My living room has been a great canvas the past few years. Living rooms are hard to decorate (there are so many options for what might work) and I've tried a lot of different things. I don't think I'll ever be totally done, but I'm feeling so good about some of these new pieces and think they will last a long time.
I can’t believe how excited I am about this fake Christmas tree. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where there are Christmas tree farms and cut tree lots everywhere and you can have the magical experience of getting your own… But as an adult having kids and a million things to do and stressful communication with my husband, I grew to really dislike and almost fear the experience. I have some really bad memories of the last few times we tried before we separated.
Well, a couple years ago I realized, I’m a single mom now and I get to choose what works for me and my family! I am shedding the guilt and creating new magical traditions with my kids with fake trees! Without all the stress and mess! And I just got a really wonderful one.
I’m really excited about this tree because it has the more bare fir look of some of the beautiful real trees, but it's fake and pre-lit. Honestly, those firs at Christmas tree yards are like $150 so I’ve never bought one even when buying real trees… But I love the look! This 7.5' Rushmore Fir Artificial Christmas Tree 750 Warm White LED Lights from King of Christmas has the slightly more bare branches, plus, my favorite feature: plastic fronds as well as the fabric ones that the cheaper trees will be exclusively.
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A basement laundry room is not my dream situation, but I’ve finally finished renovating and now styling this one and am happy with it! It was part of the big basement renovation project that we started in early 2022 but, thanks and part two divorce and lots of other priorities in life, there were still paint, touchups and other things to do until very recently. little by little finished parts of this room and then finally got the final piece, very cool, traditional drying rack!
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This is a really great room because it has south and west-facing windows, so lots of light particularly in the afternoon. I love it for my office for that reason! But it’s also just beautiful as a peaceful bed to look at as I passed by in the hall. And, we’ve used it to sleep in when it’s too hot upstairs! The blue and white Rifle Paper Co. paper wallpaper was obviously the anchor, but since it is a little cleaner/fresher/preppier then I've done the past few years. It took me a lot of head-scratching to find the rest of the pieces.
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I visited this house once when I was a kid. With my mom, talking to the previous owners about some neighborhood association stuff. The only thing I remember is the built-ins in the breakfast nook. When we walked through the house 25 years later, I was delighted to see that of course they are still there and just as I remember them.
But the nook itself needed some updates. I painted it a couple years ago, which was fun, but it was still a little plain. I’ve put a lot of thought into the curtains and other elements and now it’s finally done!
Welcome to this sunny room. The sun comes up on this side of the house and sunlight streams into here on clear mornings.
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A few years ago I renovated this pass-through room that goes from our downstairs hall to the garage as my office. Previously it had been Otto’s nursery when we lived entirely downstairs! It was definitely awkward as a nursery. It was pretty good as an office because it’s downstairs near the kitchen, etc., but the north facing windows sometimes made it feel dreary. So I moved my home office to the guest room when I updated that space, and was left with this funky room that pretty easily became a catch-all for shoes and coats and returns going out the door. So I cleaned it up, and made it functional again with some hooks and shoe shelving, and still had room for my sewing stuff on the former desk.
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