You haven’t seen this room in a long, and wow, has it changed. Why? Simply because it gives me great pleasure to reorganize my home and alter the styling in an attempt to make my home represent my family’s personality, style, and comfort demands. It’s a passion that became a profession, and like all unintentional creative company entrepreneurs, there’s a lot less time to do the things you enjoy (i.e. styling my own house). So, with my ‘free’ time, I’ve been messing about, and with no deadlines (at least in this room), it’s been a lot of fun.

The bones of this space are strong, and the light is lovely, yet it never seems finished. And while nothing is ever completely perfect since your tastes and requirements change, I’ve never had the same reaction to this space as I do to the living room at the mountain house when I go in. I haven’t organized any parties or events here for a reason, but I couldn’t wait to hold a reader event up there to show it off!

 

 

 

 

It’s warm and inviting, and certainly, full of life, but it’s ultimately too much stuff for us, and I find the rug and sofa combination to be too conventional for me. However, I find it intriguing, deep, and full of personality.

 

 

 

 

Yes, there are moments when I wish I had kept the rug and simply replaced the sofa with a more modern piece. It’s as though the rug was unfairly blamed for the overcrowding. Perhaps all I needed was a neutral, more contemporary sofa on this rug to make it shift. But I sold it years ago, and it now belongs to someone who appreciates it for who it is.

The Target chairs certainly contributed to the modernization of the space, but one now resides in the mountain house living room and the other was donated to our most recent Feel Good Flash Makeover.

The coffee table is currently at the mountain house, where it is just perfect.

 

 

 

 

I’m still holding on to that chaise because I love the shape and scale of it, and I have visions of reupholstering it in a dark color with the same color fringe. It’s roughly 150 years old and made of original fabric, so it’s coming apart and in desperate need of restoration, but I’m ready to put money into it because it’s unique. My best friend’s entrance now has a blue demi lune table that is quite adorable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My cats had pretty well trashed the rug, so we had to “mow” it every time we filmed since it was unravelling. It’s currently in my garage, with a significant piece of it still intact, and I’m debating whether to cut it down into a smaller rug or have it bound in the precise form of the kids’ play area in the bay window…I’m not sure.

This is the most current version I tried out and showed you:

 

 

 

 

I took the green sofa from our TV room and matched it with a BLUE vintage rug (from Blue Parakeet), which has a similar mood to the red one but isn’t as “loud.” Although you can’t see it in this shot, the sofa was simply too small for this area and appeared out of proportion in person. Plus, this area didn’t make my heart skip a beat, and I wanted it to seem “cooler” and less oppressive…once I found out what that meant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I kept the Article sectional in the mountain house, and when we replaced it with the antique one, I thought to myself, “Hmm, maybe I might try that back in LA.” Perhaps a more contemporary, basic sectional is the answer. So that’s what I did…

 

 

 

 

I’ve been living in this room for about a month, and I discovered this rug at HD Buttercup last week that was really soft and just so simple and gorgeous. I put it on “memo” (borrowing it to see how it looks in your space before totally committing) and we couldn’t stop ourselves. It’s not a shag, but it’s thick and luxurious. I know you’ll all want to know about it, so I’ll attempt to locate a link to buy it (HD Buttercup only has a few rugs on their website, and they weren’t interested in working with us on getting a link for it… and I attempted to inform them of the existence of the blog.)

Now that I have my coffee table back, it goes perfectly with the sofa, however the sectional on the rug might need a little more contrast…

The black lights are from Target (the task one is from the Leanne Ford collection, which is already sold out, but the standing one is still available here).

 

 

 

 

It’s absolutely relaxing and peaceful, light and airy, and I can easily add color. Right now, the pillows (from Target here, here, and here) are neutral, but they’re SO easy to change up. You might be asking how the sectional is holding up with two kids, and the answer is that it’s doing really well. It’s easy to clean up, and a 4- and 6-year-old aren’t as filthy as they used to be. On Saturday mornings, when we feel like we really want to crush it in the parenting game, we lay out a huge towel and let them watch cartoons while eating waffles with jam.

We had the rug treated by Fiber Care because it has a lot of tonal diversity, but only time will tell if it works (it’s like a silicon treatment that repels stains). It was pricey ($280 for a 1014), but perhaps it was worthwhile. It won’t help with ordinary wear and tear or grime, so we’re doing our best to do what the majority of people do (take off our shoes)….

 

 

 

 

Okay. Here are the Midcentury LA antique chairs that we’ve owned for 6 months. I was weak on a Saturday morning and said yes when David, the owner of our favorite antique business, emailed me photographs of them with the message “I could have a delivery man bring them over right now to inspect.” We had guests around that day, and as we tried them all out, we realized that they are JUST SO COMFORTABLE and SIMPLE that everyone wants to sit in them.

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of old favorites here, such as the vintage trunk, my flea market wood magazine holder, my wooden hand chair, and most of the art. (However, that double-shaded light from CB2 is a new fava.)

 

 

 

 

I relocated the Article credenza to Brian’s office (coming soon…I HOPE) and replaced it with this one from Serena & Lily, largely because I think the tone of the wood and the mixed materials worked better in here. In our recent surprise makeover in Utah, we used the nightstand version of this piece and loved it. The braided drawers, the leather pulls…it has a trendy but vintage vibe to it.

The remainder of the vignette has remained mostly unchanged—Kirill Bergart’s art, Lostine’s light, and Melinda Forster’s sculpture (from the flea market). Guys, I’m really enjoying it.

 

 

 

 

We’ve made a lot of modifications over here, including a flea market dresser that seemed more modern, a thrifted black chair (that I acquired for $20 and DIY’s), and an oil picture of a lady from the 1700s that I found at the Pasadena Antique Mall. We also replaced the sconces above the built-ins with these Circa Lighting sconces. We reinstalled the old sconces in the playroom, but if you look closely, you’ll notice a metal plate beneath them. This is because the hole for the connection box was much larger than the new sconce, so we still need to pay a plasterer to come repair it and make it much smaller.

The shag rug is from Article, which moves about a lot, and the poufs is from Lulu & Georgia, which I’ve owned for a long time.

 

 

 

 

That piece of art by Colin Glasgow over my fireplace is still one of my favorites, and I restyled the shelves to be more neutral but still filled. I want less things and more color on certain days and more on others.

It’s impossible to remain impartial while looking at that room, both in person and in images. I know I enjoy everything, and there are certain things I’d rush back in to preserve if there was a fire. I adore having a chaise sectional, but I haven’t given up on finding my ideal sofa for here, and I’ve pinned a lot of them. I want it to be a sofa that takes your breath away while still being really comfy, which is a difficult combination to find. I don’t have to do anything, but I like fantasizing.

So you’ll see what couches I almost got, what I’m leaning towards, and general “what’s going on inside my skull” thoughts tomorrow (assuming I can write it in time, eek) (and perhaps bringing in the colour red).

But I’d REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, REAL Should I try to make this space more aesthetically interesting? It’s getting near, I can feel it, and I enjoy it a lot. Why is this area proving to be so much more difficult than my bedroom, which I haven’t touched in three years? Oh, yes… It must function as both our living room and family room, and it must be both family-friendly and really comfortable and appealing… I’m still having trouble combining old-world with midcentury with contemporary, but it’s a look I like and want to pursue.

 

All pics credit by : Style By Emily Henderson