Welcome to our Home Tour! It is my first official day of maternity leave for baby number three! So in the spirit of focusing on our family as we prepare for our newest arrival, over the next week, I am going to invite you to see the rooms of our cheerful 3rd home and am so excited you are here! Today, I wanted to start with my very favorite room of the house: Our Family Friendly, Bright and Colorful Living Room!

Originally, I was thinking of creating a very neutral home design of whites and creams. We had rented for 3 years before purchasing this home and I was just dying for a fresh space of my own to look at! But you know me… I’m really not a neutral kinda woman. I love the way all white looks on Pinterest, but I really have this thing with color. So I decided to start with all white walls and to explore with color from there.

Explore I did. I went from exploring color to a full-blown explosion of color and pattern! As I was packing up to move, I read Absolutely Beautiful Things by Anna Spiro and was so inspired by her free-spirited design aesthetic. Anna isn’t afraid to step outside of the box with mixing color and pattern. I love how she effortlessly blends traditional and vintage in a modern way.

After reading that book, I decided to follow my color loving heart and go bold with our home decor choices! And I was pretty much immediately drawn to navy.

Along with color, I also have this thing with things of the past. I have a deep connection to history. While many of my friends are creatures of the future, I find comfort in the past. (Context is one of my top five strengths if you’re a fellow Strengthsfinder fan!)

One of my favorite ways to decorate is by blending modern looks with beautiful pieces of the past. Many of the pieces in our home were either passed down to us from family or thrifted and I love it that way. I enjoy giving an older piece new life and have painted almost every piece of furniture in our home! I can’t wait to show you each and every colorful piece… so let’s start the tour, shall we?!

welcome to our bright and colorful living room

Our living room is my favorite room of the house because this is where I watch our family do life together. When we were gearing up to move into this home, Jeremy pitched the idea of not putting a TV in our living room. His hope was that we would be more intentional with our TV time and encourage our girls to play more instead of turning on the TV out of habit. I loved the unconventional idea and said yes!

Instead of facing a wall watching TV together, our sofa faces the open living space where we watch our girls put on shows, show us their dance moves, and twirl with Daddy! It is the sweetest thing!

I get lots of questions about our frames! I picked up the large matted frames from Michaels last year around the holidays when they were on sale and the mirrored frames were Home Goods Finds! To get the look, don’t be afraid to mix your metals. The silver look of the mirrors breaks up the look nicely without giving too much contrast to the arrangement. And they add a nice touch of shimmer!

We thrifted the coffee table and the white sofa and put a new Ikea White Slipcover on it! The pink bench was actually a clearance item from TJ Maxx because it was missing a couple buttons in the tufts. It was originally a gray color. I had been itching to try chalk painting fabric for some time, and this discounted bench was a great opportunity to give it a whirl! It was SO easy and the finish feels like a giving leather. I LOVE it!

The other question I hear all the time about our house is, “How do we keep it so clean with ALL the white AND kids?”

Here’s the thing: I’m not a perfectionist. It really doesn’t bother me if there is a bump, scuff, or little stain here and there. And even though white sounds CRAZY with kids, I have actually found that it is GREAT for cleaning. I can throw any of my white linens in the washer with a big ole scoop of Oxy Clean and they magically come out white again.

In all honesty, I have adopted a toddler-friendly mindset when it comes to my home: If it would break my heart (or our bank account) to see it broken or ruined, it doesn’t come in this house. If the couch gets a stain I can’t get out, I can easily get an inexpensive slipcover replacement from Ikea. No big. If the girls smear peanut butter on the walls, I can Clorox it off or touch up the paint.

In this season of life with babies and toddlers, I simply choose to design on a dime. I’d much rather live in a space where we can actually live than stress about it looking perfect all the time!

These sconces are probably my fave detail in the room! I found them on a whim at a vintage shop and knew they would be the prettiest final touch to the mantel!

Details: The Brass Floor Lamp is a steal from Target’s Project 62 line for only $39.99! The leopard pillows are from a fabulous designer fabric boutique, Tonic Living. They were a splurge item, but they are the BEST pillows ever. The fabric is so soft and the actual pillow inserts are so comfortable. Like nap for hours comfortable! I searched high and low for a pretty leopard pillow pattern. Leopard is one of those patterns that can look cheap and gaudy real fast, but Tonic Living’s version feels pretty and modern! Our Navy and White rug can be found right here!

The little green desk is another piece of history in our home. It was my Mema’s and I gave it a little bright makeover with green chalk paint. My mom saved all of my Mema’s furniture and when Jeremy and I got married, she graciously let us pick pieces to use in our home. I have refinished 4 pieces of furniture from Mema’s collection and it is so special to me that I get to have a piece of her history in our home! My Mema was also a lover of navy and blues, so it all fits!

I hope you enjoyed our bright and colorful living room tour! I’ll see you tomorrow in our sunny little entryway!

Photography by Sarahdipity Photos