Blog - at home with Ashley

Living Room House Tour

Let’s continue on the tour of my house! Today we have the living room house tour

This room features a strange layout- fun (below is a video so you can more easily understand the area).

There is a huge walkway from the top of the stairs to the kitchen and then a more cramped sitting area. We’ve tried a few different layouts and I have floor planned options, but this is the one that works best.

It’s a little frustrating that this condo has this area of wasted space since we could really use the space is other areas of our home (what I wouldn’t give for a second bathroom).

When we first bought the condo it was bad- so much green and beige, but it’s not great now. The issue, I think, is that everything is so heavy. The walls are dark, the furniture is dark, the carpet is dark- it needs lightened up! The huge TV is also not cute, but it’s not changing; my husband loves it too much.

The living room has so much potential! I just haven’t really tackled it yet- just done a few bandaids. I think this could become a great “after.” A big issue with this space is also the flooring- the carpet is not great in our house. When we moved in (6 years ago) it was old. Now, with two dogs, it’s really old and somewhat gross. I would love to put in hard wood floors, but I still haven’t decided if that is the best idea with dogs and a soon to be crawling baby. Plus, we’d have to get a rug and rug pad for by the sofa- I love that idea, but it does make the whole project super expensive.

Here are the last issues (I didn’t realize there were so many until I listed them out. I feel like a Debbie downer! But wait until tomorrow; I have some really fun ideas!)-

The sofa is worn (its 8 years old). There are a few holes in the fabric and the down in the cushions doesn’t hold its shape very well. One day, I’d love to replace it
The wall art (the 9 squares) are dated- I need to replace or update them. I made these out of canvas when we were first married. I covered them all in paintable wallpaper* and then they were painted 2 colors of grey and black. I updated them when we moved here with fabric, but I’m sick of that now. Even though I am over these, they sure have been versatile! Maybe I’ll come up with one more way to update and use them again
The coffee table is not baby safe- the sharp edges scare me when my baby starts pulling himself up on furniture (luckily, that hasn’t started yet). I really want to change it out for an ottoman

Here are some pictures of the deck-

The deck needs some love with the planters and the outdoor chairs could use recovering.

And lastly, here are the resources-

Paint- Olympic Dover Grey D58-4 (-50% off formula) (walls)

Olympic Black Magic D58-6 (baseboards)

Furniture- all of the furniture (besides the dining chairs) were purchased from Drexel Heritage. It looks like the items from the Postebello Collections are no longer available from Drexel, but the links are here:

Media Console- Postebello Collection Gramercy Console (no longer available)

Coffee Table- Postebello Collection Enrico Cocktail Table (no longer available)

Side Table- Postebello Collection Franco Table (no longer available)

Club Chair- Postebello Collection Classique Chair (no longer available)

Sofa- Drexel Heritage Holloway Sofa (no longer available)

Console Table- Vera Bradley console by Drexel Heritage- no longer available

Side Chairs (dining chairs)- Queen Anne Chairs Pottery Barn– no longer available

Ukulele- Amazon*

Record Player- Amazon*

NYC Skyline Poster- Amazon*

Shabby Chic Coffee Table Book- Amazon*

Dorthy Draper Coffee Table Book- Amazon*

*denotes affiliate link

House Tour- the Entry

I decided that to start my blog, I should tour the whole house. “It’ll be fun!” I thought. “Everyone will see where I am right now in my house!” And all of those things are true, but it’s a little embarrassing. We’ve lived in this house for almost 6 years and I did the majority of my decorating when we first bought it. And it has all been done on a super tight budget. About 3 years ago I decided we needed to get out of debt so all “extra” spending got frozen and we have since paid off almost $40,000 of debt off. So I shouldn’t be embarrassed about where we are right this second decorating wise, but I am! I am an interior designer and I want a beautiful home! Plus, I want to help you get a beautiful home so mine should be pretty great, and much more Instagrammable (is that even a word?!). But this is my starting point and if it was prefect, neither of us would be here, right? So, the entry- it’s a bit of a snooze. When you walk in the front door, this is the space you first see.

Turning to the left is the door to the garage and turning left again are the stairs to the second story

(I also included a video that walks through the space- my first vlog! Haha! Fingers crossed it’s not too awkward).

The rest of the condo is all on the second floor with lots of gorgeous sunlight and some beautiful views, the entry and garage are the only part of the first floor. There are a few obstacles in the entry- it has zero natural light, it’s tiny, it’s the parking spot for our huge stroller (and that is not changing anytime soon- there’s no room in the tiny garage and there is no way I am lugging it up and down the stairs everyday), there’s no personality, there’s a weird column in the ceiling splitting the small room in two, and the water access and door stop aren’t pretty.

Let’s also talk about the stairs. Sigh… they are my biggest DIY failure ever. And I am usually great at DIY! Here’s what happened- we had carpeted stairs and the carpet was trashed. We didn’t just want to re-carpet the stairs. So we ripped it out and I followed my bestie Pinterest for inspiration, and wallpapered the stairs risers and painted the treads white. It looked gorgeous! And then I listened to a girl at Lowes who said I needed to add a coat of Polyurethane. And that’s when disaster struck- the wallpaper started rolling, the white paint slowly turned yellow and bubbled. Those bubbles have sense collected dirt that is impossible to get out (believe me, I’ve tried). And now that I have a baby, I believe in my soul that they are the most dangerous thing in my house (thank goodness for baby gates. I have this one from Amazon that works with my stairs)*. Luckily, right now he is not mobile, but soon, these have got to be softened (I’ll talk about plans and dreams tomorrow- the fun part!). Lastly, the entry finishes off with a gallery wall on the stairs. It’s a collection of frames that I painted black and filled with quotes and black and white art. Its fine and isn’t a priority for me to change yet.

Let’s talk about what is down here already-

Paint- Olympic Dover Grey D58-4 (-50% off formula) (walls)

Olympic Black Magic D58-6 (baseboards)

Valspar Du Jour 7002-6 (door)

Flooring- some type of beige stone that I don’t have a source for (it was here when we moved in)

Entry Table- Drexel Heritage, Postebello Collection (no longer available)

Entry Mirror- Lowe’s

Wallpaper on Stairs- Amazon*

Decorations- Framed postcards (from our honeymoon to Jackson Hole)

“W” Anthropologie (similar option)

Candle Target

White Owl Down East Home

There you have it! The little dark entry. Join me tomorrow for what I would like to change (this is the fun part!)

*denotes affiliate link

Hello world!

Hello! My name is Ashley! I am a 30 year old married to my high school sweetheart- Preston. We love to travel together and eat amazing food.

We live in a little condo in Bountiful, Utah (a suburb of Salt Lake City) with our baby boy, and love of our lives, Don (born in February of 2015).

We also have two dogs Derek and Lucy. They are King Charles Cavalier Spaniels- same breed, but so different in personality! Derek is black and white, Lucy is ruby colored. I went to college (FIDM) for Interior Design and now work as an Interior Designer/ Visual Merchandiser/ Accessory buyer/Stylist for a furniture company. I work 4 days a week so that 3 days a week I get to stay home with my littlest love. When I was pregnant, my husband and I worked like crazy to get our home ready for the baby. We added lots of details to this home of ours that made our lives easier and more beautiful on a budget. I became obsessed with living intentionally. I believe that having a home you love that works with your life style will make you happier. Now that things aren’t so crazy with the baby (knock on wood), I wanted to start this project. Why? I couldn’t stop thinking about it once I came up with the idea. I dreamed of it and I’m not one to not live my dreams. I have so many projects I want to do to make our home more beautiful! I believe my calling in life is to create beauty and I want to help you (yes, you!) have a beautiful life. So here I am blogging about the process. I am so excited for you to follow along!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin