I recently created a poll in my Instagram stories to see what topics you all prefer to read about on the blog. I was shocked that the results were favored so strongly in one direction. I thought for sure I’d see more of a balance between the four topics I asked about, but I was wrong. You all are dying for more HOME content! At least 51% of you are. The remainder of the votes were pretty evenly distributed among…
- home (51%)
- gluten free recipes (19%)
- real life topics (16%)
- travel (14%)
Then I asked the same question, but in an Instagram post instead and received these results:
- 36% Home Projects (new build process, landscape, etc)
- 28.5% GF Recipes (food & beauty, best products, etc.)
- 21% Travel (Italy, Spain, Cabo, Portland, Temecula, Park City, etc.)
- 14% Real Life Topics (fertility, autoimmune health, etc.)
The numbers don’t lie and I am here to give the people what they want! Plus, the only good thing about Aaron losing his job during COVID-19 is that he has a ton of free time to finally cross those home projects off the list. I’ll be sure to report back with blog posts and content on how my handy hubby does it all!
Kicking off our home content on TFK blog, I’m sharing our living room decor. This was the first room that we completed upon moving in and purchased mostly all new furniture and decor items after moving out of our old house since the room configuration was so different. We decided to keep the coloring similar to our old house with a light grey and white two toned paint theme that we picked out during our new build process. (Read the full blog post about all of our new home build options and our design experience.) In terms of the actual room and furniture color scheme, we knew we wanted a dark blue velvet couch. Our house prior we had a deep teal velvet couch and were wanting something richer in color. I’m a huge fan of blush tones, rose gold, light pinks, so I was jumping for joy when Aaron and walked into West Elm and saw the exact color of the couch we wanted styled with the blush tones I enjoyed so much. I was worried that Aaron wouldn’t like it as much as me, but he enjoys blush as an accent color. The other textures and materials we light are finding a balance between chrome and dark antique bronze (black metal), as well as mix and match wood like medium distressed wood to a medium dark wood coloring.
Rug & Coffee Table:
After confirming the furniture pieces and color scheme with matching pillows, we scoured West Elm’s website for the perfect rug that ties in all of our colors. Thankfully we found the Flame Rug. It comes in multiple sizes (5’x8’, 6’x9’, 8’x10’, 9’x12’) between the regular price of $600-1,500. We purchased the largest size to fit our space and waited to purchase it during one of West Elm’s big rug sales. Throughout different times of the year West Elm has big sales for different furniture pieces, so our spending tactic is to wait or keep our eye on emails if we’re needing something specific. Plus they had a promotion going on with double points, so a lot of our purchases have been free with our rewards dollars. This rug specifically is hand crafted so each pattern varies slightly. With all grey walls, a rug is the perfect way to add a splash of color and tie our color scheme together.
Our coffee table is one of the few pieces that we kept from our old house. Being a rounded edge square shape, it really fits in more coffee table spots and worked perfectly here with the clear glass and medium-dark wood color. I love the interesting shape that the wood legs are in and I think it adds a nice structural element. It actually took us a very long time to agree on a coffee table as we originally wanted one that opened up or added storage to our room. This particular coffee table is no longer available, but I linked other options that I think would go nicely.
Couch / Sectional:
The most important thing in this room is the couch in my opinion. We designed the entire room around the shape, color and texture of this couch. I knew I wanted something that stood out, but wasn’t the center of attention like the couch in our last house. (Click on “Fox Hole Renovation” to see our last home remodel.) In our old house that couch was a similar style in the Lagoon color (teal) with a chaise.
Our current couch is from the Henry Upholstered Collection and it is a 3-Piece L-Shaped Sectional in Performance Velvet in Ink Blue. I love this couch because I has a classic sectional style with slight modern touches, but without giving up comfort. There’s nothing worse than an ultra-modern couch that hurts to sit on or the eye sore of a super slouchy couch that everyone falls asleep on.
In addition to our couch, I’ve tagged styles that are similar in the scroller above. All from West Elm they are as follows: Paidge Sectional Collection in Performance Velvet in Ink Blue, and the Haven Loft Collection in Performance Velvet in Ink Blue in the 3 piece L-Shaped Sectional.
Accent Pillows:
Pillows are such a touchy subject. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Aaron is not a huge fan of a ton of pillows, but they truly are a necessity when it comes to elevating decor and adding comfort. I have a minimalist style, so I’m happy with only a couple pillows on a couch. There’s nothing worse than going to someones house and feeling like you can’t sit on the couch because it’s been overran with pillows, or being the host and seeing your pillows on the floor. I’m all about a happy medium.
We use pillows to really tie in our color scheme and to add a variety of textures and prints. Purchasing most of our furniture from West Elm has its benefits because they offer the color scheme that we want and it’s easy to find appropriate pillows especially in pre-packaged pillow sets too. The Abstract Pillow Covers that include a variety of colors are definitely my favorite. I love how they look like art pieces. I’m obsessed with my Mongolian Lamb Pillow in Rosette for a variety of textures, but my stress level with the dogs around that pillow is always on high alert. (The Pink Grapefruit color of this pillow would have worked too.) We have a Flame pillow that matches our Flame rug, but it is no longer offered. The Abstract Blossom Brocade is a Brocade Pillow Cover that is very similar and on clearance for $19.99. I made this mistake with a couple pillows from Pier 1 at our old house, be careful of silk pillows if you have dogs! The drool and snags are very unforgiving. Also, I love velvet pillows, but since we have a velvet couch we purchased a “cut velvet” pillow case design to offer some variety. Cut velvet has shapes cut into it so it’s not fully velvet. Some of those pillows are on clearance right now for $9.99 to $19.99.
Accent Chairs:
When I saw this light pink distressed velvet material, I knew it would be the perfect accent chair. We originally saw it in a round swivel chair and I knew that wasn’t the one for us, so I was ecstatic when we found the Auburn Chair style instead. For being a side chair, it’s actually very comfy. It’s only of Murray’s favorite spots! (Even though he knows he’s not allowed on there.) I especially love a good mix and match, so I wouldn’t purchase a furniture set, but if you enjoy that look there is a matching chair to our sectional. From our other house we brought over this grey chair, similar to the Erik Upholstered Wing Chair. We could not figure out where to put it, but I think it’s a great addition to this room. It’s a winged chair in a grey fabric and medium wood. It can be custom upholstered or come in tweed for less money.
Other honorable chair mentions are: Book Nook Armchair in Ink Blue (matches sofa color), Viv Swivel Chair comes in Distressed Velvet Light Pink, Hanna Chair (low to the ground), Paidge Chair (very similar to our sectional, comes in Ink Blue and pink colors too), Henry Armchair is the exact match to our sofa.
Blankets & Throws:
I’m a huge fan of blankets! I use them year round in 120 degree heat in the dead of Arizona summer. I love being cozy and have different blankets for different temperatures and moods. I have a few different sizes. A large blanket because I like to bundle up and there’s nothing worse than sharing with someone and having a toe exposed. A small blanket for that instance when you want to cuddle up but it’s not cold enough for a giant blanket. Also, a small size is perfect for guests to use and not feeling like they’re having a sleep over and afterwards you’re able to wash it easily. In terms of blanket texture, give me everything faux fur! It’s easy to wash, has a gorgeous texture and coloring. Plus, it’s ultra plush and soft.
We received the Faux Fur Brushed Tips Throw in Platinum (light grey with a darker brown/grey color on tips to make it look real) as a Christmas gift. Throws like these tend to go on sale around the holidays because they make the perfect gift for anyone. I noticed they have a Pink Blush color and I would die for that. Plus it’s on clearance for $29.99. The coloring isn’t showing in the listings scroll bar above, so click on the Faux Fur Brushed Tips Throw image and select the coloring.
Blankets are the perfect item for a wedding registry or a house warming present depending on how much you’re wanting to spend if you’re wanting to do something different from a bottle of wine. For our wedding we received one from Pottery Barn, which is similar to Faux Fur in White/Ivory, Faux Fur Alpaca Throw, and Faux Fur Alpaca Wavy Throw. Most are on clearance!
The blanket we have is all white/ivory and is faux fur on one side and velvet on the other. It’s great in the washing machine too. (West Elm didn’t have a registry when we got married, so we had most items at Crate & Barrel especially since they have a lot of kitchen gadgets, and a couple things at Pottery Barn like their giant hotel towels – now we buy them at Sam’s Club and they’re even bigger, softer and easy to bleach/wash, and this throw blanket.)
Other blankets that I tagged above: The Herringbone Soft Touch Throw adds great texture and dimension in coloring and it’s on clearance for $24.99. Solid Soft Touch Throw – clearance for $24.99. Cashmere Blend Throw on clearance for $69.99, but it’s Dry Clean Only – keep an eye on care instructions to match your lifestyle. We have dogs, so the last thing we want to do is buy a dry clean only blanket. It’s hard enough trying to keep them off the couch and off of our blankets.
Picture Frames, Round Mirror, & Entry Table:
It wasn’t until a year ago (after living in our home for 6+ months) that we finally hung up some photos! There is a large wall when you first walk into our house that we wanted to especially be mindful of how we decorate it. We decided to break up the wall into two different spaces. One space is a dark antique bronze (black metal) circular mirror to frame the stairway, make our space look bigger, and match our dark door. We added a side table underneath this that holds my Aria diffuser, our mail and our Amazon packages that seem to pile up at the front door. This side table was purchased with two other smaller side tables that are upstairs in our loft and were all brought over from our old house. The second space is with our rectangle chrome gallery frames that match the chrome handle on our garage door and chrome in our kitchen. For more on how we put together our gallery wall, please continue reading, “Our DIY West Elm Photo Gallery Wall – Grid Style.”
Other frames that we have in this room includes a custom distress wood frame with a wedding photo from the Best Lil Frame Shop In Scottsdale Old Town. Similar to that frame, we have smaller white/wood frames from Pottery Barn that were on clearance back when we were planning for our wedding and wanted to include framed wedding photos of our grandparents. The others are also white and are from Target or were gifts from siblings. I love how the white matches our shutters and baseboards.
TV Console / Media Center:
For our TV console, we had to find something very specific for our Control 4 remote/sound system, so we were limited in our options. We looked everywhere and finally found this 65″ wide Congo Large Media Credenza from CB2. It had the right depth to house all media equipment include the receiver, cable box, amp, switcher, home controller, and network switch. Aaron started his career working in automotive and home surround systems, so he knew we had to have a 5.1 surround sound (5 speakers and 1 sub), with ceiling mount speakers. I love being able to control the sound from my phone and listen to music throughout the house.
Specifically to the design of this console, we liked the medium wood that matches the Elk and side tables. The grey wood and metal is different from the antique bronze metals and darker wood we have throughout the house, but it seems to be okay as this is a stand-out piece. In my opinion it is okay to be a little different and besides the overall grey tones go with the rest of our house. I like to hide as much media console items as possible. I’m not a fan of open shelving because I don’t like the clutter, but I know it can be decorated in a beautiful way. I’m not the type of person to be able to keep it looking neat. With kids I’m sure it’s easy to have a basket underneath your console for easy access to toys and easy clean-up.
There are a few other consoles that I found at Crate & Barrel and tagged above: Rigby Natural 55” Small, 80.5” Large Media Console with Base (closest one to what we have); Knox Black 90” Industrial Media Console, Knox 56”, and 76” Media Console.
Here’s a list of some of the other items in our living room:
Fake Plants – After killing too many real plants, I’ve decided that I can only have fake plants in my home. I love having plants inside our house as it adds natural colors. The small table top plants here are gifts from my sister in law from Marshalls, Target, etc.
Front Door – This came with the house. (Custom iron door in Porto glass style)
TV – This is a Samsung 65″ TV and it was purchased on sale during Best Buy’s 4th of July sale. We only buy our appliances from Best Buy or Lowe’s during sales like this. Thanksgiving sales are great too. Plus, if you’re waiting to move in, you can ask that you purchase one from their warehouse and schedule a later delivery, which they usually prefer since they’re selling so many during those sale times to customers who want them right away.
Fox Wedding Sign – This was a custom gift from a friend marking our wedding date. It was so thoughtful and ended up matching our home perfectly. I believe you can find similar custom hand-made signs from Etsy.
Mounted Elk Head/Skeleton – Aaron’s dad was a hunter and some of Aaron’s fondest memories with him are during their hunting trips. This is the first and only elk that Aaron hunted, over 10 year ago. His dad would keep an extra freezer of the meat, which would last him at least a year. We left the mounted elk outside in the rain during our last home remodel and it created a super unique distressed wood look.
Shutters – I’m so happy we ended up purchasing our shutters from Arcadia Blind & Shutter. Not only are we supporting a local business near our home, but they did so much more than just sell us blinds and shutters. They consulted us on the overall styling of our home. We knew we wanted shutters, but we were discouraged by how expensive they are. Something we never considered is having all window coverings on the front of your house match each other and the front door. Since the front of our house is guest rooms, we saved money by buying dark wood blinds to match our front door. Now the front of our house has a consistent appearance. We splurged on shutters for our living room and bedroom, which make me so happy. They’re so easy to open and such a beautiful aesthetic.
Tile – This came with the house. (American Olean brand in History Ridge line 6” x 36” in Banks Bridge color with Graystone grout color)
Custom Side Tables – These are handmade by Tremaine Ranch, now called Anomaly Rentals, along with the wooden coasters, which Simon used to eat when we left him alone. asa puppy. We love to support local furniture builders when we can.
Dog Bed – We purchased the best memory foam dog beds from Amazon that The Foxy Pups love! They’re from PetFusion Ultimate Dog Bed and are CertiPUR-US Orthopedic Memory Foam size large in Slate Grey. I linked it to my Amazon Idea List called “Dogs – Accessories.” Our dogs definitely prefer to sleep on our bed, couch or chairs, but that’s because they always want to be near us. We’ve been enforcing the no couch rule and the pups definitely choose this bed as their second choice. They are super durable and great for the pups!
Fan – Our ceiling fans are a Costco exclusive made by Hunter Apex 54” LED Light. We purchased six around the house for $129 each. I linked a similar style on the Amazon Idea List called “Home – Furniture.”
Diffuser – The diffuser that I use is called the Aria and it covers the entire living room when I diffuse it on the side table by the door. I purchased it through Young Living with a starter kit of essential oils that I use to diffuse and to make natural remedies. To purchase this diffuser with a starter kit of oils, go to oilwith.me/TFK. Feel free to reach out with any questions or read about essential oils on TFK blog.
Other items include a wood basket that I purchased in the Dominican Republic while on vacation about 8 years ago. It’s the perfect remote holder or mail holder.
With our living room, dinning room/dinette, and kitchen all connected on the first floor, it’s hard not to give you a sneak peek into this space. I found light pink matching curtains from West Elm to match the chairs along with a chrome curtain rod and antique bronze chandelier to tie in the dark metal coloring. All items are linked in the scrolling bar above. Thank you for shopping with me!
