Linny’s Living room

We moved into our house a year and a half ago and it’s taken me that long to get our main living space feeling right. We’ve of course lived in it and enjoyed it throughout that time, we’re not waiting around for perfection here, but it has been a journey reaching for that feeling that I rely on when I design a space. A feeling where everything starts to click into place, where even when things are unfinished, I have a sense of what the steps are. That can include short-term goals, like finding the right pillows for our couches, or long-term goals like bead boarding and painting our ceiling to cover up the texture we inherited.

That said, a room is never ‘finished’ in my book, it’s part of my creative process to tinker and move things around throughout my house. While this space will continue to evolve, I’m happy to share this iteration of our living room.

Since moving into our house, it’s become a goal of mine to decorate with all second-hand pieces. It’s a fun challenge (I love second-hand shopping, like, a lot) and it’s rewarding. I don’t feel afraid to take risks because I can easily swap pieces out for at least what I paid for them (newer items tend to depreciate in value, we wax poetic on the perks of buying vintage furniture here.) I think that this way of collecting pieces slowly and creating a completely unique home is truly a lifestyle. There’s no deadline, there are no rules. One interesting thrift store find can inform a whole room design, it’s a very playful and open-ended creative way of thinking. If I just described you, I’m not sure why you’re not in our design club yet!?

This pristine French antique side table was only $50 from marketplace. That’s $50 plus the $50 speeding ticket I got on the way home from picking it up…

I did have a major aha moment with this room. My husband picked the paint color and all of the trim was white, the mantle was white and the charcoal blue plus white contrast was killing me. I thought I hated the color but had a sneaking suspicion that if I paired it with the right trim color I could make it work. I brought my dilemma to Claire, who is a true genius with color. She recommended I bring in this mushroom tone I had just painted my dining room, and use it on the baseboards and the mantle.

The trim color changed everything for me. As much as I love to problem solve my design dilemmas, I always need to run my ideas by thoughtful design lovers, which is why Claire and I started House Friends.

wall color is Graphic Charcoal by Behr, trim color is Moleskin by Behr.

Everything in this room is second hand, minus a few accessories and the rug