Living Room & Entryway Makeover

A few months ago, while on a mission to find a green state to move to, we spent a few days with our good friends the Urbans in Oklahoma. These people are awesome. They have four biological kids, adopted three more from Ukraine (all with special needs), and have been foster parents for years on top of that.

They have some pretty wild stories, and their house is filled with love, laughter, and occasional feces on the walls. If you would like to find out what happens when you take special needs kids to a wedding, click HERE.

On our last day in Oklahoma, a few minutes before heading to the airport, Charissa told me she would like to redo her living room and could I maybe help her with it? She’s seen our Etsy shop and Instagram account (which has been gathering internet spiderwebs for over a year), and she likes my style, so would I give her a hand?

I’ve always loved interior design, but our suitcases were by the door, so we didn’t really have time to do anything. I have since discovered that we can work on just about anything over text, email and FaceTime.

I gave her some quick advice, told her what I would do if this were my house, and took some photos. I promised to send her some drawings with instructions she could follow on her own, and told her to definitely, definitely get rid of the black couches which had seen better days and lots of bodily fluids.

This is what the living room looked like right before we left:

Despite having so many windows, all the black furniture made the living room feel very dark. I recommended painting the bookcase, parting with the coffee table, and putting up some new, huge artwork on the mantle, to break up the hunk of gray stone.

Just so you know…if you ever invite me over to your house, I won’t be looking for things to fix…unless you ask me to.

On my way out, I also took a photo of the foyer, which had potential but was looking a little tired, like my face in the morning.

When we got back home, I got to work on the sketchbook where Graeme and I keep squiggly furniture plans, home/interior design ideas, and ideas for funny t-shirts.

Before we move on, it is important that you see this:

I would totally wear that shirt.

Anyways…here’s what I sent Charissa for this wall. So squiggly. Quentin Blake would give me a high five.

With the speed of a streaking toddler (Grace likes to run around in the nude after a bath, what can I say), Charissa painted the bookshelves, got rid of the couches, found and bought better couches, and took down the old décor from the mantlepiece.

I was amazed at how quickly and efficiently she got all this done. It usually takes me about six months to hang a picture frame because I have naked children to run after. Charissa’s kids are all grown, and the three special needs kids are in school until 3:00, so she had a lot of time to get this done.

I didn’t want her to have to buy a bunch of new things, so in my sketch I included a lot of what she already had. She only had to get a few things, mostly from thrift and antique shops.

Wowa-wiwa, she’s fast.

Then I sent her my plans for the foyer. Just two or three days later, she had a whole new entryway. Before and after photos are so satisfying, aren’t they?

Oh, we were on a roll. In about two weeks, her entryway and living room went through a total makeover and she started getting compliments from guests on how beautiful and cozy her house is.

Here’s another area before and after:

One of the main goals while doing all this has been keeping the house entirely livable. White couches look nice on Instagram, but who wants to have to check their feet and butt before getting comfortable on a couch?

Because of all the people, dogs, cat, and occasional chicken going in and out of the house, we have kept things very practical while making the whole place more inviting. The floors are still kept bare (wise), the few breakable things are out of reach, and the painting above the fireplace doesn’t have any glass (very wise).

Here’s a before and after of the fireplace:

I helped Charissa, not just with suggested sizes and places for wall art, but also with ideas on what to frame and hang. I love personalized family and house portraits. Music sheets to a favorite song, old black and white family photos. Meaningful, beautiful wall décor. I always, always stay away from Ross canvas art and uplifting Hobby Lobby quotes. Oh man, those are the worst.

Wall décor and belongings in general shouldn’t be so meaningless that you’d take them to the thrift store at any moment and replace them with more cheap stuff. The thrift store is already full enough.

Collect meaningful things that remind you of a trip, a song, or someone you love.

There’s a Hobby Lobby poster right there.

It was so fun working on an interior design project in Oklahoma from my living room in California! But when the Urbans finished building a bright, beautiful, brand new apartment over the garage, I told Charissa I’d love to see it in person.

She responded by buying me plane tickets a few days later.

I spent four days working on the apartment and I’m excited to show you how that turned out! I’ll have a post up with the apartment project soon!