Space Styling: Embarking on the Living Room & Life Update

It's been a long while since we moved in (if you'd call 8 months a long while), and it's taken us a bit  of time to get to redesigning our main room.  It's been partly indecision on my end, and some budgeting, but mostly just life getting in the way, as it is want to do from time to time.  But since the holidays have passed by, I've found more and more time to devote to the planning, shopping, and brainstorming involved.  I find myself obsessing over it in most of my free time, so truthfully, our living room is probably primarily to blame for my absence on here for at least the past month.  We'll also throw winter in there as a prime suspect as well.  I actually had a whole post written out about winter doldrums, but  decided not to post it because it wasn't doing anything besides saying that I would be doing something, and the whole thing just seemed pointless.  SO.  On to the living room.  First, I will begin with the token "before" pictures so that when I'm finally done with the project there will be something to compare it to:

And truthfully, these photos do include a little bit of progress, and I probably should have taken them about a week earlier, but I think they're still plenty reflective of the level of chaos that we started out

with here.  While I love all our furniture individually, and pretty much all of it was insanely cheap,  I feel that I'm at a point in life where I want to be living in a more cohesive, curated space.  Make no mistake though, that I intend to pull off this project for a relatively low price tag!  I'm hoping that my craftiness will make this possible, and I'm very excited, because a lot of the project ideas I have for this space I've never attempted before.

Being the creative person that I am, I had a hard time deciding on a color palette, because I know I'll want to decorate for holidays, etc. so I still want the space to look nice during those times of year.  After a lot of thought and consideration I realized that all I really wanted for this room was to feel relaxed, and for it to become a place where Drew and I can both work and be comfortable, and enjoy the lovely light that streams through those gargantuan windows.   I think that as soon as we walked in and saw those huge windows, we both knew this was the place we wanted to rent.  Really, we were insanely lucky to find this pad, with the large living room, hardwood floors throughout, new(ish) kitchen with all necessary appliances, vintage built in closets, bay windows, and an affordable price tag; I don't intend on moving for a VERY long time. 

Since we're renting, we can't really paint the walls, which actually works in our favor, because I love the idea of keeping them their predetermined taupe hue.  Since we live on a lower level of our apartment building, and the living room faces the courtyard, sometimes we don't get quite as much light as you would otherwise get in a normal house.  But I'm not complaining, because this means that a lot of the light that does come in is diffused, and that just makes the inner photographer in me very, very happy, and the taupe will help keep the place feeling light.  

Other than the walls though, it's kind of been a big jumble of mismatching furniture since we moved in.  My goal is to make all the furniture into a more cohesive (but still unique!) bunch of specimens and just fill the space with lots of light pieces that will reflect light everywhere and make it all feel very breezy, airy, and above all else, comfortable.  All those comfy feels will come from an array of textures, calm color choices, and the introduction of things inspired by nature that will give the room some life!  And while I'm definitely aiming for a breath of fresh air here, I'm also really drawn to rich pieces that will ground it all and provide some contrast.

So I came up with a little mood board I made on Polyvore to get an idea of the look I'm going for:

It's all light colors mixed with rich, deep blue accents and touches of gold and nautical/forest themes, and definitely very vintage-y and surreal/fantastical.  Pretty much the usual for me, right?  I'm so excited. :D  And lastly, here is a little peek at some of the colors/ textures I've already gathered for the space:

Until the next update, 

- The Lovely Red Fox