our living room: the photo tour

house tour continues, room by room! today, it’s our living room. again, all photos were taken by the amazing andrea jenkins (aka, hulaseventy). i should mention that these photos were taken just prior to the birth of baby true, so the coffee table has already been moved to allow for more open space. and there’s usually a jungle gym (this one, to be exact – he LOVES it!) in the middle of the floor. as he gets older and more mobile, we’ll have to make some decor changes, but i firmly believe that you can still have safe design + creativity in a home with a baby. i seriously can’t wait to have his drawings all over this house.

our living room is bright, happy, full of light. it’s hard to believe it turned out this way when it started off so, so sad. there’s no television (it’s downstairs in the family room) but rather this room is really where we spend time with the baby on the floor, where we take short naps on the couch with the sun filtering through the windows, where we have fires, where we watch various people + kids walk down the street, and where our doggie bella sleeps on the rug all day long. i love not having a television on the main level of our house.

it’s a fairly smallish room and sort of longish, too, making it a bit tricky when it came to layout. i love how the fireplace turned out. it’s sort of grand in scale to match the high ceilings. my mom told me about the affordable chairs at pier one and that’s where i scooped up the chair on the right. i love it for it’s pattern and squatness. the blue ottoman was a yardsale find. it needed some serious cleaning and repair but i just love it now.

the rug is a flowered yellow rug from pottery barn – here’s a photo of it in our old house that shows it more clearly. really love, love this rug. although you can only see one in this photo, there are two identical ceiling light fixtures. really love these from schoolhouse electric.

our collection of mirrors are displayed with a pink wooden frame and piece of art thrown in for good measure. i bought the art from artist rachel ann austin a couple of years ago at a seattle art fair. i believe she lives in portland (i should invite her over for tea!).

the leather chair is one of the first pieces of furniture john and i ever bought as a couple years and years ago when we first moved to portland. the quilt was one that his grandmother made. and the pillow was found at an antique/junk mall. we are collectors of stained glass windows and we’ve got two that sit in the windows on either side of the fireplace.

here’s a view looking into the dining room which then leads into the kitchen. we still love our green leather couch from pottery barn that we bought a couple of years ago. they don’t sell it in this color anymore so i’m so glad we got it when we did.

there isn’t enough space in this room for built-ins, or bookshelves (we have these in other rooms throughout the house), so there’s not a lot of surface area for photo frames, mementos, and stuff. i like how this room is clean cut in that way. i found this sweet little table at a local antique/junk shop. the lampshade is vintage but the lamp base is ikea. and there’s another stained glass window peeking through.

here’s the coffee table though it’s no longer in this room. it’s an old wicker trunk that is now in another room. the candle is my all time favorite candle called volcano from antho (BEST scent ever and completely worth the $25). books are coffee table surf books (john collects them). and i love how my mom put leaves from our front yard bush inside the vase. leaves! plain + simple = love it.

pillows are all anthro. and the quilt is another of john’s grandmas. this quilt is my fave. i love how its patchwork goes so well with the birdie painting’s patchwork (mati rose is the artist). the painting on the left is a collaborative painting i made with some dear friends. piled up vintage suitcases/sewing box make a corner table. behind the couch you can see a glimpse into our entry way and our entry way light which is one of my favorite features in this whole house.

there you have it! big thanks again to andrea for taking all of the photos for this post. i have fond memories of my mom and i unpacking this room, moving the couch in various positions and settling on this arrangement for its good chi. i really really do believe in feng shui furniture arrangement – here’s a good article that explains the basics, but it’s all about arranging spaces that allow for good energy flow.

other photo tours of our home:
kitchen
dining room
the complete remodel