The Den

I have done a terrible job of blogging about the updates, changes, and tweaks that have happened around our house this year. I have gone back and forth about how to catch you up to speed, but all I can really do it just jump in. You would probably be bored if I gave you a play by play of every little thing that happened/changed/or I changed my mind, so I am going to try to keep this somewhat condensed to simply catch up.

I plan to go one room at a time. I will started with where we started, where we are now, and where we are headed. I didn't say any of my rooms are done, but I do have a direction in each on that we are heading towards.

Let's start with the den. The one place in our house that I had no idea what to do with. We have never had 2 living areas in a house, so we didn't have enough furniture. I still haven't been able to purchase exactly what I want, but we have been blessed with some hand me downs.

The jumping off point for this room was the rug. It is the only thing that I picked out new for this room. I wanted this room to be very casual, comfortable, and kid friendly. There is no t.v. in this room, but we spend a lot of time in here. We also use this room at the main entrance to our house so it's a busy place most of the time.

 Here is the before. Right after we moved in and the floors had just been finished.

 In-between.

In-between. Hand me down couch from my parents that I liked better than the one we have now, but it wasn't my style or practical at all with our boys for right now. Bookcases looking extra clutter-y.

And the room today. With a different hand me down couch that is more practical with our boys, but still not my style of color preference.

I will tell you that the built-in book cases have looked better. See here. We just got a new entertainment center in our living room and I needed most of what was originally here in the new space or somewhere else altogether. I recently held a thirty-one gifts fundraiser for my mom at our house 2 days after getting the new entertainment center, so I needed everything to at least look pulled together.  I used my stuff in the living room, and then raided my mom's house for fall decor and books to fill this in until I could decide what I wanted and then purchase more stuff.

                 

               
 

We enter our house through this room, both from the garage and the back door when the kids are playing so this buffet helps store most of the clutter.

I hot glued contact paper to the back of the glass doors so that you can't see the mess.

This room still has a ways to go. I want to upgrade the loveseat to something more like this.

I also want to upgrade the chair to something more like this one in a grayish tone.

Once furniture upgrades have been made I will have a brown, brown room. Not a problem, I'll just add some nice colorful pillows, and maybe paint the backs of the built-ins again. And change the mirrors and artwork. Does it ever end?

The good thing is at least now I know where I am headed. I know for sure that I do better with nice neutral pieces of furniture so that I can add in color, pattern, and texture with pillows and accessories. I am that girl. The one that likes to change things up.  A red chair and a navy couch just don't do it for me. One day this room will be a better reflection of my real style.