Holiday Home Tour 2017 (Living Room)

It's Christmas house tour time!

We've had our halls mostly decked since the weekend before Thanksgiving.  It's been our tradition for the past 5 years or so.  We travel for Thanksgiving so we decorate the Sunday before and just pretend it's not there until we leave mid-week (because who wants to overshadow Thanksgiving? Mmmm, pie.). And then we come home to a Winter wonderland!  

(Do you spy the dog looking for leftovers in Clark's booster seat?  Nothing but professional photos around these parts.)

Part of couch buying decision making process included making sure we had room our Christmas tree.  It works really well in this spot.  First holiday crisis avoided.

We've got the decorating of the 12' tree down to a science. We did have a fuse issue that left the top half of our tree dark for a few days but all is well again. Phew. Second holiday crisis avoided.

The ornaments are nothing fancy and there's a concentration of them unevenly spaced at the bottom. Everyone asks how we keep Clark out of the tree.  We have a few kid friendly ornaments picked out that Clark is allowed to move around. He's a rule follower like his parents so this is working to our advantage. He keeps repeating "Mine decorated that. Hang the ornaments."  It's pretty darling.  He is quite bossy though and demands the lights on during his awake hours.  No arguments here.

We splurge on fresh garland for the mantel.  The smell is worth every single penny. Nate and I both agree it's not Christmas until there is pine smelling garland in the house!  And a mess of pine needles on the floor.

I really hate clutter so I replace a few items that normally live on our bookshelves with some vintage finds. Like that elf.  He's not one of those hipster trouble making elves. He's old. And doesn't move and has zero magical powers. I will not succumb to elf peer pressure.  (This is more of a pep talk for my future self.)

Ike is dreaming of dog bones and day where he isn't bossed around by a toddler. 

I'll share some other spots around the house later this week or next. Until then here's a peek into our kitchen. 

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I hope you enjoyed the tour! I'll be back with more once I'm done watching like ten terrible Christmas romance movies on Netflix (Hit me up with your recommendations)!  I'm clearly terribly busy so this post may need to wait until next week.

Living Room Updates

What do normal people with a toddler and dog do when it comes to furniture buying?  Oh, they don't buy new furniture?  Weird.  But what if they fall in love with beautiful blue velvet couches and their husband answers "Whatever, sure" when they ask if getting new furniture is in the budget. With that kind of answer, you totally buy all of the couches before said husband realizes what he's done.

Okay, we actually had a pretty lengthy discussion on whether or not buying new furniture with a toddler was a dumb decision and if it aligned with our current goal of paying off our mortgage in the next few years. I pulled up these lovely Sven sofas from Article and Nate was surprisingly totally on board.  I figured blue velvet and on-line ordering would rule him out. But he also liked the style, price point and the fact that we didn't have to step foot in a furniture store.  We're firm believers in creating a happy, stylish home that isn't dictated by a tiny person.  We decided to go for it.

I'll do a full review of ordering through Article next week. I mean, who buys a couch without sitting on it? The same crazy people buying new furniture with a toddler, I guess.  Spoiler: We're super happy with our purchase! (Let me know if you have specific questions you'd like answered in my next post!)

The couches are extremely comfortable and the upholstery is stunning. 

They spot clean easily (looking at you toddler snot) and the totally random bonus is that the Roomba can clean underneath them. Winning.

The couches have added just the right amount of quirk to our living room. (We've since added two Article chairs that I'll post about soon too. I started this post back in like March. #truestory)

It's crazy to look back at our past living room decor.  It's fun to see how our space has evolved.  

I wonder how blue sofas are going to fair 10 years from now? Only time will tell but for now we love them! If nothing else, I'll think back fondly to the memories of our toddler wiping his nose on them while giggling and then kissing the dog.

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Sources:

• Couches: Sven Cascadia Blue Sofa via Article
• Striped rug: IKEA Stockholm
• Layered rug: Safavieh Monaco
• Coffee table: We built it! Plans here.
• Built-ins: We built them.  Read about them here.
• Barn beam mantel:  Read about our DIY mantel here.
• Molding wall:  Learn how we installed two stories of molding here.
• Wall color: Sherwin Williams Mindful Grey