Living Room Before and After!

I finally have one finished room in my house! I know I said that about Charlie's nursery, but Charlie's nursery is now Craig and Charlie's temporary toddler room so... I finally have one finished room is my house! Of course it still needs new paint and the front door is a hot mess but everything else is done... I'm sure I'll change it in another three months, just kidding its going to look like this till I die.

When we bought our new house (now over a year ago) we instantly loved all of the original craftsman details. This room has amazing leaded windows, built-in bookcases, high coved ceilings and beautiful floors. It was also small and dark with an awkward layout, bad blinds and a boob light. It wasn't until we moved in that we realized we had no furniture to put in it, and no idea how to make it functional. Besides our Christmas tree this room was totally empty for almost a year.  
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Check out these before pics...

This is the first room you see when you walk into our house, and we decided we didn't want to spend another year with it sitting empty and unused. So, and I am the last person who thought these words would come out of my mouth, we used a decorator. Online decorators are easy to use and surprisingly affordable, especially if they're having a promotion. We used Decorist, and I managed to snag 40% off of their basic design package.

The basic design package is great if you're pretty design savvy or very particular (like me). My best advice would be to have a clear picture of what kind of style, vibe, energy or look you're going for. I gave our decorator a pretty comprehensive pinterest board to get her started. This definitely saved me hours of sourcing furniture and accessories, totally worth it.

While I feel like we would have ended up with a great space on our own, I fully admit that it would have taken a lot more time for m to get there. So If you're short on time and struggling or just overwhelmed by a new space an option like Decorist could be a life saver or at least a room saver. The 3D rendering of our room design was part of the Top 20 Rooms of Spring round up on their blog a little while back so you can take a look at that here. I've included a source list at the bottom, so scroll away!