House Tour- Living Room

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Today we will tour the living room....

This is the room where we spend most of our time watching tv, reading, blogging, napping, etc....
you know, living.....in the living room....

When planning this room I wanted something that looked like grown-ups lived in the house (even though they don't) but was still warm and inviting. 

Please note the dog located in his usual position...


View from the front door

View from the kitchen/eating area

Room info
  • Wall color: Macademia (Sherwin Williams)
  • Furniture: Ethan Allen Retreat sofa, love seat, and chair
    • (This was before I knew furniture shouldn't be so matchy-matchy but matchy-matchy it is. I kind of like matchy in certain rooms...like this one...because I have no choice...)
  • Shelves: JCPenney Leaning Shelf
  • Coffee table and end table: American Furniture
  • Rug: Pottery Barn rug bought at Tuesday Morning for over half off (BONUS!)
  • Accessories on shelves: thrift stores, Gordman's, gifts, TJMaxx, Marshall's
This is one room that I am pretty much done with.  Weird, right?

We do eventually plan to add built-in shelves and a fancy-schmancy mantle but that is a ways away (pesky student loans) and I am always changing out pillows and accessories on the shelves but overall...done...sort of...

What are your opinions on matchy-matchy furniture?

Linking up to:
Thrifty Decor Chick

Floor Plan Metamorphosis- First Floor

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Metamorphosis is a funny word.

Floor Plan Week continues with the first floor.

How did we get from this...


Main Level
Original plans found here

to this....


We reversed the plans to better fit our lot.

We added a mudroom. Our first house lacked any area to place your coats/shoes when walking in the door.  We stored our shoes in the pantry. That's sick.  We knew a mudroom was a must-have! Especially with our lovely Iowa winters. 

After much debate, we added an office. We had originally planned to use the dining space as an office but changed our minds because:
    • Other homes in our price range have dining rooms and although we plan on living here forever, we didn't want to do something to hurt the resale of the home. 
      • Adding square footage increases the building cost but also increases the value of a home.  We had to look very hard at our budget when making this decision.
    • Offices are usually messy (at least ours is) and that would be the first thing you see when you walk in the door. 
    • I fell in love with an office in a Parade Home. It had a double sided fireplace and it was perfect and cozy and I needed one just like it!  Enough said.
In the kitchen we added a few more cabinets and an island.  We had an island in our previous house that we loved. The island also provides additional seating for entertaining.

We added a pantry inside a support column to increase storage space.

Most everything else stayed the same!  That's why we chose this plan as our inspiration...and the circular staircase and 2 story living room had me drooling all over my keyboard. Seriously.  It was gross.

Tomorrow we will look at the changes on the 2nd floor.

House Tour- Office

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Friday equals "House Tour Time" here on DecorandtheDog. Get excited!

You have caught a few glimpses of our office throughout this week. 
This room contains a few of my favorite things...a glass paneled door, built-ins, and a double sided fireplace.
This room has definitely been furnished on a budget!

Let's start the tour...


Built-in cabinets.  Door leads to living room.

Double sided fireplace

Room Info
  • Wall Color- Down Home (Sherwin Williams)
  • Cabinets- Mid-Continent/Sullivan doors/Antique White finish
  • Curtains- Handmade (fabric from Joann's)
  • Pillow covers- Handmade (fabric from Joann's)
  • Ottoman- Target ottoman found at Salvation Army
  • Couch- Sleeper-sofa from college roommate
  • Frames- whatever I had laying around the house with a fresh coat of paint
  • Do you sense a theme for this room??

To Do List
  • Make the shelves more presentable. 
    • Maybe paint the backs a different color/do some kind of fabric background/stenciling?
  • Replace the curtains that I made a year ago. (yes, I have a problem...but I just don't love them)
  • Move the "map" picture to the right of the fireplace and find something to take it's place.
    • We're thinking a vintage map from e-bay with a vintage frame.
  • Replace dying plant with some kind of chair.
    • or water plant :)
  • Find a few more globes
Feel free to comment with suggestions!