Grand Little Place

I’m pretty sure that it was Rachel Ashwell that made me begin to take notice of how beautiful all white rooms could be.  We had just bought our first house. I fell hard for the unfussy, soft, shabby chic rooms that I kept seeing all around me.  Though I certainly have a deep and abiding love for old and patina’d furniture, I’ve never been a full on true shabby chic decorator in my own home.  I did however take many of the basics when I envisioned the formal living room in our first home.

Our couch is a rock solid, fabulous mid-century piece that we inherited from my husbands’s grandparents (the coffee table is also from them).  It’s 9 feet long and a bit of a beast.  But by far it’s probably the highest quality piece of furniture we own.  In my early years of decorating I didn’t love the upholstery.  I didn’t want to permanently recover it so instead I did what any all white loving, shabby chic inspired gal would do – I slipcovered it.  (And by ‘I’, I mean I paid someone to make it.)

It took a long time for this room to evolve into the final product that I’m showing today.  I made lots of classic mistakes, including having not enough & too small artwork.  In the end this room ended up being one of my favorites from my old house.  It is the one space I wish I could have brought with me to our new house.

This room proved to be my favorite because it allowed me to play SO much.  It was the perfect neutral backdrop for any event I wanted to host and allowed me to easily & simply decorate for the smallest of holidays with minimal effort.  To give this room a new feel I would swap the pillow covers and add something to the small gallery wall and that was it!  THAT is why all white rooms are the best!  The photos in this post were taken in the spring.  A friend had made the wreaths for me and I added the coordinating pillow covers to the couch – doesn’t the room feel colorful with just those touches?  Easy!

AN EASY AND SIMPLE WAY TO ADD INTEREST AND DEPTH TO ANY DECOR

Let’s talk about those black doors for a minute.  I added the black doors because I wanted to play with contrast – I LOVED the result!  These doors cost me about $5 at the Habitat for Humanity Restore.  I already had left over black paint so for about $10 I majorly upped this space.  I didn’t hang the doors they are just leaning against the wall.  This is a project anyone can do!  I was ready to ditch the mirror and lanterns above the couch but with the doors in place the dark frame didn’t bother me nearly as much.  If I had stayed in this house I eventually would have at least taken the lanterns down, but more than likely would have changed the mirror as well.

This was a spray painted chandelier I picked up  along the way.  I had it for years with the shades on it but after I added the black doors I wanted to sprinkle black around a little bit more.  I used black cardstock I had on hand and made little tubes with gold striped washi tape and slide them over the candle sticks.  Instant interest!

Over the years I’ve gotten lots of comments about the white furniture.  Honestly it’s no big deal – and I have boys, so you can trust it’s been tested 🙂

SHOP THIS LOOK

Although I can’t link to the specific items (mostly) since I found many of them locally or they were given to us here are some to help you achieve the same look!