Living Room Progress

Today’s post is a fun one! Not only are we going to share the progress we’ve made on our living room but we’re going to share the steps on how we put it all together, starting from the very beginning. After a long few months of renovation and lots of shopping, here’s what the room looks like so far!

It’s a completely different space from when we first moved in, when the room looked more like this.

When we first saw the house, we were in love with the windows and all of the natural light that came in, and because this was the main living space, we wanted everything to feel cozy and inviting. Once we ripped up all of the carpet and installed the new hardwood floors (we shared all about our hardwoods and tips on how to decide on a floor in a recent post!) and updated the fireplace, we were left with a brand new blank slate. From there on, we just followed the steps below!

Step one: Protect and serve

I absolutely love hardwood floors and how easy they are to clean and the warmth that the wood brings to a room, but also love combining them with area rugs to define spaces and add a little texture. We wanted to protect the new floors and with a little one around now, we wanted to make sure the rug had a little extra cushion for playing and falling.

So, when Rug Pad USA offered to send us a rug pad, we knew this would be perfect! Not only is their product made in the USA, but they offer great eco-friendly alternatives to some of the imported options that can be loaded with chemicals. We try to make the more eco friendly and non-chemical choices everywhere else in our lives, so this was another easy decision to add to our home!

The website is very simple to navigate and matches you with rug pad options based on the type of flooring you have and what you’d like the pad to do. For example, we had eight different options to chose from for our hardwoods. We didn’t need anything non-slip since our rug is anchored by furniture, so we chose the Eco Plush option because it is made from 100% recycled felt, is non-toxic and oder free, and is even mold and moisture resistant. That last one is really important over here, because Duke and I both somehow end up spilling almost daily ha!

Rug pads are a great way to protect your floors and serve a helpful purpose whether it’s to keep your gorgeous rug from slipping all over or to add some extra cushion, or a little bit of both!

Step two: Define the spaces

Our favorite way to do this is through area rugs! This room is a little bit of a funny shape with the doorways and fireplace not being centered, so a rug helps anchor where the furniture will go so it doesn’t look like everything is floating in the room. Cute puppy is not necessarily required for this step, but its 100% recommended 😉

Step three: Add furniture

But make sure you move the cute dog first. After doing a little research, we decided that we loved the look of two couches facing each other and after lots of shopping, picked out two of our favorites from Pottery Barn! It’s always fun to look through photos to see other similar sized rooms and how different furniture is laid out that way, or play with a room designing tool before you commit to a certain layout.

Step four: Add some personality

Aka, accessorize and add some texture to the room, which ultimately brings the welcoming factor we were going for! Frames with fun artwork or meaningful photos, pillows (never too many pillows!), trays and pops of greenery are some of our favorites, but the list is pretty much endless! This room could look a million different ways simply by switching up this step, which is what makes this one our favorite.

We found by following these steps, as simple as they might sound, we were able to pull the room together so much easier than if we had been picking up things here and there and hoping that they would all work. This way, our floors that we spent so much time picking out and living through a reno zone to have installed are protected, the furniture placement makes sense for our space, and we got to add some fun personal touches once we knew exactly what needed accessorizing. Pillows and curtains, coffee table decor, something for the mantle, and frames for the walls were the starters, and now we get to add and customize as much as we’d like from there!

When you design like this it can be a set it and forget it, or something you constantly change up. Either way, it’s a simple way to get a space from empty to full of function and personality!

This post is sponsored by Rug Pad USA, but all thoughts, reviews and opinions are 100% ours! We only work with brands we love in our own home and want to share with the world, and they are one of them 🙂