Remember this post when I told you I was going on a purging spree. Oh boy did I ever. We were left with bare floors, bare couches and nearly bare closets. And then there was this post when I professed how bad I was at spending money on accessories when there were so many larger things to buy. Good news–I have started building back up after all that purging with things that we truly connect with and it feels so good. Like maybe we’re grownups with real jobs, a house and two kids.
Our living room needed a lot of love after my purge session it was not only empty but feeling cold. When a room is feeling particularly that way, I like to start by adding art, plants and lighting. The living room got all of those things and some warm textures and textiles, too. It’s still a work in progress, but I wanted to show you this little corner today.
I didn’t take a proper before, but here are a couple pictures of the same corner from recent posts. Back to before there were baseboards. It hurts to see!
And then in this one you can kind of see that we moved the couch away from the wall a bit and moved our old coffee table to use as an end table. This couch is that big…or that coffee table is that small? Maybe a little of both.
The biggest problem we were facing was the imbalance of light. We have our tall arc lamp on one side of the couch and nothing on the other side. I decided to hold on to the arc lamp rather than go for two matching lamps because–boring/expected. But knew I needed something substantial on the coffee-turned-end table. I had some credit to Lulu & Georgia, an online home decor shop perhaps best known for their beautiful rugs, and thought I’d poke around to see if I could find something suitable. Spoiler: they have so much more than rugs and I ended up spending my own money on top of the credit I already had. Isn’t that always the way?
The new lamp we got is huge and just what we needed to stand up to the large couch and arc lamp. The green-gray color is really soothing, too, so while it has a presence, it isn’t distracting.
I also purchased that beautiful blue geometric down-filled pillow you see next to my DIYed Pendleton pillow. I have never spent money money on a pillow before and, shoot, there’s such a difference. It feels as luxe as it looks. And that embroidered blue catches the light so attractively throughout the day. The Dwellstudio faceted white vase I plopped an aloe plant in (they are unkillable!) rounded out the look. Of course there is more to talk about here. Like what’s new that’s lurking at the top of the photo above, but I am still waiting on a few art pieces to get here to spill about that.
Look at all of those colors and textures working together. It makes my heart and home so happy. We’re getting there, people! Corner by corner.
Lulu & Georgia has generously agreed to offer our readers 20% off their orders using code LOVE20 for the next week. Happy accessorizing, friends!
Hi Julia. I was wondering where you got the picture frame for your print? I love the way those colors compliment each other. Thank you!
That’s an Ikea Ribba frame. :)
Those pictures of your kids are beautiful!!! How big are they?
My girls or the pictures? ;) They fit into the biggest Ikea Ribba frame, so right around 30″x40″.
Did you do the little chalkboard art in the frame?? I love it. I actually love it all!! I just spent a good 20 min looking at everything on Lulu & Georgia’s site. Sooo great. I’ll definitely be taking advantage of your coupon code!
That is a print from artist, Britt Hermann. You must check out her shop! https://www.etsy.com/shop/britthermann
While we are at it can I get the source for the side table the fabulous lamp is on? It might be the fix to my ongoing side table hunt!
Lindsay, check out this post for a direct link: https://chrislovesjulia.com/2013/05/copy-cat-whitewashed-coffee-table.html
It was our coffee table in our last house that I whitewashed. It makes a nice little end table now. :)
Julia,
Lovely, thank you. I think that my have been the only post I didn’t check when I was hunting for the source!
Lindsay
and i spy a coffee table/bench?? do spill the details on that also :)
Yes! We’ve been playing musical coffee tables around here. I’ll definitely give a more in depth update in a future post, but that bench is one we had in our last house. You can see it here: https://chrislovesjulia.com/2012/07/all-feet-on-bench.html