Learning to Laugh: A picture tour: living room

I will be the first to admit that our home is a humble place to call home, which is ok since it is only our temporary place. If it was up to me the first thing I would do is re-do the kitchen since I hate the white on brown cupboards. But thanks to my amazing mom, I feel a bit better about our place.


Welcome to our place.

My mom did a fantastic job about giving our house a new look. We are currently living in a single story 1100 sqft 3 bed room 2 bath duplex. We pretty much live, play, and Drew sleeps in our living room which is attached to both the dining room and the kitchen via a breakfast bar. I don't have recent pictures of the kitchen, but it is nothing special. Picture a basic 1990's apartment kitchen, that's what it is. It is functional and that is about it. I hate it. My mom knew Nayt and I are ready for a grown up type of home, which is hard when you still have a Hodge podge of furniture hand me downs. I am severely lacking the better home maker gene and all my attempts at making things flow just didn't work. Mom to the rescue!

Here are some good before pictures of my living room. It was incredibly dark, with little to no light. Plus the red curtains made it even darker. The way our place is facing we only catch some late afternoon light, and I hated how heavy it was. Our furniture moves all the time, and any given month it could look different.

In my defense, since these pictures were taken we have lost the coffee table and added an awesome ottoman/toy box which eliminates some clutter and we have gotten rid of the red carpets since my vacuum ate them up. Now, my living room looks like this:

We picked up the beanless bean bag chair a few weeks ago for Drew which has become a perfect addition to the room.

I love how she rearranged my picture frames to actually display my photos, and not have them getting lost on the wall. We plan on adding more to the collage soon.

A new lamp added extra light to the room since we have no over head lighting. It also becomes great task lighting if i ever have the change to read again. Also, notice the paint? Amazing how just one accent wall can make a total difference!

White curtains add a light, airy touch to the room which is a huge contrast to the heavy red curtains we did have up!

They also moved our furniture around so that Nayt and I can actually sit and have a conversation, and it gives us space behind the sitting area for the kids to play.

Check out the glowing globe, it is Drew's new favorite thing to look at!

We have a large basket of books, some pillows and rocking chair. I love our new reading area and we have already spent hours upon hours reading there.

I honestly adore our new living room. Mom did a fantastic job at capturing my style. (Don't you just love those pillows?! she is making me more!) She also mixed function with style, practical with pretty, and grown up with still allowing my kids to play and enjoy a space that is all of ours! I can't thank her enough for all of the hard work she put in while she was here!

One of the coolest parts, in my book, was that she did both my living room and Drew's room all under $200 bucks. Most of the things she used were things that I already had. But a basic rundown if you want to take notes:

sidetable/lamp: $10 at consignment

White light: $10 at consignment

Fake plant: $10 at consignment

Paint: $12 at local hardware store

Curtains: $1 a yard sell

Material for pillows/table clothe: $20 bucks

Cool right?!