At Home with A Beautiful Mess
Elsie and the gang at A Beautiful Mess have featured our living room as a part of their “At Home With” series! I appreciated the reminder to capture our home at this moment in time, as this place is like a living creature- constantly changing as the days go by. Head on over to my interview at A Beautiful Mess to see more photos of our living room and to read a bit about our home and my favorite treasures.
L I V I N G R O O M D E T A I L S :
Mostly everything in our living room is second-hand or homemade, so I don’t have sources for you to find your own. But I did find a similar coffee table here, our shell chair rocker can be purchased here, the ice cream poster can be found here, and the photo frames here. I bought my kilim rugs from eBay and can recommend this seller and this seller. If you’re ever in the Canton area, you can shop some of my favorite sources for affordable second-hand home decor- the Route 43 Antique Mall (in Cairo near Hartville), the Medina Antique Mall, and Stagecoach Antiques (Akron).
Our bookshelves were made with poplar wood (7″ pieces at the top, and 14″ pieces at the bottom) and were mounted using standards and brackets that can be purchased at any hardware store. I did have to special order 6″ brackets from here, though. I used brackets that were smaller than the width of my shelves, and on the bottom of the shelves I used a dremel to notch out the space for the raised bracket edges to fit together with each shelf. If you have any questions, I’ll answer them in the comments!
Do you know what the paint color is you used on the walls? I’m moving from a place that has hardwood into a carpeted place, and I don’t want super-white walls with the beige carpet. The color you used is perfect I think!
I just answered that for heather, if you want to check out my answer. Also, beware, the color looks different depending on the time of day, and it often looks purple. In fact, our friends say we have purple walls! Oops!
What color paint is on the walls of the living room? I love it!
It’s called elephant gray, but I can’t remember what paint brand! We bought it at a local hardware store, so I’m really not sure. But I will always remember its name. We call it the elephant in the room. :)
Elephant gray is a Benjamin Moore color!
linked here through a beautiful mess, and i love your living room! just wondering, are your curtains/hardware from ikea? i have the vivan curtains and am thinking about getting the clips, but am concerned they wouldn’t hang right. but it looks like it worked for you, they look great!
Hi Katie! They are actually rods designed to be used for sheers on a double bracket in tandem with a thicker drapery rod. I went to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought the skinnier rods (they’re a really dark bronze look actually), then from a different manufacturer at BB&B got the hooks and curtain clips.
Mandy, your living room (and I’m sure the rest of your home) is absolutely beautiful and looks so cozy! I loved the story of the blue stool, it’s nice to have such a strong connection to a piece. Also, that yellow dress is one of my favorite pieces I’ve seen you wear, it looks so great on you.
I said it on ABM and I’ll say it on here–Love this space! More than HGTV-worthy!
This is so cool to see. Awesome.
This makes me want to visit you soooon!!
Hi! My son was raised in base housing (concrete flooring!). He never once busted his head and he is NOT graceful.:)
That’s good to know!
it looks great mandi! i always forget that we moved around the same time. we’re creeping up on a year for us and we’re still figuring things out.
don’t stack your vinyls like that! you’ll ruin them in those conditions. organize them in a vertical fashion instead of horizontal.
Working on it! We actually don’t have the record player set up any more because we had to move the record cabinet out of the room to fit in our Christmas tree, and still have to bring it in! So don’t worry, our records are normally stored in an actual record cabinet and the player is normally hooked up to a pre amp and our receiver/speakers.
Where is that dress from? You look great in it!
Thank you! It’s a vintage 1930s dress. My favorite dress I own!
I love it!
Sarah
http://www.etsy.com/shop/owleyevintage
Your living room looks so amazing! I am moving soon into my first apartment and always love looking on your site for inspiration :)
I am in love with the wall unit/book shelf, where is it from?!
Hi Katy! Thanks for your compliments! If you read the room details in this post, you’ll find the information about the shelves.
1). You have a fabulous decorating style! If IKEA and a thrift store got married that would be your house…kind of sleek/modern meets messy/homemade. :)
2). That dress is ravishing! You’re such a beautiful momma.