living room Archives - Our Humble ABode(n)

Our Living Room Christmas Decor

Christmas is my favorite time of year so it probably is no surprise that I go overboard when decorating for the holidays. If it were up to me we would decorate on November 1st but Daniel is not a fan. This year I waited as long as possible until I just couldn’t contain my inner elf any more and got to work the Sunday before Thanksgiving, just 4 days early.

There are very few places left undecorated in our house, and I cannot believe Christmas is only a week away. It doesn’t feel like it because of the lack of snow, warmer weather, and how busy I have been with work when typically this tends to be the slow season of the year.

Here is a peak into our holiday decorations around our living room!

This table normally sits under the front window in our living room, but I moved it to behind our couch for the holiday season so our tree could be the star of the show and visible to all of those who drove passed our house! This Crate & Barrel lantern is my favorite decoration for any season, I dressed it up with ornaments and jingle bells on the inside and a red burlap bow outside. I love how it looks on our table. On the other end of the table I have these mercury glass candle sticks with red and silver glitter candles.

Our house could also be considered a forest. In addition to our big tree, we have quite a few mini trees set up around the house and they come in groups of three. These particular trees can be found above one of the book shelves in our living room against the back wall.

As I mentioned in a previous post I think no home decor is complete without an appropriate scent. This Celebrate Christmas candle by Yankee Candle only lasted us about 2 weeks and we quickly moved on to Mistletoe.

On top of the other bookshelf next to our record player we have these jingle bell trees. I found them at Marshall’s last year and I love how well they fit into the theme of our decor.

Our mantle remains unchanged from last year, with the garland and berries, as well as our chalkboard stocking holders from Target. “Merry and Bright” was the only three word phrase I could think of. Anyone have any suggestions for next year? Also our stockings are from Pottery Barn. They will forever be my favorite because of how timeless they are. Next to the fireplace I replaced the orange sticks we usually have with red and silver glitter sticks. No place is left unturned! (PS don’t be frightened by the potential fire hazard this looks like. These candles are actually fake from Pottery Barn)

Our tree hasn’t changed much from last year with the exception of a few new ornaments from our travels this year and it is now surrounded by our two new chairs we added this summer. I could dedicate a whole post just to the different ornaments we have collected the last couple years.

This is probably the coziest corner there ever was. I styled these hunter boots with some left over glitter sicks next to the fireplace and extra pine cones and pine needles. I wish all of my days could be spent here next to the tree with a peppermint mocha and a good book. Maybe next year when life slows down a bit!

Shamelessly, I had to add this picture to the post. Although it is not really our decor, I love this picture. I snapped it of Riesling while I was taking a few pictures of our decor and loved it so much I put it on our Christmas card. To make things even sweeter Pottery Barn reposted the photo on their Instagram page as she is snuggled up with the Cozy Knit Throw I received as a gift for Christmas last year. The photo got over 10,000 likes. To say I am a proud dog mom is an understatement. We knew our dog was cute, but this just validated things.

As you can see all of our decor is red, silver and full of glitter. The rest of our holiday home tour is coming soon!

XO,

CoCo

December 18, 2015 by CoCo | 7 Comments

Entertaining, Home Decor

Fall Decor Round Up

Well friends, I’ve been slacking on the whole blogging thing lately. Not off to quite a good start, but it happens. Life sometimes gets in the way.

It wasn’t until I was taking down my fall decor and putting up my Christmas decorations that I realized I never took pictures of the ways I decorated this year. So I snapped some pictures as I went.

Always next to our TV we have orange sticks on display to bring some color into our otherwise fairly neutral living room.

My favorite decor, no matter the time of year is a great garland to place on your mantle. Daniel disagrees because it occasionally interferes with turning the volume up on the TV, but thats a story for another day. I found this garland at Pier 1 last year. It has plenty of fall colors in the leaves as well as a few berries and pine cones. It also hides the sound bar and cords underneath the TV, so for that I appreciate it.

I found these pumpkins at a small shop last fall and fell in love with them, they are a little bit on the rustic side, but can be up all season.

Lanterns are a great way to bring in seasonal decor. I think they are subtle and can move around and fill the space where there may be some decor lacking. This year I put a autumn spice pillar candle along with some berries, leaves and straw to make it festive for the season.

To me, fall is all about the burlap, straw, orange, reds and browns. I also am a sucker for anything gold so I was able to incorporate some as well. I normally keep our table somewhat set because you never know when you may have some guests. Above is how I had it set for most of the fall. The burlap runner is from Target and works well with many different settings. I found the pinecones, acorns and glitter pumpkins at Pier 1 last year. The place mats are this year from Bed, Bath and Beyond. Lastly, the wood disk is from Michaels. I utilized it to bring some height into the setting.

Home decor is not complete with out a seasonal scent.This year we burned Fall Festival in our living room. I think scents help to really bring all your decor to life and create the cozy feel when you come home at the end of the day.

I justified taking my fall down a little early this year (Sunday before Thanksgiving) as about a week prior I hosted a “Friendsgiving” with some girlfriends from high school. I love entertaining and am truly grateful for friendships that have continued since graduation and the ability to reconnect with some other ladies after college. In addition to hosting, I made the turkey, stuffing, and gravy and no one ended up in the hospital so I think I succeeded and consider myself a true adult now.

Ignore the bad lighting, but here are a couple pictures of the table settings from that night:

My place settings were fairly simple and I was able to utilize things I already had for decor and for my tables.

The first table I utilized woven placemats to incorporate the straw feel. I also had red, green, orange plaid napkins which I tied with straw and placed faux leaves in the tie to really make it feel like fall.

At the second table, I added brown napkins and white plates to what I already had set at the table. I went with something a little more simple to not distract from the fun placemats I had set. Additionally, the gold glitter pumpkins are in my opinion the highlight, so I didn’t want to take away from that.

Dinner parties are kind of grand. I look forward to hosting many more for the rest of the holiday season.

Hope your Thanksgiving was great!

XO,

CoCo

November 28, 2015 by CoCo | 14 Comments

Home Decor, Real Estate, Renovation

Trying Something New – A Home Decor Blog

As I recently entered into yet another year of life, its hard not to reflect on how busy I have been in just 12 months. From notable trips to New York, Denver, Europe, Mexico and many places in between, as well as making some big career moves and fully embracing all the aspects of homeownership, saying I am exhausted is an understatement. However, the exhaustion has been worth it.

Much of the last year has included transforming our house into a home, specifically a home with decor suitable for two young professionals and something that reflects our personalities. For your viewing pleasure: our living room as depicted by the online listing photo below.

Despite the yellow and lace, Daniel and I loved the house, especially for the location, and were excited to call it ours. Needless to say, its been a work in progress. Since we took ownership we have completely remodeled the first floor, including new flooring and paint amongst other things.

As we have had many people through our home the last year, we have gotten a few comments about the decor, the paint colors and the general esthetic of the place we call ours. This led me to the idea of blogging. Not only was it a forum that I could share some of the changes our home has gone through and some of the things we have utilized to update the look, but it was also a place to share with anyone who may be interested some tips and tricks to jazz up your home or apartment. In addition I thought it would be a great way to tie my hobby and career together.

I can’t wait to see where this next year of life takes me and my new adventure of blogging!

Thanks for reading!

XO,

CoCo

(PS Check back soon for some glimpses into what our living room looks like now!)

November 4, 2015 by CoCo | 0 comment

Home Decor, Real Estate

Out with the Accent Walls, in with the Accent Colors

For me, finding the perfect paint color is the ultimate task. It took me 5 different paint stores to find the right color for our living room and dining room because nothing was just quite right. Now that we are tackling the upstairs of our home, I am back at it finding the PERFECT paint color for each room.

One thing you will not find in our house in relation to paint is accent walls. Although common in the early 2000’s, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but gone are the days of one wall with a bold color complimenting the other three. I recently showed a house in which both the living room and the dining room donned accent walls. Despite the contemporary furniture, the house felt weirdly dated.

Also, as someone who works primarily with first time home buyers, I have noticed that buyers tend to gravitate towards the homes with neutral walls as it is easier for them to picture themselves and their furniture in the home with out the distraction of bold colors. Bold colors can often lead to room sizes looking smaller and comments related to how much work might be needed when painting over it.

For those with accent walls in your house, don’t feel the need to cover them up because there are some exceptions, however for those unable to paint your own walls because you are renting, or, you have the desire to paint your favorite bold color on the wall, don’t worry, I have a solution for you!

Accent colors! By implementing your go-to color in your décor versus your paint color, you still get to express your personal style but save yourself the pain when you decide you’re over it. For us, our go to color was D’s favorite, orange. Never do I think I would have been able to manage an orange wall, especially in my living room, but also because it would not create the sophisticated, relaxing feel I wanted in my entertaining space.

Through candles and throw pillows, as well as vases and more we have implemented a little bit of orange here and there in our home without it being too in your face like an orange wall would do.

living room sofa table living room vignette whiskey crate and vintage books fireplace vignette living room sectional

Overall, the orange has brought some interest into our otherwise neutral home but its not too hard to switch things up if we decided to use other colors. Another reason I like having accent colors is that they are easy to alter the feel of your home especially for each season. Around Christmas, my decor is primarily red and silver, so by keeping my accent colors strictly in the decor it is easy to prevent clashing and I can move things around until the holiday is over.

Now don’t get me wrong, for those of you who love an accent wall, by all means, stay true to your bold self and get that bright color on the wall. Ultimately, its you living in your home and you should be able to paint the walls what ever color your heart desires. Especially if you don’t have any plans to move soon now is the time.

What do you think? Did I hit the mark, or am I way off about accent walls? Comment below!

XO,

CoCo

February 19, 2015 by CoCo | 76 Comments

Posts Tagged ‘acorns’