Living Room Tour

Today both our kids slept over at grandparents so I was able to clean up our living room. Over the weekend, my dad helped us power wash our extra dirty living room rug. Now it feels so clean and just like new. For those who are interested in washing their rug, all we did was use regular laundry detergent and power washed it. After, we anchored it on some chairs in the sun to dry out. 

Also a little disclaimer, if you are looking for a Pinterest worthy living room, this is not the one. Our living room and dining room gets used and abused the most in our house so I've learned quickly to find pieces that fit our needs more than looking pretty. Our living room is comfy to us and it gets beat up by our kids but its holding up mighty fine. 

This is our media area. I did a post a while back on this upgrade. It made a big difference in our living space and feels so much cleaner. It has so much storage. I like to add some color to our house so I routinely take some of their toys and use it as decorations. Emily made the crystal mobile to the upper left corner of the tv. I'm just one proud mommy. Whatever our kids create I love to display. It may be some colorful lego figure or 3d puzzle art.

Below is the old media area prior to the upgrade. 

So much brighter with the white cabinets and loads of storage for toys. 

Here's the other side of the room. We added a custom sofa with extra long cushions. Coffee table was a $20 craigslist buy and I just refinished the top with some left over stain. Ottomans are from Ikea. We bought both second hand for $30 with intentions of reupholstering it but the covers are completely removable and washable so it was a nice surprise. It's very sturdy and our kids love playing bumper carts in it. 

This is my favorite wall in the house because it displays pictures of both our girls when they were only two weeks old. We are forever thankful to Le Vie photography for taking these images of our girls. 

Almost forgot to show the obligatory before images.  When we first moved in, we threw down our old rug from our first house, hung some plain white blinds, and threw down whatever we had in the living room. The room was extra boring and desperately needed an update. I regret not buying bamboo blinds earlier on. Our windows looked like a big white blob.  I love the look of plain white curtains, black rods with bamboo blinds. It adds so much color and texture to an otherwise boring window. 

Look at how much color and texture bamboo adds to our windows. I added mirror finish film to our windows so from the outside passerby's cannot see in. I always keep our windows curtains/bamboo blinds open to let in natural light. We've had a few guests come over and compliment how bright our house looks but in reality its bright because we never close the window covers. 

Our living room isn't finished but its come a long way. Our rug is an old purchase from Overstock. We try to take it out once a year to power wash just to keep things fresh. We have a lot of playdates and kids can have accidents/get messy. It is a hassle to bring it out to power wash but it gives me the opportunity to really clean the sectional and vacuum all the dust.  One day I will revamp this space but as for now, it works for our family.