Live and Travel like a Boss

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When we built our house we wanted it to be beautiful but inviting. High class, but warm. To have a designer look while still being kid friendly and functional. Here’s how we went about beautifying our main living space while also creating a place where our children can play freely. I’ll show you how you can create a gorgeous, fun and functional living room for your family too!

We started out with a fairly blank slate after building of our house. The living room looked like this:

• Two story open concept living room which opens to the kitchen and the stairs
• Floor to ceiling stone fireplace with open areas to each side
• Carpet in the main living space surrounded by luxury vinyl plank
• Minimal overhead recessed / canned lighting

Lighting

The very first thing we did to give the space a boost was adding a statement chandelier in the mild of the living room. The wagon wheel chandelier we added is large and also dimmable, I LOVE this light. I knew I wanted one in this style as soon as we started building the house. I had seen much higher end ones from Restoration Hardware but eventually found a great budget friendly option on Amazon!

Proper lighting is essential to setting the tone in a space and having adjustable options such as dimmers, blinds, curtains, lamps, etc. can allow the space to be more dynamic throughout the day. Plus a gorgeous light fixture like this one anchors the space and serves as a central design element.

We did not include any stand alone lamps in this room to avoid loose cords. With a four and a one year old we prefer not to have many cords so all of our lights are controlled from a wall switch at this point. Although I love the look and functionality of a good lamp if it works for your stage of life!

Instead we have a mix of cordless blinds on our bottom three windows and remote controlled roller shades in our upper three windows. Each of these avoids concerns around strangulation. Bonus points for the remote controlled upper blinds because my older son enjoys sending them up for the day for us!

Layout

When we laid out the room and our furniture plans we made sure to keep a circular flow around all furniture so that walking traffic could move freely and especially for the kids to be able to run around. And boy do they run, dance and jump all over that place! We do not have any furniture touching walls in this room to allow for the most flow and movement.

Rugs

Before arranging your furniture I suggest laying down a rug. For us this gives the room more warmth and texture and helps center the space. Our rug has multiple colors and patterns which also helps hide dirt and stains with little ones. When choosing a color and pattern make sure it will jive with the rest of the room’s color palette and style. We found ours at Home Goods. My living room is mostly white, grey and wood tones plus some accents of gold, tan and blue. The rug has blue, tan, grey and white so it was a perfect fit for our space.

Furniture

Seating: Once your rug is centered you can adjust your furniture around it. For us the key piece of furniture in our living room is a large sectional couch, which is essentially an L couch with the addition of a ‘cuddler’ on one end. Our couch easily seats our whole family and allows plenty of seating for guests. Plus with the room opening to the kitchen we also have seating at the island and at the kitchen table. We have had accent chairs in addition to the couch but lately have removed them completely to allow more space for wrestling, playing and dancing for the kiddos.

Tables: You may have noticed that we have forgone a coffee table, a main stay of many living rooms. However, with little kids I imagine a low table would result in any coffee on there being knocked over. So instead we have a sofa table behind the couch, which stands taller and the top serves functionally for us to use for drinks, remote controls, etc. and down below it holds a basket full of books for the kids.

If you have your heart set on a coffee table with small kids I’d recommend a round one (no sharp corners) and my material choice would be wood, not glass or metal, for both looks and safety reasons.

Other Set Ups: For now our couch is a grey color that is forgiving with children and best of all it has removable and washable cushion covers, which is amaaazing with messy kids. But once we outgrow this toddler phase I’d like to try two swiveling accent chairs and two individual couches plus some side tables between them. I think that set up provides a more dynamic and higher end vibe, so that’s another option to try as out of it suits your family!

Built In Shelves and Cabinets

The addition of built in shelves and cabinets in our living room made such a huge difference! Both from a functionality and aesthetic perspective these have been worth every penny.

Design: We opted for two tones on the built ins themselves. We chose white cabinets + gold hardware to tie in with our kitchen since it opens to the living room. Then for the floating shelves we chose a natural wood finish that complements our sofa table and is a similar tone to some other furniture throughout our home.

Decorating Your Shelves

When it came to decorating the shelves with items I preferred an asymmetrical look to avoid being too matchy matchy. So although both the left and right shelves have similar elements they are not mirrored. I used a mixed material approach and would recommend trying to incorporate a mix of the following elements:

• Glass
• Paper (pictures or books)
• Metal
• Textures (that complement your space, for me this is a wicker element that ties in with other furniture and baskets in my home)
• Ceramics
• Wood (for me this is mostly the shelves themselves)

These elements can be achieved through a mix of books, pictures, frames, sculptures, bookends, vases, candles or candle sticks, baskets, plants and more! If you have any keepsakes or meaningful items you’d like to display this is a great place to do that as well. Make it your own, this is the fun part!

For inspiration: I like to start with a family trip photograph and pull colors and materials from those landscapes. For example a picture of the mountains pulls in grey stone, blue from the sky and colors and texture from the grass. Then you can pull in similar attributes in your decorative items that share the shelf with your displayed photo. This makes for a personal and cohesive finish.

Finding Decor Pieces: Most of my decor pieces were found at one of the following:

• Home Goods (coffee table books, gold sculpture)
• Hobby Lobby (Frames, vases, stone sculpture and bowl)
• Target (plants, vases, candles)
• Amazon (wicker baskets)

But I also repurpose old frames, add in new photographs, take vases and candles down for use, etc over time. Then at Christmas time I switch out all of the shelf decor, which is especially fun because I include vintage family pieces mixed with new finds.

Functionality: Built in cabinets are perfect for hiding TV and internet cords and toys! We put child locks on the cabinets on the right side of the room to hide cords, gaming systems and anything we don’t want our littlest boy getting into yet.

For additional storage: I use the wicker baskets on top of the cabinets for the dual purpose of adding texture to the space while also holding spare clothes for the boys. This was especially helpful during the newborn stage! We didn’t add a stand alone changing table on our main floor and instead used a combination of baskets and the cabinets to house diapers, wipes, and more.

Then on the left side we fill the cabinets with toys and baskets where the kids have free rein. This allows for easy stowing away of the toys for a more calming and clean environment.

Ambience & Entertainment

Sound Systems: My favorite entertainment option is listening to music together as a family! We have paired our Amazon Alexa with our Sonos speakers for a smart speaker surround sound duo. The kids love to tell Alexa to “play Kenny Chesney” and “A Sky Full of Stars by Taron Egerton!” And then the dance parties ensue.

We use this sound system every single day and it really brightens the mood every time. This set up has been great for daily listening, for hosting parties, and I’ll even throw on some Italian music when cooking pasta to transport me back to our previous trips there!

Echo Show Speaker / Alexa: https://amzn.to/3IhNlEe

I really l enjoy our Alexa and I will sing her praises, pun attended. But seriously it is great for adding things to my grocery list, setting timers while cooking and for requesting music.

Sonos Speakers: https://amzn.to/3IgQmVe

We have a two pack of Sonos in white and they blend in nicely on top of our white cabinets. We have one in the living room and one around the corner towards our dining room. The initial price tag on these products is fairly steep but my husband found them on a Black Friday sale last year and got them as a “Birthday present” to himself since his bday is also in November. And we have gotten so much use out of them since then! The whole sound system has raised the vibe of not only the living room, but of the whole house!

Television Set Up: Mounting our television above our fireplace looks great, but it also took some work! Perhaps I’ll share a “how to drill into a stone fireplace” in another post! Although I wasn’t sold on a TV as the centerpiece of the room both my son and husband shot me down on the idea of replacing it with artwork. And I must admit that it does serve as a fun family movie night spot and is great for watch sporting events with friends and family!

The fact that the kids cannot reach the TV and that the cords are concealed is a great set up! In contrast my parent’s TV sits on top of a short console table and the kids are always trying to touch it or sit inches away from the screen. So mounting your entertainment system is a great solution with kids!

Summary of Kid Friendly Elements to Consider in Your Living Room:

• Cordless lighting solutions with a mix of cordless blinds, remote controlled roller shades, and overhead lighting
• Lay the room out in a way that allows for fluid movement around furniture and leave empty space for play
• Incorporate aesthetically pleasing storage solutions for toys and cords, such as baskets and cabinets
• Utilize forgiving fabrics on furniture and rugs to hide stains
• Around sharp edges like fireplaces or coffee tables with corners add adhesive foam bumpers of the most similar color to blend in, we have them on our fireplace and you can’t hardly see them but they’ve saved us in some falls
• Opt for a sofa table instead of coffee table, this frees up space in our main living area and provides storage for kids books on lower shelf while allowing adults to use higher surface to hold drinks
• Mount your TV and hide cords
• Baby proof accordingly (outlet blockers, conceal cords)
• Add speakers for family dance parties and overall ambience!

In conclusion you don’t have to pick kid friendly OR beautifully designed when it comes to your home and living room, you can have both! Interior design and function can go hand in hand. So pick a layout, find some lighting, furniture and decorations that bring you joy! Incorporate some entertainment and savvy storage options. Then put it all together for a fun and functional living room for your family!

For more tips and inspiration on home improvement and interior design check out our recent post: Building a House: The Process & Helpful Tips