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Shop my Living Room

  • Writer: Rachel Klement
    Rachel Klement
  • Jul 30, 2023
  • 7 min read

Updated: Aug 6, 2023

When we moved in to the Castle House we didn't even put furniture in the living room. We knew we wanted to start on this room first so when the rest of the house was taken apart we would still have a nice place to sit and be as a family. Our contractor couldn't begin yet so we went to Facebook asking for wood workers to help us extend the bookshelves up and fill in the current TV cabinet.(I wanted to keep the TV cabinet in the wall intact and we cut a hole in the wall in the office under the staircase and it's a little nook our cats like to hang out now.)We found a father son duo and they did really well going off of pictures I had. They however, were not so good at closing off the wall and/or painting anything. We had to have our painter we used in Prosper come try and salvage the paint job and help us make the wall look less like a mound. I added trim to that wall to help camouflage the fact that it is not as flat as it should be. Our contractor later added the rest of the trim to the other walls.

For our paint colors in this room visit my blog post "Our Castle Colors" .We had to pick a wood floor for the whole downstairs at this point; but I wasn't going to install it anywhere but the living room and office space for now. I was picky about the coloring and when we'd bring home samples sometimes they'd look too farmhouse or have too pink or too gray tones. I wanted a very light coloring and wider planks. We initially planned to use solid wood floors but I just could not find one I liked. I went to Style Floors in Frisco (we had used them in the past) and we landed on the LW Pissarro planks that are 7". It is an engineered hardwood and we love it. Every contractor or designer will tell you something different about what order to install and when to paint etc. As someone who has done this recently let me tell you...always install first. Even though they said they'd be very careful and they do this all the time they still chipped my brand new walls and I had to patch areas and repaint doors. Super annoying. Paint comes off wood flooring easily with paint thinner or nail polish remover. Always paint last!


We already had the end table and coffee table in the above picture. I needed to make the coffee table work since we had just purchased it before our move. It was a little large for the space so the challenge was on. I decided to go ahead and have the room not completely even and centered. It is all a little off set and the coffee table is mostly the center of the space and I ended up really loving it.

The coffee table is Restoration Hardware and the end table is Pottery Barn which is no longer sold.

I purchased the lamp from Serena and Lily.

All the accent pillows really need replaced and I would like to find fun patterns but these are a mix of Target and HomeGoods.

The sectional is Restoration Hardware. We purchased the Maxwell Left-Arm Bench Seat in the 5'and the Maxwell Right-Arm Return Sofa in the 10' in Classic depth, Grey Oak Finish, Dove Fabric, and a standard fill.

The print above the sofa is from Alice Lane Home and it is called Sunroom . I purchased the 72" to take up a large portion of the wall and I wanted it centered in the wall not over the sofa. It really helped hide the bump in the wall.

I purchased a light colored rattan table tray and filled it with books and decor. This makes it easy to remove if the kids want the table for games or toys.

Books:

Other Decor in Tray:

Small White Vase from HomeGoods

Not a decor piece but I purchased these light sockets online and I can use a remote to turn on up to 4 lamps so I have two lamps in the living room and my bedroom lamps set to them. They are so much easier than turning off everything by hand.

End table decor:

The rug is Surya Avant Garde in Medium Gray it really has a blue hue to it so don't purchase thinking it is just gray. The color on the rug label is "Fume".




We get amazing sunlight from the sunrise in this room and while it's gorgeous and I love natural light in the summer it can really heat up the room. I opted for these 'Classic Roman Shades' from Select Blinds. I chose 'textured white' for the living room and dining room. They come with a remote and we can sync them all to go up and down together or separately. The style in our main living areas are not inset so they are on the outsides of the window boxes since these windows are still an arched shape at the top. I was worried to order these because they were on sale and I got all 9 for the price of 2 of the ones I was originally was wanting but I am here to say they are awesome and I would definitely recommend them.

We changed out all the knobs on the doors. I wanted something classic and also I wanted to be able to match all the deadbolt doors too. I purchased all of the hardware from MyKnobs.com I would not always recommend to a client to purchase higher end knobs but we do plan to stay here for a very, very long time and I do not plan to replace the knobs so I wanted a statement and something I will love forever. We purchased all of these in the color 'Lifetime Brass'.



Our navy chairs are another Restoration Hardware purchase. I will confess I purchase a lot of furniture from them and I often give clients links to items from RH. The costumer service is excellent and the quality is fit for the price. We chose two Thibault Chairs in the fabric 'Lustrous Velvet' in the shade 'Twilight' and the legs are 'Brushed Grey Oak'. The table between the chairs is a marble top end table from Pottery Barn.

The fireplace was a faux box so our only option was an electric insert. We have not finished out the trim around the lower portion of it yet but we bought a 'Napolean' and we've been really happy with it so far. It gives off orange and blue lights and we can either make it all blue or all orange or both and it heats.

I left the original fireplace but I took off the decor pieces and the painters sanded down the glue. We added a Samsung Frame TV . We absolutely love this TV. It is so flat to the wall and I love being able to change up the screen savers on it so it looks like a painting. If you are buying one and need help with that you'll want to install the SmartThings app on your iphone. I purchase all my images from Etsy and save them to my pictures and then just upload them in the app. As long as your app is linked to your TV it is a very easy process!

Most of my decor in the shelves I purchased from Amazon. We don't have HomeGoods or anything local so it was items I could easily order or already had. I purchased most of the books from Etsy. I wouldn't really recommend that because you pay a little more per book but I wanted neutrals and with no easy resale bookstore close this was a quick fix. We had taken beach pictures the year I did the shelves so I used those pictures in color in several frames and also added in older pictures of family members and did those in black and white. I wanted a mix of metals and colors for frames. I need to add more books to a few shelves but I really like the way the frames came together! I will link the picture frames, decor, some books below:

I purchased these Safavieh Double Sconces from Wayfair. The lamp is called the Regency Hill Jenson Lamp and this end table is an outlet find at the Pottery Barn Outlet. The table books are a find from Half Price Books. A little tip.. check the book under the cover...it is usually a better color! The little sofa is from West Elm and is the Shelter Bench in 'Distressed Velvet' in the color 'Mauve'. It's really well made and this has become the perfect spot for homework and reading. We were really happy we did this room before the rest. If you have to live through a renovation it is so important (in my mind) to have a nice place to still gather as a family. While many weeks all we could see from the sofa was holes in the wall, in the floor, in the ceiling, and everywhere in between we could still just relax and kick our feet up in the completed living room.

 
 
 

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