space to entertain (or just get cozy)

ahh, the living room.

we bought this massive L-shaped couch (that came with an equally massive matching ottoman) a couple years ago, and we finally have REAL space for it.

we decided to take the wheels off of the ottoman so we can use it as a bench to fill the extra space by the window. hooray - additional seating!

the accents are really my favorite part of the living room.

the grey studded pillows on the couch were a gift on our wedding registry and i think they still fit the room very well!

the pillows on the bench i call "nautical farmhouse." is that a thing? well it is now! at least until jason successfully convinces me that they really don't match (yeah, he's tried). he channeled his inner nate while at tarjay (silly spellcheck, that is a word!) a few days ago and found the large floral/paisley navy pillows. i just threw our old red and white striped pillows on top. we'll see if they stay long enough for the next living room photo!

the blue throw is my absolute fave! i saw it in a display at target (of course) and just had to have it. it's super soft and the color will go fab with the new tv stand we haven't bought yet... we'll have that in two days! (yes, it's blue!)

then, in that far back corner, you see our brand new coffee table! it's super cool - a wood top with metal criss-cross side panels for legs. we're going to store our blankets in a wicker basket underneath.

for now, we have a few picture frames on the table, but that will soon change, as we are going to be installing some picture ledges on the wall above the table. i'm super excited for that!

and there's the rest of our little living room! the corner shelving unit may stay or go - as you can see, we don't even have the glass shelves in there! boo. the top has served its purpose, though! my cute sister-in-laws gave us an awesome piece of art they made, displaying a google map of our new house, with the words, "our first home, est. 2016," and the exact coordinates to our address! all of your super sweet cards are there, too. thank you, thank you!

the tv is due for a size upgrade as jason so kindly reminds me every few minutes, and so does our tv stand, as mentioned! on the shelves (so far), we have a little metal dachshund we found at world market, and an illinois box sign from stumble & relish that has a little heart over what i'm going to call "the chicagoland area" (though if you want to get technical, it's a heart over evanston... my home away from home).

so many changes will be happening in this little room over the next few days. stay tuned!

follow me on instagram for live updates :)

our spacious kitchen

our lovely new kitchen with all new everything!

when jason and i first set out to find a house/condo/house boat/whatever we could find that didn't break the bank, our top request was a nice, modern kitchen with pretty appliances.

as you can see in the photo above (excuse the mess!), we definitely got what we asked for.

we were extremely lucky because not only was it nice and modern, we got a new kitchen! and when i say new, i mean brand spankin' new, right out of a catalog (IKEA, anyone?). new hardwood floors, soft-close cabinets, dishwasher, oven, fridge! the list goes on.

the best part? that's only half of it! not pictured is a whole other side of the kitchen, which was wide open (at least several square feet!) for us to do our thing! of course, having only been in the house one week, it's nowhere near complete, but here's what we've added so far:

we found this awesome table at homegoods prior to the move and decided to throw our wine and spirits on there! but then...

we noticed the table itself really wasn't enough to fill the space, so we went ahead and got a cool storage bench from target! it made the area so much more dimensional, added texture, and now, our guests can join us in the kitchen and not just in our dining room. i also loved that the color of the bench matches the table's metal legs perfectly! cute and functional in several ways.

at our old pad, we used this IKEA cart as a stand for our toaster oven and random items that we couldn't find a place for in our tiny kitchen. here, it's home to our collection of cookbooks, our brand new juicer (which i can't wait to use!) and my pretty flowers, which are stored in my super cute handmade ceramic vase from stumble & relish (my favorite little gift boutique in evanston, which i am lucky enough to also call my employer).

needless to say, i am in love with our spacious kitchen! we're still moving stuff around, adding more knick knacks (we still have plenty more boxes to unpack!), and working on the wall situation, so there's lots more to come. 

follow me on instagram to see what else is goin' on!

making our new house a home

we did a thing!

jason & i just moved into our new 3-story suburban townhouse one week ago today.

just before christmas, this house was added to our "visit" list pretty much by accident. the list of houses we had made for our realtor started to dwindle a few days before we were scheduled to visit. one by one, each house became pending or contingent, and in turn, our hope of finding a house was just that... hope.

though i instantly fell in love with this property's photos on the MLS, it happened to be an hour away from my job, and i told myself i couldn't move somewhere with that long of a drive. jason convinced me to look at it anyway, and sure enough, it happened to be "the one." seconds into the tour, we just knew this was meant to be our home. we were on the phone with our mortgage lender before we could even walk out the door! and naturally, within hours of visiting, interior design ideas began flowing through my brain nonstop and my "maison" pinterest board grew probably 100%. two and a half months later, it is finally ours!

though this is only a brief version of the very long story of our multiple month house hunt, i don't think i could be more in love with a house!

stay tuned as we make this house a home the best way we know how! with metal & burlap. (& love, of course.)

sooo many more boxes than pictured. ;)

portillos on moving day, because, why not?