living-room-before-after2It’s been awhile since my last summer house decor update. You probably think we’ve been sleeping on the kitchen table and watching TV from the comfort of the yellow wooden chairs in our dining room.

Not so! We have a living room, folks! A real live furnished living room! It only took us until the fall to finish it.

Before I do the big reveal, let me just say I owe a ton of thanks to my friend Lisa from Play Chic Interiors. While I might have been able to put together the dining room myself on a good day, there is no way I would have come up with this living room on my own. Lisa gets me, understood what I wanted to accomplish (playful, summery, bright, colorful, whimsical, etc.) and helped me select each item to get the look I wanted.

Here’s what we picked:

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I know what you are thinking….

A WHITE COUCH!!!!! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR DAMN MIND?????

Yes, I know. I’ve always loved a white couch but never thought I’d be dumb enough to put one in a home with my children. Well, Lisa specializes in kid-friendly decor and she told me I could use an outdoor sunbrella fabric which is stain resistant.

“Really?”

“Really.”

I went for it.

living-room-before-after3TWO WHITE COUCHES????!!!!!

I know, I know, but listen to this… Mazzy jumped on Mike while he was sipping a cup of coffee on the couch and spilled it everywhere. While Mike glared at me, all “SEE?! I TOLD YOU THIS WAS A TERRIBLE IDEA!!!”, I got a towel (a dry towel, mind you) and wiped that coffee off like the couch was teflon. One swipe, no water. It was pretty amazing.

And no, this is not a sponsored post for Sunbrella.

I also would never have thought to put two of the same couches facing each other. I probably would have used a sectional, but this set-up feels much more open with a nice flow.

living-roomHere are some more “before and after” angles of the room…

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living-room-before-after9For those of you who like to know where furniture is from… the Vela couches are Room and Board, the rug is Madeline Weinrab, the Anders wicker chair is from Roost, the fan is Minka from YLighting, the mirror is Anthropologie, and the benches are vintage found on Chairish.

There are six sheepskin throws from IKEA on the benches and every night, after the kids go to bed, I pick them up from a pile on the floor. Harlow’s favorite thing is to take them all down and make a little bed for herself.

photo (3)She does this mulitple times a day and there is no sense putting them back until she has gone to sleep.

Here are a few more of the details…

living-room-before-after-detailsThe triangle decals are Urban Walls; they make a nice little surprise when you open the coat closet.

photo 3aThe coatrack dots in the entrance are from DWR.

10608041_612824172169181_1783379747_nThe serape throw can be found here, the tassel pillow is Anthropologie and the yellow spindle table is $60 on Amazon and comes in many different colors.

photo 2bBut, the best item in the room, by far, is the coffee table.

photo 4bIt’s made by a guy who imports roots from Indonesia. He doesn’t have a website otherwise I would link it.

Apparently, they don’t like to waste any part of the tree when they cut the wood to make teak furniture, so they dig up the roots too. Each one is totally unique and you have to order your root sight unseen. You have no idea what you’re getting until the guy calls you and says, “Your coffee table has arrived.”

Honestly, our table was a little crazier than I was expecting— I thought it would be less curvy with a larger solid surface area— but now, I love it. With so many geometric shapes in the room, it’s awesome to have something look so fluid. Also, there’s something very stress relieving about resting the soles of your feet on the smooth curved notches of the table.

What else can I show you about the room?

I know! Here’s Harlow standing in it…

photo (1)I don’t even know how she gets herself like this. I just turn around and VOILA! She’s fully accessorized.

Kinda hoping that’s what happens with our bedroom.

Currently sleeping on a mattress on the floor and pretending my suitcase is a dresser.

Stay tuned for more decor updates! It’s kinda hard to do now that we are spending most of our time in the city, but hopefully, we will have the place complete some time before the kids go to college.

Here’s one last shot of us, early in the morning, enjoying our new living room and totally not worrying if we spill coffee on our brand new white couch.

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If you live in the NY area, I totally recommend working with my friend Lisa at Play Chic Interiors. You can follow her on Instagram here.

If you want to see glimpses of my house before I post them on the blog, you should follow @mommyshorts on Instagram too.