Yesterday, I shared my recent laundry room update, as a quick reminder our space before lacked storage, counter space, had lackluster appliances and no comfy spot for our lab Oliver. My design plan was to update our small laundry room and make it an area that flowed better into our home.

Last week I shared our finished bookcases, I’m still in awe of how amazing they turned out. Our bookcase project was one of my favorite DIYs to date. Now that we have wall to wall bookcases, I needed to rethink our side table lamp situation in one of the corners in my living room. Previously I had Parsons style side tables that never felt quite right for the area, I did a side table swap with our bedroom Mid Century Modern side tables, and swap looks so good! 
But with the addition of our bookcases, I having a table in front of the doors wasn’t an option #SmallHouseProblems

While I’ve love real houseplants, not everyone has a green and thumb, and even with the best intentions we either accidentally forget to water the plant or overwater. There are also circumstances beyond our control, not enough natural light or even too much intense direct light. Even the different Seasons can make it hard to keep plants thriving espcailly depending on what climate you live in.

We’re entering the home stretch of our DIY Bookcases we’re building in our living room, as a reminder the bookcases are replacing our old set up: campaign dresser + two free-standing bookshelves.

When we were re-building our home a few years ago, I envisioned built-in bookcases in our living room with cabinets below, and space in the middle for our tv and bookcases above. After receiving a few quotes for over $5k for unpainted bookshelves, we quickly realized they were out of our budget. And honestly, rebuilding our home after the fire was very mentally exhausting and we weren’t up to taking the job our painting the bookcases.

Looking back when first bought our 1950’s rancher beyond the age and a few charming details, our house didn’t have the character associated with most older homes. Instead, it had dated 1980’s kitchen, chipped tile counters and cracked tile floors. I wouldn’t call those details charming. When we re-built our home after a house fire, I knew I wanted to add the charm and features of an older home. Not every older home or new build has built-in character; today I’m sharing four ideas to add character to your home.