My Fall Front Porch

I have a confession, I’ve been seriously neglecting my front porch. I’m talking ignoring the dead plants sitting in containers and the overgrown butterfly bushes. Basically it's hot mess central! By the third month of crazy hot temps in Sacramento, I usually throw my hands and up and tell the 100+ degree days you’ve won and I’m tired of watering plants that are dying. Last week, I finally got sick of looking at the mess and decided it was time I visited a few of my favorite nurseries (both local and big box) for some plants to spruce up my front porch for fall. When I got home from the nursery, I went right to work and forget to snap before pictures!

I brought some so many pretty flowers and bushes! In my large planter, I planted a large variegated flowering dogwood bush. I just love how pretty the leaves look against our grey home.

I planted yellow cone flowers, one in the ground and one in a large planter. The lady at the nursery told me they bloom all season, just make sure I dead head the blooms as they fade. In my other planter, I planted poppies,

Decorating my porch has always been a struggle for me, because on one side we have front + porch and the other side is our large front garden bed, the layout doesn’t give me enough room to place larger planters on the right side of my front door. To create some visual balance with the large trio of plants I have on the left side, I added a large marigold. The marigold is so pretty, I picked it up at The Home Depot for under $13.00 run to Home Depot and grab some for your porch or patio!

Next on my front porch project list, is to repaint our front door. Nope, I’m not changing the color at all. In fact I love this color so much! Instead, I’m giving the door a good cleaning and painting it Saturday morning. It’s in need of a fresh coat of paint, with our home facing South West it gets pretty much gets all day long. I plan on getting up early knocking the paint out and then coffee date with Hasani! Basically coffee + painting sounds like the perfect Saturday morning!

House Tour: My Living Room

It’s been ages since I’ve shared a full living room tour along with all the sources for my living room. Over the last several months we’ve made some major changes in our living room, added more functionality, storage and more. All the updates have been little by little, saving up coins to tackle DIY projects and add in new accessories.

I how my living room and loved how its evolved over the years, let’s take a trip down memory lane. We moved back in our home about five years ago, we rebuilt our home in 2012-2013 after a house fire, it started next door and spread to our house. During the rebuilding process we lived in an apartment nearby for a year and check our house progress daily, it was a brutal year emotionally, thankful to make it to the other side and came out stronger.

Below is what our house looked like a few months after moving back in. In our old living room layout we had one sofa and two chairs, I noticed none ever opted to sit in the chairs. When planning out furniture layouts of our living room, I decided twin sofas for our small living room would be must; they offer us a lot of seating and perfect for movie nights! One of the first DIY Projects I tackled after moving back into our home was updating the campaign dresser with white glossy paint, read more about the project here. The walls are painted Designer Grey, its the literally the perfect grey. and the Time is Swiss Coffee by Kelly Moore - my favorite white paint color EVER.

Below is how my living room looked in 2016 and part of 2017. I loved how welcoming our living room felt, but it needed a few tweaks. One of the first major changes to our living room was swapping out the grey patterned rug for a Jute Rug. I did this for two reasons

1. Too Much Grey and I love Grey

2. I Wanted to bring in more natural elements in our living room.

I’m love how much warmth our new rug adds to the space, once we added bookcases I had to get a smaller jute rug, its been amazing and has had zero shredding!

When I look back at my living room, its hard to believe its the same room! My living room is a mixture of new and old and I love the collected over time feel. While I loved the campaign dresser in our living room, I felt that a huge opportunity to bring in more storage and add a design featured was being missed. The campaign dresser is in our garage, I’m never getting rid of that piece #Timeless

In January, my husband and I added DIY Built-in bookcases in our living room, the addition really opened up our entire living room. Our living room now feels more spacious, uncluttered and welcoming. I love how much hidden storage we now have for DVDs, misc house stuff. It pretty much holds all the things nicely out of sight. Read more about our bookcase project here.

I love the classic look and character that bookcases adds to a space, I’m so happy with how they turned out! In need of more ideas to add character in your home? This is the perfect post for you!

Another happy update in our living room, are the natrual shades from Leveler! I’m a huge fan of these shades, I bought them off the shelf at Lowes and had them cut to fit. Ready made blinds are a great affordable option when you have standard window sizes, read more about the shades here.

I love big artwork in a small room, it creates a huge impact. I sold the butterfly artwork to a sweet reader and brought in two large pieces of artwork from Minted. The artwork is huge and feels perfect in our living room. I love the mixture of abstract paired with a photograph. One day I hope to visit this exact location of the artwork in Portugal. In addition, I updated our old coffee table with a lower marble coffee table that better suits the small shape of living room. The rectangle shade and narrow width give us more leg room, along with the marble top bringing in texture.

In the corner of the living room, I wanted a pop of green. I love Schefflera plants and found a big one at Green Acres that I couldn't pass up and brought it home a few months ago. These plants are drought tolerant and only need to be watered about once a month.

To balance out my living room window, on one side I added a mid century modern reading floor lamp. I love how high end this lamp feels and the shape leaves this corner feeling open which is a plus.

I’m all about shopping my home first before buying, I recently swapped the side tables in my living room with ones from my bedroom. The old side tables never felt quite right size & height wise. I love the classic mid century lines of this side table in my living room. It just works so much better.

On f the areas in my living room that stayed the same was our front entry. Our living room front door opens directly into my home, and while I have no separate entry I still wanted this little area to feel special. I painted the inside of the front door Elephant Grey, I love the warmth the grey door adds to our living room, plus the door is too pretty to be basic white. I made the back tab drapes with fabric from Tonic Living, this pattern is so timeless.

Below is the view looking into our living room from the dining room and kitchen. This room almost feels perfect, but I’m so ready to update our light fixture. Over the past year the double drum shade has yellowed! I’ve tried vacuuming it and cleaning it and its still yellow! My plan is to update our living room with a more sculptural modern light fixture. I have a few styles picked out; I’m so excited to share and get your input!

SHOP THE LOOK

I’m so in love with how our living room has come together over the past year. I’ve tired my best to be very intentional with our living room and take my time making the updates on a budget and real-life timeline! What do you think our living room? Any lighting suggestions?