our living room inspiration

now that you've seen our new living room, i wanted to show you my dream board for a few of the things i'd like to start collecting over time to make it feel more cozy... you know, like we actually live there... art for the walls, paint, pillows. stuff like that. one of the major things the living room is lacking that i mentioned in my last post, is a coffee table. my wonderful MIL had ordered this one for us (which was on my last coffee table round up) but once all was said and done, we just didn't love it. so i put together most of the pieces we already have in that room and some i would love and made an inspiration board so i could get a better feel for how everything would coordinate. i chose a couple new and kept a couple old favs and now am trying to decide between 4 different ones. you can see them below.

a // b // c // d

1 // 2 // 3 // 4 // 5 // 6 // 7 // 8 vintage // 9 // 10 // 11 

let me first start by saying, the criteria for our new coffee table is that it must cost us $300 or less.  (actually would love much less, but coffee tables are expensive!) the other must have feature is that it has to be small. 30" in diameter or less. our living room is tiny and we need all the floor space we can get. how can there be dance parties, tickle fights, or wrestling with a giant table taking up the whole place, i mean. two more things, it must be round and it must not distract from the credenza. 

that's all. 

that's all?!?! yeah right, i've been on the hunt for MONTHS. shootdang. hopefully i can get my hands on an awesome coupon for one of these or just wait until they're almost discontinued and snag one up. haha!

so what do you think? which is your favorite. mine is "d", but of course it's the most expensive. it's 20% off right now and i have a 10% off coupon, and i'm kind of hoping to swing by the store next time i'm in San Diego so i don't have to pay for shipping and handling. [crossing fingers]

xoxo,

tara

p.s. i just taught myself how to make an animated GIF! i'm so excited! for a long time i've been kind of down because my computer is super old (2004 #dinosaur) and i only have photoshop 7.0 (#embarassing) for design purposes. so i've put off all design commissions and really any dreams i've had for design for the time being. but i recently felt the urge to just use what i have and start from there. and it feels so good to learn something new! 

p.p.s did you notice my new blog design? i love it, do you? 

update on the living room

so, i figured i better give you an update since the last pictures i posted were of the house in the "total disaster" state. we have since then been able to unpack the majority of things that could possibly be stored inside, and are now making a list of new storage options and projects we want to tackle over time. here's the update:

this is the living room, looking in from the kitchen. it's hard to get a good angle since it's so small. i would need a fish eye lens to get the best overall view. that giant door (i think it's 10ft!) is our front door and we use it as our main entrance since the garage is still full of boxes that we need to sort and purge and then find a place for everything.

you'll notice that i made new curtains. my husband never liked the previous ones and was gracious enough to let me have them for as long as he did. they no longer fit our style and since we have a lot of new items it was time to freshen them up a bit. i was able to sell them and use most of that money to buy the new material. i whipped out 6 new curtain panels in one morning. they kind of blend in with the walls now but we will eventually put some color up and that will make them pop. 

the green chairs stayed! i was also able to sell most of our old furniture and i actually made around $2000 total from all those sales! and since we had about 3 months from the time we signed the paperwork until the day we moved for me to peruse the clearance isle's or wait until a particular item went on sale, i was able to get almost everything new! the woven side table (similar here) along with the marble serving board are from TJMaxx. 

 the material is from Home Fabrics, here in Fresno, and I made some envelope pillow covers for inserts i already had. the velvet pillows are from World Market. the lamps were from our old house and we purchased them from Lowe's about 5 years ago. i would eventually like to switch them out for a table lamp and either an arc lamp or a tripod lamp. i'll see what i can find! this side table is a hand me down from my MIL and it has a twin upstairs in the master bedroom. they're from Crate & Barrel.

meet Darrin, our new couch! we were so lucky to snag it during a 40% plus additional 10% off sale at JCPenney, of all places! they upped their style since the last time i shopped there. which was about the late '90's, when my grandma would give me gift cards from there for every holiday. i hated it. but i love it now! i also want to get some grown up art for above the couch... you know, something i didn't make... 

here's the view if you're standing at the front door. it looks straight back into the kitchen, i love how open it is. we found the stools on Craigslist. we have two more but they are in the garage and will be used as extra seating when we have guests and also for a craft station we're making out there. 

i was able to find this beautiful vintage mid-century credenza on Craigslist in Sacramento and made the 3 hour drive up just for it! it contains all of our movies and games. i'm so in love with it. i know i went on and on about the fauxdenza, and i even had the cabinets to start building it... but my husband was apprehensive about anchoring a large piece of furniture to the walls of our brand new home. so we decided it would be better to get something that was free standing. also, i love all the plants we have in the house right now, although some of them are not doing so well... i want to get more but i'm so afraid to kill them all. good thing Home Depot has a good return policy for plants!!

the front entrance. while i was in Sacramento i swung by IKEA to return the fauxdenza cabinets and was able to use that money to pick up this shoe cabinet. it's perfect in this corner and makes the mountain of nasty, muddy shoes look much better. eventually a mirror will go above it and i'm playing with the idea of a wrap around gallery wall that climbs the stairwell. but first, we must paint!

i know, even though we have a shoe cabinet... there are still shoes out. i didn't move them for the picture because we actually live here and it's not a model home. this area still tends to get congested... but we are working on training the adults to put their shoes away... my husband and i! the kids are better at it than we are! haha. this basket is also from IKEA.

so that's it! i made an inspiration board because i STILL haven't decided on a coffee table, and my legs are starting to get cramped from always being curled up on the couch with no where to rest them. #nocoffeetableproblems #firstworldproblems

i abandoned the whole first track and found all new coffee tables to decide between... and i still can't do it. it's a hard decision. i don't want something to compete with the credenza. and the room is pretty small so it needs to be 30" in diameter or less... and those are hard to find people. 

anyway, thanks for looking!

tara