{HOME TOUR | living room}

The other day I got one of the biggest compliments of my life. We had a houseful of friends over to put in a flue and then watch movie, and while the guys were doing the hard work, we girls were sitting around chatting. And my friend said to me, "This place just feels like a home. You're good at that." I didn't know how to respond so I said something about how it's probably the clutter stacked in every room (we all have that right? haha). 

It got me thinking though. I've put off posting house pictures on here because I felt like our house wasn't put together after moving. We still need some furniture, and I still have things in boxes. But I figured if my friend thought it was homey, it's good enough to post about. 

I wasn't sure which room to post about first, but the living room is the room that feels the most put-together to me, so I thought we'd start there first. We actually just rearranged a lot of the rooms in the house, and we're getting used to the new arrangement, but so far we like it.

This room is kind of in the middle of the house. The double doors in this picture are pocket doors that lead to the master bedroom. They kind of made it hard to set up this room since there aren't many free walls. There are also only two outlets in this room! So that was fun to work around. We had to put the TV stand in front of the built-in bookshelf which sort of makes the bottom two shelves hard to use. But it works!

 This is the fireplace and mantle I've mentioned before. We used to have this room set up as the dining room, but my husband (and mom and sister and dad) convinced me that it would be nice to have the fireplace in the living room instead. Hence the room switch. And I honestly like the dining room where it is now anyway. But the dining room is for another day!

I had a hard time figuring out how to decorate a hearth, and even Pinterest wasn't much help. But I finally decided on the elk antler on one side, and once basket or another on the other side. Obviously I'm decorated for Fall, too, so the pumpkins add to that.

 Sorry about the lighting in the photo...my camera was convinced I was trying to take a picture of a night city-scape. But this picture is from our bedroom, and you can see better how we have the couches set up. Also our homemade coffee table (another thing I took pictures of but can't remember if I posted about. Have I?). We really need an area rug in here, but don't have the funds for one yet. Can someone explain to me why rugs are sooo expensive? I grabbed the small one here at Five Below for $5 on someone's recommendation. It works for now.

The big mountain picture is a chalk one I did before leaving El Paso. I like the picture, but can't figure why I did it in green. It kind of clashes with my house, but I love it anyway. I may move it to the dining room someday, if I find something else to hang here. It also needs framed, but glass is expensive.

Lastly, that short hallway on the right leads to the bathroom, basement door, and then the back room (formerly the living room).

 Another thing that's puzzlingly expensive is curtains. I tried to make them on the cheap for the new house, sewing them out of sheets, hanging painter's dropcloths, and like these, buying clearance fabric and hemming the edges. Then I bought clip rings and hung them on the existing curtain rod. But we need some actual hooks to hang the rod on. I can't figure out how that last owners had them hanging...

 As the last picture, I tried to get a good shot of the mantle without being reflected in the mirror. I snagged that mirror at an auction for $2, and it soon found a home on the mantle. My sister made me the "HOME" sign, and my mom gave me the little tree plant, which I'm still keeping alive barely. I put some fall colored old books on to add some color, and I always have a bunting or garland of some sort hanging on the mantle for softness.

 So that's our living room! I'd like to try and get all the rooms posted before I decorate for Christmas so I can maybe do a Christmas tour (if you'd be interested in that), but we'll see how it goes. Two little people keep me running around a lot!