It’s All About The Fall Vibes: A Cozy Living Room

I know everyone tells you that it’s a bad idea to look behind you. To focus on the past. They say that it’s better to focus on things you can change like the here and now or the future.

It makes sense.

I agree with all that. Or at least I thought I did.

Then I happened to take a peek at last years fall home tour ONLY because I was asked by someone about the name of it. I swear that is the only reason I pulled up my blog post from last year and then I saw the wreath I had on my front door. And I saw that it’s the same as the one I have this year but it looks so different because I painted it different colors this year.

Then I couldn’t help myself and I scrolled down just a little and I gasped out loud when I saw my living room from last year!

Is it possible? Could it be that last fall – literally only a year ago – could it be that my living room looked like that?

I mean, I remember it. I remember the ugly floor tile around my fireplace and I remember the very neat chippy paint on the shelf I used for a mantel for such a long while.

I remember the lumpy old overstuffed leather furniture that I hated and how I wanted to replace it so badly and then I remember when I got rid of it and how I had such an empty living room without enough seating for even my own family. And I remember having no rug on the wood floors because I was still working on communicating to my fur children that those particular comforts were not created for the express purpose of their potty needs.

And I scrolled a little farther down the page and I saw my dining room. I saw that I had no curtains at the windows and I had that old dresser as a buffet before I refinished it (and eventually moved it to my daughter’s room) and I saw that I didn’t have my beloved french buffet yet and I wondered how I had managed to live without that.

And then I saw my powder room and I saw that it was before it’s magical transformation and I wondered how I had managed to convince myself to show a photo of it looking so sickly and then I felt so incredibly good all over.

Do you want to know why?

Because it looks so much different this year!

Sure, there are still things I want to do and plan to do and am doing and I think there always will be while I draw breath. Sure, I still sigh loudly when I look at certain things like my kitchen, and I squint a little and I see this glorious french kitchen of my dreams and then I sigh again and wonder if it will ever look even a little like that.

But maybe, just maybe, I should look in the rearview mirror a little more often when it comes to my house and then maybe I would feel that warm feeling I felt just a little while ago when I was scrolling and gasping.

And then I had to quickly tell my best friend Emily and let her gasp with me because huge things like that need to be shared! And once we were finished gasping we immediately started planning our kitchen renovations because that’s just how we roll. And then maybe when we do our fall tour next year we can scroll and gasp over how our kitchens looked in THIS fall tour compared to how they look THEN!

Wanna see my living room now? Wanna gasp with me too?

Come on in then…

This is a favorite space of young and old, human and canine. Early mornings, evenings and stormy days find the fireplace going to warm us and create a lovely ambiance that can’t be rivaled.

This gold couch and the coffee table are fairly new additions. The couch is so new, in fact, that it hasn’t even undergone it’s makeover yet!!! I won’t tell you what my plans for it are yet – but they’re good ones.

This reclaimed wood flower box is a diy project that I use in so many places and ways. It looks good everywhere! Here I’ve mixed some broken pots, pumpkins, berries and boxwood in it.

All the pumpkins in this flower box are DIY projects as well but that’s another blog post altogether!

Simply adding some fall leaves to my wall pockets adds a touch of whimsy.

This very comfortable chair is another recent addition to this living room and by the time you are reading this blog post it may have already started to undergo it’s makeover. I can’t wait to show you the results! I have it all pictured in my head and I think you might gasp!!!

I think adding lots of cozy throws, some fall pillows and hints of fall in florals are all that is necessary to give any room a cozy fall feeling. It has less to do with specific colors and shapes and more to do with textures and what those textures conjure up in your memory.

This mantel and fireplace area have continued to be one of my favorite areas to decorate ever since it’s makeover nearly a year ago now!!! It has probably made the most impact of anything I’ve done on the main floor other than perhaps installing the wood floors.

I’ve already made several changes to the mantel since I’ve put fall things out in my home but one thing that has remained constant is this lovely faux greenery. I found it while thrifting quite some time ago and it’s my absolute favorite for my mantel or on the shelf in my front entry. I just love how it drapes down over them.

A simple acorn wreath and some white pumpkins…

These beautiful vintage frames don’t require much to create a stunning mantel.

This side table in my living room was another recent DIY project makeover.

Twine pumpkins anyone?

Of course y’all know and love my deconstructed sofa by this point and I don’t blame you. Then again, that wasn’t in my living room last year so perhaps that is why it looks so much different this year!!!

Pull up a chair and let’s have a pumpkin spice latte.

This is my favorite piece of furniture to date. This little beauty also got a makeover (I sense a theme developing, don’t you?) and pairs so beautifully with the mirrored shelf I saved from someone’s trash that I like to think they were made for each other!

Some simple fall leaves and a pumpkin or two added in with my vintage treasures is all it takes to breathe some fall air into this space.

I hope you enjoyed touring my living room all dressed up for fall. I’ve enjoyed having you over. I can’t wait to show you the rest of the rooms I’ve cozied up for the season.

Until next time….

Now let’s go see Emily’s living room