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Home Tour Part 6: The Living Room


SOOoooo the living room. THIS has been the room I've spent the most time on, so it is also the room I'm most confused as to how I feel about it! ha..

If you're in Grand Rapids and have spent time surfing Zillow, you might remember the beautiful shots of this house when it was on the market. The previous owner was a designer, and this room was just, you know...SO beautiful! And from what I'm learning, pretty much all of us struggle with creative envy and comparison and fraudy feelings when it comes to our craft, so I put a lot of pressure on myself to make our space look just as cool, or just as beautiful, or creative, or whatever, as how it looked when we bought it. NOT COOL, LAUREN.

Anyway, it's still not where I want it to be, but it is important to develop your own taste/style and not feel the need to replicate the style of someone else. Of course, sometimes you are limited by your budget and you just gotta work with what you've got, which is kind of what's going on here...ALMOST everything in the space was thrifted, bought on clearance, or found at an extremely good price!

Of course, being in the industry for a few years now, my values around furniture quality have shifted a bit. For upholstery especially, I highly recommend spending a little more because it really does make a difference. I purchased the sofa, chair, and a matching love seat (previously seen in my office) from Value City Furniture for $900 just after we got married. It seemed like a lot -- it was a lot for us then! -- but now, four years later, the support in the back of the sofa is literally cracked and falling apart. My next purchase will be higher quality! Accessories wise, I still love to find things in unexpected places, use local art, or thrift them.

So what else?