I love to decorate. I LOVE home decor. I’m not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but I do really enjoy it. I sometimes struggle with “how” to decorate… in that I often don’t know what to do with “knick knacks,” or I can’t figure out the best arrangement for furniture or pictures on a wall, but over the years I’ve found that decorating is pretty much like anything else – you can’t get “better” at it unless you practice.

Decorating, at least for me, is A LOT of trial and error. It’s putting something in one place only to decide that it’s best in another place. It’s not being “married” to any one particular layout or arrangement or color scheme.

It also is a slow process – unless you’ve got the cabbage to hire someone to come in and do it for you – which I do not. If you’re really trying to decorate a room on a budget, trust me, it is NOT going to happen overnight.

We moved into our house three months ago and it’s just now starting to sort of come together. We’re doing things room by room, a little bit at a time. It’s going to be a few years before I really think the house is looking the way we really want it to. We LOVE this house so much and it’s already so pretty as it is, so it’s not like it looks bad in the meantime while we take our time putting the “finishing touches” on it. If that makes any sense…

I’ve been wanting to share some of our progress. I shared our mini “Deck Makeover” last month. Our latest focus has been on our master bedroom, but there’s still a few things I got to do before I can fully share it.

In the meantime, the only room in the house that is 95% of the way done is the living room! I still need to put up curtains (waiting until next month’s budget for that piece) and I would still like to paint it. The neutral paint color the previous owner’s had is totally fine, but I really want a pop of color in the living room. We also would eventually like to get another loveseat for more seating. But, in the meantime, while we wait to get curtains, paint, and another loveseat, the living room has really come together and feels like us and feels like home!

So, I thought I’d share a little “before and after” of our living room with you guys!

Here’s the “BEFORE” of the living room on the day we closed on the house:

And here’s the “in progress” after!

BEFORE AND AFTER:

BEFORE AND AFTER:

Pretty much everything in this room is recycled from things we had in our previous house. You can totally make a room feel different using things you already have in your home!

Chair on the left is from World Market a few years ago. (This one is similar AND on sale!) Coffee table is a family antique / heirloom and the basket is from The Mighty River Project.

Chair in the back corner is from Century Furniture (it was actually in his parent’s house and they gave it to us). All the side tables are also antique family heirlooms. Mirrors are from Target!

You can read all about where I’ve gotten our canvases here. Lamp is from Target.

The three little quatrefoil mirrors I got for $10 from Big Lots! 

The big canvas over the table is Artsy Couture. The lamp is from Target. The area rug is from Urban Outfitters. It was actually the area rug we had in Lilly’s nursery in our old house and it doesn’t work in the nursery here.

The couch is from some furniture store in Cary, North Carolina but the brand is “Lane Furniture.” The blanket is from Target and the throw pillows are from Crate & Barrel.

This picture is SO special to me – it’s a FIVE generation picture! Lilly with her dad, grandfather, great grandmother, and GREAT GREAT grandmother who is 101 years old! How awesome is that?

So our living room is “open concept” and flows right into the breakfast nook / dining area and kitchen. This is sort of a “transitional” area between the living room and breakfast nook and it ended up being the perfect spot for this cubby bookshelf.

LEFT is before (duh) and the RIGHT is current! I love that it has wedding pictures of our family members, important books and meaningful items to us.

The mirror is from Target, the lampshade I got from Target for $1.56!! HUZZAH!!!!! 

That is our God’s Knot that we tied in our wedding and the Bible is 150+ years old and was used by our ring bearer.

So that’s it! What do you think? Are you decorating lately? What projects are you tackling? I also would LOVE to hear some suggestions on what color we should paint this room! Should we just do an accent wall? What color? I need ideas!

Welcome to Let it Shine!   Welcome to the new, revamped Funday Monday! After two years, we decided to rename our link up to something we felt was a better fit.  Welcome to Let it Shine! Why the name? Because, we want this link up to be just that…..your chance to let it shine! We will be sharing our favorites each week here, and on social media!

The biggest change? Monthly Inspirations!  Each month we will share some fun post ideas, one for each week.    Do you HAVE to follow the inspirations to link up? Absolutely not! You can link up anything you’d like. However, if you’d like to be considered for a feature, those will be picked from the inspirations.  
Last week, we talked about sparkle, and man, did we see variety! Jewelry, fireworks, glitter. We loved it! Here are a few of our Sparkle favorites:

/ Proud to Be a Momma / Sparkle + Pasta / Let’s Make Fireworks /

Another place we will be showcasing our favs? The Let It Shine Pinterest Board! We will also be posting ideas for the weekly themes, so be sure you’re following!     Linking up to Let it Shine? Don’t forget to link back to our blogs or share our button, thanks y’all!