enJOY it

The big room.

Also known as our TV room. Also known as the fireplace room. Also known as the room that I hope Paul can figure out how to work the fireplace in. Also known as a super large space that needs more furniture somewhere down the line.

I've shared bits of this space already. This is the room that came together in a HUGE way when the media cabinet was built. I mentioned in that post that the media cabinet really elevated the space for me.

When our stuff got delivered, one of the first things off the truck was the big black bookshelf we had used as a room divider in our old townhouse. (You can see a peek of what it looked like for the few months I had it above.) I told the movers to just drop it into place right at the start of this room so when you walked in the front door, the first thing you saw was the bookshelf. The mover's looked at me with relief and did just that.

And then the rest of the furniture was settled around that decision.

I really tried to make it work. I decided to fill it a bit lighter than I had in Oxnard. I stuck with mostly greens and blacks and whites, taking care to have space where the light could shine through. It worked. Sorta. Until the media cabinet was built. And I loved the super clean look. My bookshelf looked cluttered and totally wrong in comparison.

Orange & Park California print, pinwheel painting, ampersand string art, Paris print, siiso print. frames by ikea, target & pottery barn.

And then I hung art around the TV. And I loved that even more. And suddenly the bookshelf was an eye-sore that was always in my peripheral vision while I was watching TV. But of course, blessing in disguise, I was pregnant and without help, so I couldn't do anything about it for a month. I had to really think on it and be sure I hated it enough to justify moving it.

Sure enough, I did.

When my family was here, they kindly disassembled it and transported it into my office where there is now plenty of storage for all my random shipping and craft supplies. (I'll be sharing the office once the baby is born and Paul is home and I have figured out how it's going to work for us.)

TA-DA! Suddenly this room could really breathe. It's bigger and brighter now.

I'm still thrown off when I turn the corner from the hallway and look out into the whole space each morning. I've got plans to fill it in… I'm thinking about a long but low bookshelf (maybe with a raw wood top?) that defines the space a little more to go behind the chair. NO rush though, I am more than happy to let some ideas percolate for awhile.

The rest of this room is pretty simple. The canvases were all painted by me this spring to bring some color in. The rug, coffee table and couch we had in Oxnard. (The rug was my parents, purchased in the 1980s). Paul and I made the coffee table a few years ago and the couch is West Elm. The lamp is this one from Target (reviews are not great, but I am totally happy with it).

That chair was a craigslist find from the first week I moved in. It was not the best deal in the world ($280) but it's real wood, real leather and insanely gorgeous. Plus, I'd never seen anything like it which is something I like in my used item hunting.

In the front corner of the room is another empty space that we're still thinking on. My dream plan at the moment is a hanging chair (inspired by Elsie) and a bookshelf and maybe a fun rug. I want to get that mirror and art (both craigslist finds) hung up too. And plants, of course. "Put a plant on it" is this home's motto.

The entryway also needs work. I ended up leaving the mirrored table there temporarily because even though it's not quite right for this house, I need a spot to drop my stuff. We are going to build a wooden bench. Something simple and fun for resting a diaper bag and a bowl with keys, etc. There will be art hung on both entry walls. There might be a coat rack. Oh and the rug… there will be a rug that is not the black doormat that came with the house.

But all in good time. Right now, this space is complete. It's whole. It's ready for a family of three to move in and sprawl out and enjoy. (Hurry home, Paul. Sit tight, baby girl.)

When I first saw the house in early February, I didn't fully appreciate the awesome that was the dining area. And by awesome, I mean challenging. As mentioned, a few walls were knocked down during our house's flip and the one that separated the kitchen from a little living room by the window was one of them.

The bar from the kitchen was added (which is cool – I really like that aspect) but it meant that the space now was a bit too small to have a kitchen table AND an extra sitting area but it was too big to make sense with a small dining table. After we closed on the house and my mom and I came down to look at it, I realized this space was crying out for a big, substantial wooden table. Something completely different than the expandable light wood table we'd been using and Paul had had for the past 6 years. (I ended up selling the table and green chairs on craigslist this past weekend just as we got this new stuff set up.)

And so began my dining table hunt. Again, I considered everything. Vintage tables. Craigslist tables. Crate & Barrel tables. Target tables. Ikea tables. Pier 1 tables. Overstock.com tables. Pottery Barn tables. Restoration Hardware tables. Insanely gorgeous $5000 dining tables from a boutique in Little Italy (okay so those weren't so much considered, as drooled on). I emailed local carpenters. I scoured Etsy. I went around and around and around.

My requirements were simple-ish. It had to be at least 80 inches long but not longer than 96. It couldn't be wider than 40 inches and I really wanted something about 36. I didn't want it to be expandable. It had to look big and important. But it couldn't be too fussy. It had to be dark. AND OH MAN, DID IT HAVE TO BE REAL WOOD.

For a hot minute this spring, my dad and I were going to build one. We had plans. We called local wood distributors. My dad talked to his carpenter brother. But what we realized was that due to the size we were looking for and the thickness of the tabletop we hoped to achieve, this was going to be a long (a.k.a not completed in a weekend) and expensive project. We pulled the plug and decided to focus on a few different projects instead for my parent's last trip down before the baby came. And I realized that these insanely expensive new tables were a little more worth it. I think I had to break down the DIY cost in order to see that.

So after that, we were ready to go with this gorgeous table from CB2. We had a 10% off coupon. They were offering a free delivery deal. It was as cheap as we were going to get it. But the morning I was ready to buy, I got an email from World Market with a 25% off coupon. Just one more look at their tables, I thought to myself. And ta-da…there she was! THE TABLE. Dark wood. Good sized. A bit smaller than I thought I wanted, but substantial. More detail on the legs than I thought I wanted, but maybe that would help balance out my minimalist-ish style. And with 25% off, a deal compared to what we had budgeted.

I sent Paul a link and drove to the store to take photos. We both agreed it looked better "in real life" than online. Boom. Ordered. (And once again, proof that when it's really right, I go for it, no hemming and hawing.)

Once we scored on the table, the chair plan came together in about a day. I sent Paul a bunch of pinterest links to light chairs with dark wood tables and black chairs with dark wood tables and we agreed on black. We liked the look more and black chairs matched the black stools at the bar (from Ikea and kindly left by the sellers for us). I found the chairs on overstock.com originally, but then found them even cheaper here (the day I bought them they were $119 for 2.) I don't know that they'll last us our whole lives and they are certainly not family heirlooms, but they look good, were easy to assemble (even nine months pregnant), are sturdy enough and are surprisingly comfy. They work well with the table and to me, tie it all together. We went with six to start but may grab two more (this table comfortably fits eight).

Long before there was a table and chairs, we had the bent wood pendant lamp (I cannot believe they are no longer online!!) hung. I was not a fan of the chandelier that came with the house, (plus it was positioned totally wrong) and so my dad installed the pendant lamp and we used a chain and hook to get it centered in the room without having to mess with wiring. It's huge – 2 feet wide – and helps the space feel like one area and not two small areas spliced together. I like that the light wood plays off the dark beams above and the dark table, rug and chairs below.

I found the rug at a vintage shop the first week I moved in. It's graphic and old (the guy who sold it to me thought it was made in Japan in the 1960s, but who knows?) and big. I bought it because it was a killer price for the size and I'd never seen anything like it.

The ampersand was found on clearance at World Market. Total impulse buy, but something I would have regretted everyday of my life if I let it go. It was covered in an old map and I painted it with black chalkboard paint (though haven't got up the courage to actually chalk anything on it yet). There were a lot of fans of the map on Instagram, and I get that, but maps are not my decorating style right now and it's not like this was a handmade or vintage piece, so I felt great about painting over it.

The blue ceramic candle sticks were picked up at a house this past weekend when I went to go get a mirror from craigslist. The lady had almost a little garage sale set up outside and she sold them to me for $3. Total deal. I love them. The white bowl was picked up at our farmer's market, right before we left Oxnard.

As this low-budget sketch demonstrates, I have additional plans for this space. I'm going to stick an indoor tree (hopefully a fiddle leaf fig which I am hoping to track down on craigslist) in the right corner into that basket I found at goodwill. I am going to have photos from our upcoming family shoot with Tara Whitney blown up huge and framed for behind the table and next to the ampersand. And of course, we are going to gather around this table for Thanksgivings, Christmas Eves and most importantly, family dinners every night. (No more eating in front of the TV for Elise & Paul.)

Thanks for letting me share, in perhaps WAY too much detail, how this space came together.

I had this post planned and ready to go, but it feels incredibly trivial today to share a corner of my house when so many in Oklahoma and surrounding states just lost everything to devastating tornadoes. Sending prayers & aid. If you'd like to help, donations can be made through redcross.org or send $10 quickly by texting REDCROSS to 90999.

This little nook is sort of a random spot. When our house was flipped, they knocked out a bunch of walls and created a very open floor plan. Overall, I'm a huge fan, but figuring out exactly how to map out our furniture was a little tricky at first.

We decided to turn this space into a "breakfast nook." Which means absolutely nothing except for the fact that this is where I sit and enjoy my breakfast and coffee every morning. Before we had the blue chair, I sat on our white leather couch (which was sold because it was WAY too big and way too white for the space). When the couch was gone, I sat on the rug.

Because of the windows, this area just asks you to come sit and enjoy the morning.

One of the first things we did here was add the plant stand. (I blogged about that in detail here.) I still LOVE it. It was actually one of the first "new" things created for this house and it's still one of my favorite projects of the last 85 days. It sticks to the theme you see all over this house – simple, real wood, green. My goal everywhere is to bring in textures and wood and plants and this area is no exception.

After the plant stand, the space sat "in-progress" for awhile. Months actually. Then when Paul's family visited, they generously helped us furnish the space as a house warming gift. We picked up the two chairs and low profile round coffee table at West Elm. (Tip for West Elm : they offer a 10% military discount! Tip for furniture stores in general : ask about floor models! The round table was not a floor model, but it was not in a box and so we saved 20%)

I love the chairs. I love that they coordinate without being the same at all. The pillows were both DIY. The striped is from totally random fabric and the heart pillow turorial is here. I entertained every idea under the sun for seating in this space. A smaller couch. A loveseat. Lots and lots of vintage and craigslist pieces. A daybed. Matching chairs. Chairs that didn't match in shape but matched in color. Chairs that matched in shape but not in color. In the end, after a million mind changes, these were the winners. The blue one is mine and the tan one is Paul's, but if you're ever visiting, please sit anywhere.

The coffee table is perfect too. It's low. Obviously. Too low if you use the space all the time and need a super functioning coffee table to work on or eat on or something. But really rad if you don't want to block a window and just want to set stuff down. I love that it's round so baby girl will not crash into a corner (we've got enough corners in the house to baby proof) and obviously, I love that it's neutral and wood.

The ottoman I found a few weeks later at Home Goods and knew it would be perfect next to the coffee table. It gives the room an extra level of height. The circles and colors don't compete but of course don't match either. It's the perfect height for me and my chair. The rug is a few years old and from Crate & Barrel. Love the black and white and love the circles on the stripes. I have almost the exact same rug in the baby's room, but it's twice the size and was half the cost (found at Home Goods).

The final touch on this room came Saturday when my dad installed the shelf. This shelf was my "icing on the cake" dream and what I knew this space needed to ground the big script art (still my favorite) and complete the room. I bought wood (I think pine) at Home Depot that was 11.25 inches wide and had it cut down to 87.5 inches in length. We brought it home and it slipped like a glove into the space between the fireplace brick and the window wall which was a huge relief. It had to be perfect, I wanted this shelf to look built in, not awkwardly floating a few inches from the walls.

We stained it and mounted it into studs on brackets from Ikea. I left the brackets their natural wood color mostly for ease but also to just give some contrast. The height was determined by me sitting in my chair and reaching my arm out to see where I'd want to set my coffee cup. So I guess it's "custom" fit. 😉

The fun part, of course, was styling the shelf and adding our favorite little knick-knacks that were all out in full force at the townhouse. Plants, obviously. And some art. That painting of Paul and I was done by my 85-year-old Grandpa. That's my favorite wedding photo. The Picasso print was an anniversary gift from Paul. The lightbulb is something Paul made in ceramics class in high school. The jar of rocks and bowl of shells were collected by me on our beach in Oxnard.

Yes. This is my favorite spot already. It's got my view, my plants and so many of my treasured items. But then I remember that this spot is just beginning to be lived in. This space will offer our family so much. I think about slow breakfasts & coffee here on Paul's days off. I think about sitting in my blue chair and nursing the little one. I think about her pulling herself up and taking her first steps across the striped rug. Oh man, I love.

random product sources not mentioned above : woven wall hanging, frames from Target & Aaron brothers, coasters from Anthropologie, letter C from Urban Outfitters, I made that "best is yet to come" art and had it printed at Office Depot.