Beauty 4 Ashes: Our Living Room {Tour}

Of all the places we've lived, this living room is my favorite. I like the paint color--though I don't know what it is--and I like the hardwood floors. Every time we move we downsize a bit more, so nothing is crowded either.

Always having the same furniture in the four main places we've lived makes things familiar, but every time there are tweaks in the arrangement. I think it's fun making it all fit, be functional and seem comfortable.

My black ladder shelves flank our entertainment cabinet. We don't have a TV, by the way, so the top half is used for more book storage while the bottom half is where the printer and all of that "office" stuff goes. Gary's favorite chair presides in front.

I've mixed books with some family pictures, decorative lanterns and our memento jars from different places we've visited.

On top of the cabinet is a birdhouse, plant in a basket, an old fashioned lamp (whose globe was broken in the latest move) and our family rules subway-esque sign.

The other side of the room holds the couch, centered under the window and flanked by side tables and lamps that almost match. I've had a dusty gray-blue color in the living room at the last two houses, but because of the green undertones in the paint, blue just didn't work here! Thankfully, this rug--the only one that I didn't donate before leaving the last house--matches perfectly!

"The rules" in home design say the rug should be a jump bigger, but it works for us. The pillows... not so much! I pulled the pretty blue-flowered covers off of the purple pillows, and while purple and red are both undertones in the rug and play nicely with the sagey-gray green in the rug and walls, it screams 1993 to me! I will be sewing new covers from some dropcloths or something soon!

Another part of this living room that worked out perfectly is the white curtains. I left the curtains in the last living room, but brought the sheers from the dining room in Ohio. I had added a ruffle at the bottom to make them long enough for that house. But in typical fashion, I had only half-finished that project! The pair with the ruffle are the perfect length for the window by Gary's chair. The pair that I didn't finish are the perfect length for the window behind the couch because of that funny bump-out in the wall. Yay!

Moral of the story: It's ok not to finish projects. Ha! (Sheers work here because there are wood blinds on the windows. Kinda important!)

The left side table has a lamp and a plant. I removed my laptop for pictures, but it's usually hanging out there too. This is where I blog. :)

There's another lamp on the right side, along with a memento from Gary's dad's missionary trip to Africa in the 60s and a wooden bowl that belonged to my parents but now holds treasures. You know, the little boy kind. Rocks, feathers, acorns... There was a worm in there today that must have crawled out of an acorn.

This half wall is at the top of the stairs. We're in a split-level ranch style home, and this is kind of the welcome-to-our-home table. The door behind the half-wall is our coat closet.

The big white bowl and watering can, the wood used in the monogram sign, as well as the old window (below) are all from our barn on our property in Iowa. This is also where the boys' blocks are kept--which are currently being used several times a day to make Jericho or castles or jails.

We read together on the couch after lunch and before rest time. I find that these bins of books get put away more neatly than books on a shelf. The boys also "read" quietly after they've bathed in the evening while waiting for their brothers to be done and worship to start.

For art on the walls, we're still using these pictures I took on my last trip to Europe in 2003. I printed these shots at home in 8 X 10 and stuck them down on freshly-painted canvasses. I painted a border around the prints, then put stickers under the pictures. Black paint on the outside edge frames the canvasses. I got the canvases on sale at Michael's and the paint was a friend's leftovers after she painted her living room, so the whole project was pretty inexpensive for the impact. Minus the trip to Europe, of course.

I hope you've enjoyed this peek into our home! I wish I could invite you over for a meal and a chat and maybe some fun games. We like Apples to Apples!