’t do much for fall styling in our living room this year. A few white pumpkins, some fall leaves and a couple of wool pumpkins from the dollar spot at Target.
My personal style is fairly simple, and what I call, a warm modern. I like clean lines but have added a few rustic/warm touches to fit our country property. Our living room is open to both our kitchen and dining room, so I needed all these spaces to work together. On either side of the fireplace I went with basic cabinets and shelves with vertical planks for added interest. I had these all painted in the same color to keep the focus on the stone fireplace and the White Oak beams and mantle.
We used our existing sofa and swivel chair from Rene Cazares. While we love these pieces, they do sit lower, which aren’t always the easiest for some to get up from. With that in mind, I went on the hunt for a leather sofa with a taller seat. I had been planning to order from a line that I carry, but decided for a quicker ship and ordered this sofa instead. It’s really comfortable and we’ve been pleased with it so far.
I honestly need to do some work on these, but haven’t committed to buying anything new. This was all things I already had, but it’s a starting point. I figure after the holidays, I’ll go back to them with fresh eyes and rework them.
The coffee table was a bit of a happy accident. I purchased this coffee table from the shop I worked at when we lived in Phoenix. It was made from a local artisan, who salvaged Iowa barn wood, which I couldn’t pass up. It didn’t fit with the style in our last few homes, but I couldn’t get myself to part with it either, so I had been moving it from state to state, home to home.
Fast forward to us moving into our new house and we needed a coffee table. I had my heart set on this teak coffee table, but it was backordered at the time. I decided to pull my old barn wood coffee table out of storage and use it temporarily. Well, as you might have guessed, I ended up really liking it in our living room. It’s a little more rustic/less modern than I initially wanted, but the size is perfect and my rough little boys can’t hurt it when they’re banging dinos on the coffee table.
That rounds out our living room. It’s a comfortable spot for our family that I know we will enjoy for years to come. Also, I think it’s worth noting that kids do not need to prevent you from having a beautiful space. I know a lot of people have the philosophy to buy cheap furniture when you have kids, but I actually believe in the opposite. I say buy quality furniture in durable performance fabrics (stain resistant/easy to clean) and leather. Not only can the frames hold up better to kids, but it will cost you less in the long-run when the furniture actually lasts longer than a few years.
I’m working on rounding up my Christmas tree inspiration and *hope* to share it with you by the end of the week. Have you started decorating for the holidays yet?!?