Home is a process. Let’s take a look back at how the rooms in our home have evolved over the last 8 years, little by little.
Our Home, Over the Years
Some of the very best messages that come across my DMs are the ones when you say, I have loved watching you reinvent your home this year! You know what? US TOO. In fact, it was one of our goals for 2021! We have absolutely loved making tweaks and fine-tuning our choices in our own home. In 8 years, we’ve evolved as individuals and a family, and naturally, tastes change. Needs change. And taking a break from years of large(r) renovation projects – I’m looking at you, Tree House + Two Flat! – is giving us a surge of energy to make our home the best fit for our family, today.
So! I thought it would be fun to go back and revisit some of the rooms in our home that have seen the biggest shifts, and why I think we made the pivots that we did. The three spaces we’ll be strolling down memory lane with are:
- The living room
- Former studio-turned-family-room
- Our sweet little snug
The Living Room
When we bought this house, I was feeling inspired by white walls and big splashes of color. Vibrant rugs, a statement sofa and a mix of Mid-Century-esque furniture was what caught our eye. I found a saturated vintage rug on Ebay, we reupholstered a thrifted sofa in navy velvet, and I blew up dinosaur art from the pages of a book.
Living Room | 2014
The two chairs you see above, found at a local vintage shop, were in-waiting for their own reupholstery. Below, you can see we ended up choosing a neutral grey fabric that hold up to our two cats. And while we still loved the navy sofa, we felt so much better about the room as a whole after swapping in an overdyed vintage rug in soft grey.
Living Room | 2016
If you notice a subtle shift in the wall paint color between 2014 and 2016, good eye! The first color we chose always felt too cool for our taste, and after agonizing over the perfect warm-grey-white for ages, we landed on Benjamin Moore Intense White and have loved it ever since!
Living Room | 2018
Over the years, we found our style evolving into something more cozy, less structured and with more warmth. We gained more seating than ever by adding a cream-colored sectional (similar) and one caramel leather arm chair. We swapped the art for this photo, and now, the biggest changes this room sees are fresh pillow covers and throws!
Living Room | Today
Former Studio-Turned-Family-Room
Our home is a Two Flat (meaning, there are two separate addresses in one house), but we reconfigured the setup immediately after purchasing. (More about that here, if you’re interested!) In a nutshell, the first floor used to be one apartment, and the second floor was another. But after we bought this house, we converted the first and second floors into a single unit, and we renovated the garden apartment on the lowest level as the second unit. Because of this, the second floor of our home is a wide open space, which made it the dreamiest work-from-home studio space for us for years!
Studio | 2014
Initially, we plopped old furniture, yard sale finds and thrifted pieces to simply fill the space, as seen above. Almost everything you see in the photo from 2014 was changed within the first couple of years, especially as we found our groove with a more minimal approach to home design.
Studio | 2017
You can see in the photo above that we were still leaning towards cool tones. That space was extra cozy, and a wonderful place for me to work from home as my business – both pet portraits and the brand Yellow Brick Home – grew. But last year, we felt another shift! After renovating the Two Flat, we were left with homeless furniture that was initially meant to live in the Two Flat. When those plans changed, we embraced a new look in our own home!
Family Room | Today
Instead of a home studio-slash-office, we turned the entire floor into an all-around family room! Half playroom, half movie-night hangout. It has been the best change for our family, and Lucy absolutely loves her designated play space for her larger toys, such as the mini kitchen, craft table and dress-up station.
Playroom | Today
Here’s another view looking towards the family room side, 2017 versus today:
Studio-Turned-Family-Room | 2017
Family Room | Today
The Snug
Oh, snug, how we love you! This tiny nook has seen more paint colors than any other room in our home, but the most recent rendition was worth all the trial and error. What started as a sage green…
Snug | 2014
… Turned into a deep navy-green. We liked that much better, so we knew going dark was the way to go. But over the years, the navy felt less and less like us (especially when mixed with the pop of hot pink and mid-tone wooden furniture.
Snug | 2015
Ah, yes! Our snug today feels more like ‘us’ than ever before! The winning color is Benjamin Moore Kendall Charcoal, with undertones that lean green or blue depending on the time of day. Adding bench storage elevated the room ten-fold, and if we’re not playing upstairs, the whole family is crammed in here. We wouldn’t have it any other way.
Snug | Today
Here’s another view, facing the other way. Same wall color, but the seating got a major boost!:
Snug | 2019
Snug | Today
Thank you for coming along with us on this ride, today! An ever-evolving home has always been just the thing to soothe my soul. Over the years, we’ve learned more and more what we like – as well as what we don’t. It’s been a fun journey learning and growing alongside this home-loving community.
It’s fun to see your still evolve. I happen to stumble across your first blog posts in 2009 when you said how much you love ORANGE! Maybe you still do, but we don’t see it as much in your home today. Like I said, thanks for sharing the evolutions and seeing the progress and changes in styles. Also, looking forward to the changes to the entry!
Orange!! Phew, I should have included some condo photos just for fun. I still love the color orange, just don’t use it in design anymore, haha.
What do you do with the furniture that you phase out? How do you feel about purchasing new furniture that fit your new tastes?
We donate or sell, and depending on the item, we’ll offer it up to our friends, family or the Instagram community first! As long as it’s loved in a new home, we’re happy.
I love this post! Such a great trip down memory lane. I have a lot of photos from past houses/rentals and I’ve thought about putting them together in a chatbook so it’s easier to flip through and reminisce about old styles and where we’ve called home.
Love that idea! We’ve also hung old photos or renovation photos of a room, IN the completed room.
It’s so fun to go down memory lane and I do it with photos from our house, too. Thanks for sharing — and I enjoyed seeing Jack and CC, too! <3
We miss them SO much, it hurts. Our angel babies.
Do you mind sharing with me what color your Charly sofa is?
It’s the quartz velvet. :)
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