Current State of the Living and Dining Room

This is the first in a "current state of" series about the various rooms in our house and how they look now that we've lived here for a few months. These are by no means "after" pictures, but we can call it progress. Eventually we will be ripping out the wall in between the dining area and kitchen and completely renovating the kitchen, so this is phase one of decorating the first floor. 

It was incredibly difficult to photograph this room so don't judge me too harshly on that front, I'm still learning how to use my DSLR. 

The room is challenging in that it is long and pretty narrow, and it needs to accommodate both a living and a dining area. I used rugs and a buffet with shelving above to separate the spaces. The u-shaped seating area in the living area further separates the spaces and provides plenty of seating in the small space. 

In terms of style, I've always wanted a home that feels classic and collected. I love when someone's house not only speaks to their style but the life they've lived in it. My taste can run a little overly-feminine and I tried to be mindful of that while designing a space for a man too. Budget played a major role in some decisions, and I'll get to more of that when I touch on the various pieces. 

The living room rug is an 8x10 Safavieh rug from Wayfair. I searched high and low for a vintage rug for this space but just couldn't find the right combination of color, size, and price so I finally gave up and started looking at new rugs. I selected this one because it has the vibrant colors you see in older rugs but trends a little more red/blue than some of the other colorful ethnic-style rugs on the market. It hides dirt really well and is stain-resistant, both of which are super important since this rug is right inside our main entry. 

We went with the Ikea Stocksund sofa in Nolhaga grey-beige for the sofa and I would totally buy it again. It's the perfect scale for our small space and I find it to be plenty comfortable. It also hides dog hair pretty well and is easy to clean with loose back and seat cushions. 

I bought the navy blue velvet chair on One Kings Lane when they had a sale recently. It's by Skyline Furniture and they sell a version of it at Target and Wayfair, but the upholstery choices seem to vary based on the vendor (One Kings Lane was the only vendor selling it in Navy Velvet). Honestly, the quality of the chair is not where I had hoped it would be. I didn't expect very high quality but the seat cushion is so uncomfortable and I always feel like I'm falling forward in it. The fabric feels super cheap, but it's holding up so far. It's really too bad because I love the shape of the chair, but I definitely wouldn't buy it again, at least not for a space that we use all the time. 

The two chrome chairs were vintage purchases from Chartreuse & Co. (a barn sale in Frederick, Maryland). They are actually little larger than I'd like but since we've used them both with friends over I'm planning to keep them there. Wayyyy down the road I may put one in the eventual nursery because they have arms and rock like a rocking chair but take up very little space.

The "media stand" is a vintage piece I bought on Craigslist. I think it's a buffet but I'm not really sure. I absolutely love the lines and the beautiful wood grain on it, and it fits on that wall perfectly. The coffee table is part of a set of marble-top tables I bought on Craigslist, finally ending my search for a marble coffee table after all these years. We are using the other two tables as nightstands in our bedroom. Eventually I would like to paint the base of the coffee table black or graphite, but I haven't had a chance to get to it yet. 

The buffet between the living and dining areas is also vintage from Craigslist. I would've put my gold Ikea Vittsjo unit in that spot but we really needed some closed storage for serving platters, bowls, cheeseboards, and other fun goodies we got as wedding presents. To visually divide the two spaces and provide a spot for some pretty things, we hung the Ikea shelves over the buffet. 

The rug in the dining room is an indoor-outdoor rug from Target (no longer available). It was pretty affordable and we will probably go with something else when we redo the kitchen but it totally works for now. The table, which is actually table 2.0, was a steal of a find at Chartreuse and Company for $35. It fits the space SO MUCH better than our previous table and has two leafs stored in it to add some space when we entertain. The chairs are antiques from my grandparents' house and I would actually like to get a set of four that match, but I am patiently waiting for the Craigslist gods to deliver me the perfect set (these chairs will then find other homes in the house or my parents' house). 

So that's the living/dining room...for now at least. Stay tuned for more updates about the other spaces in the house!

New House Tour

It's been well over a year since I've written anything here but I've decided it's time to revisit this little blog of mine. I'll get into my long break from blogging eventually, but for now I just wanted pop in with an update.

2015 has been a pretty big year over here. I earned my MA in interior design in May and we closed on a house the next morning. The boy and I got married in late June and moved out of his parents' basement (where we lived for about a year) into the new house after our honeymoon. If you even remotely follow me on Instagram you know that we adopted our goofy walker coonhound, Fred, in July. I got to spend a few weeks at home with Fred before starting a new job in August working for a residential design+build firm in Alexandria. It's been a wonderfully busy year: graduate degree, new house, wedding, honeymoon, new dog, new job. I really don't know how I got this lucky but life is good and I am grateful for it.

For today's post I thought I'd give you a quick "before" tour of the new house. The place is modest at barely over 1,000 square feet so the tour is a pretty quick one. The front yard has a little landscaping and I'd like to do a big overhaul of it eventually but for now it's low on our list of priorities. This picture was taken after we let the grass grow a little too high during the final wedding countdown weeks...whoops.

The first floor has the living/dining area, kitchen, a laundry/utility/storage space and a door into the back yard. The hardwoods are original and were hidden under carpet for many years. They were refinished right before the house went on the market and are in pretty good shape. I love that they aren't a pre-finished style and that the stain is a natural color. The finish hides dirt pretty well and appears to hold up to the wear and tear or a dog slipping and sliding on it.

The main living area has space for a seating area and dining room table.

You can't see it in this photo but there is a nice little coat closet off the stair landing. 

The nice big window in front gets great light...when we actually have the shade open. The shade can open from the bottom up or top down and we have it open at the top most of the time for privacy and to keep Fred from getting too amped up by anything outside. 

The kitchen isn't original but it's definitely old...like, doesn't have a dishwasher old. Many of the houses in the neighborhood have been renovated to add a half or three-quarter bath on the first level and we plan to do the same at some point. We're hoping that kitchen and laundry/utility/storage area will get a complete overhaul sometime next year.

See that range hood? It's plugged into the outlet on the wail near the sink, along with the stove. That silver thing on the wall is the original vent for the stove. It's essentially just a fan in the wall with a cover on it but it actually works pretty well. 

No matter what I do this kitchen never looks clean. 

This is the storage/utility area with an ancient washer and dryer. Many of our neighbors have a bathroom at the very end of this nook, with a door opening onto the dining area. 

Three locks on a door with a big window on it. Once upon a time this neighborhood was pretty rough. It's much better than it was 10 years ago but still has a little ways to go. 

The second floor has two decent-sized bedrooms and one tiny bedroom. One of the things that sold us was that the upstairs is configured for three bedrooms while many of the other houses in our price range/target locations had two upstairs and one in the basement. We realized that if we plan to stay here for 5-7 years, three bedrooms on the same floor would allow us to have two kids without a newborn and toddler having to share a room. Not that kids are anywhere in the immediate future, we were just thinking about farther down the road.

We are currently using the tiny bedroom for an office (aka storage area) and the second extra bedroom as a guest room/second TV watching room.

Tiny bedroom/current office

Second bedroom/guest room 

Our master bedroom is on the front of the house and gets a lot of light. We leave the shades open at the top so we can get good morning sun (or what little we have at 7:00 am right now). 

The second floor also has the only bathroom, complete with the original black and white tile and an intriguing skylight that opens and serves as the only vent in the space.

Eventually we will redo this bathroom but it is not a priority. I actually really like the tile but it is old and dingy. I'll likely replace it with something very similar. 

Our back yard isn't huge but it's large enough for a patio and some gardening space. The fence is new and this photo was taken when we began taking down our deck, but I'll discuss that more in a later post.

This deck was so small that it was basically useless so we decided to take it apart. 

I mentioned buying the house because of the three-bedroom setup and kids down the road earlier. That was really the hardest part of house hunting for us, finding a house in our price range that felt like it suited our lifestyle now and our lifestyle 5-7 years down the road. I think we managed to do it. Although the house is definitely small, it's configured to work for us for just long enough. I really love our neighborhood and know the house is a great investment. We are a $10-$15 Uber ride to all our favorite nightlife spots and can get to some fun neighborhoods like Old Town, Alexandria in 10 minutes. We can easily walk into Del Ray, a charming neighborhood in Alexandria with a thriving main street, and get dinner or take Fred along to pick up some frozen custard and a puppy pop at our favorite dessert spot. And a Metro station is planned to be built about a mile from our house...fingers crossed, it happens before we move!

It's safe to say that we are loving this little life we've built for ourselves so far and we're looking forward to what the future holds...especially a new kitchen.

I'll be back with an update about what changes we've made since we moved in but until then, here's a Fred picture because that's all I take right now.