A vision for our refined home

Happy Tuesday, friends! I apologize that we don’t have a new How We Do It installment for y’all today – Nancy is majorly under the weather, and since this week’s topic is one we feel so passionately about, we figured it was better to postpone than push posts out that weren’t up to snuff! The whole series is shifting back one week, so keep an eye out for our thoughts on organizing our work next Tuesday.

In the meantime, I have something fun for you. I was reading through some of my own 2017 survey responses recently as I helped my friend Rhi put her blog survey together, and it was so helpful to remind myself of the types of content y’all said you loved most!

One of those topics was home design. It’s not something I get to talk about terribly often as, though we have grand plans, we generally move at a snail’s pace :) But, I’ve been thinking through some fairly major changes I’d like to make to our living room over the next year or so, and I thought it would be fun to share them here!

I can sum up the changes in this way: I’d love for our home to feel like the cozy, warm, refined, and calm home of your most stylish and Southern childhood friend’s Mom. Got that? :) More Southern Living than Domino, but so warm and approachable — somewhere you instantly feel relaxed, and where you just want to spend a few hours nestled in and curled up, chatting.

So what’s my plan? The first change is that I’d like to evolve our color scheme to be a bit softer and more neutral. I’ve felt recently like it’s challenging to decorate seasonally or for holidays (something I love to do!) because adding any extra colors or layers on top of our already vibrant “look” takes things to a visually chaotic and cluttered level.

To this end, I’d first like to remove the red, orange, and coral tones to shrink our color palette a bit. That leaves us with blues, blushes, and neutrals, plus touches of green, yellows, and maybe deeper pinks here and there. Though I’m thinking of this scheme as a bit more refined, I still want it to come across as happy – that’s one of my favorite things about our home!

Removing some of the hotter tones means the red chairs, the area rug, our throw pillows, and even our floral artwork will likely be phased out. A few of these pieces I plan to sell to recoup some of the money we’ll spend on new furnishings; others I’ll repurpose elsewhere in the house. (I already have a spot picked out in our upstairs hallway for the flowers!)

The rug I’d love to replace with one in a similar pattern but a narrower palette – I’ve included a few options in the boards here! Also, if it’s not obvious from the boards, one of the things I’m most hoping to add is a pair of comfy armchairs (at least one with an ottoman!). To me, these epitomize the change: nothing says cozy to me like the comfiest, oversized armchair! I can just picture them paired with a reading lamp and lots of blankets to wrap up in :)

The last big furniture change is that I’d love to switch out the small dresser our TV sits on for a longer piece with doors instead of drawers so it’s easier to store June’s toys and for her to put them away herself. With the additional surface area on top, I’d love to display more family photos in frames. Also considering switching out our chest coffee table for something softer and lighter.

Whew! That’s a lot! Like I said, we’ll make these changes over the next year (if we’re lucky!!), but I like to have a vision for the end goal before we begin. I feel like I’m getting closer to that.

Honestly, though, the thought of making SO many large purchases so close together (and ones that we’ll hope to have for a long time, like the armchairs), makes me really nervous. Because of that, I’m considering hiring a local or e-designer in some capacity to help with the sourcing and confirm that my overall vision makes sense. Of course, working with a designer is an additional expense, but I feel like it might be worth it to put my mind at ease and feel like we’re stretching our money as far as we can.

Have one of y’all ever done something similar? I would love to hear, if so!! There are a few larger companies I know of, like Havenly and Homepolish, and then a few independent designers that I’d be interested in getting pricing from to compare. We shall see!

Sources from first board: vignette from Ashley Whittaker Design, armchair from Interior Define, bedroom unknown, pillow, basket, rug, stairwell, bedroom, ottoman, fireplace unknown, ottoman, living room unknown, bedroom

Sources from second board: armchairs, gray armchairs, blankets, living room, rug, window seat unknown, hutch, rug

Affiliate links are used in this post!