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Welcome to our blog! We are a husband & wife photography team based in Madison, Wisconsin who document weddings & anniversaries for joyful couples who believe in marriage. This blog is a journal about real love stories, marriage & our own adventures along the way. We are so glad you're here β€” please stay awhile!

MAISON      CALEB

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LIFESTYLE

The Engel Homestead | A Living Room Before and After!

August 15, 2018

I have been putting off a “big” home post for so long! There are a couple of reasons for this but the main one is that buying a home and then doing the changes to make it your own takes a lot of time and a lot of money! We have almost been in our house for a YEAR (I cannot believe this!) and the living room still isn’t “complete”. The built in shelves have yet to be completely filled, there is a flooring piece that needs to be finished by the patio door, the outlets need to be changed out, and there is another gap by the stairs that has to be completed.

All of the things that I just listed used to stress me out but this past year has been one of significant life change for me, especially when it comes to mindset. Long story short, those things will get done when we get around to them and I’m no longer allowing stuff like that to steal my joy. The living room isn’t done-done but it almost is and I know you guys want to see it so I’m just going to do this “before and after” post as is! So here we go! I’m excited to show you what we’ve done!

The Style

When we bought the house, we LOVE the bones of the home and especially the beams. They are just gorgeous. This home was built in the 1980’s and don’t get me wrong, I don’t know a lot about homes and eras and style but I feel like these beams are kind of unique for that time? Anyway, we LOVED the beams and when we got the house, I knew I wanted to decorate using them (as well as the floor to ceiling fireplace and built ins) as my focal points.

Before

After

Before

After

The Work

We took out the carpeting and had to replace some of the sub-flooring before putting down the hardwood floors. We bought engineered bamboo hardwood flooring that snaps together from Home Depot. Caleb’s dad taught us how to lay the flooring and a bunch of generous friends (you know who you are!!) gave us their time for an entire weekend to help us put the flooring down.

We are NOT “handy” people and this was our first time doing anything like this. I would definitely say that it’s a project that can be DIY’ed (even the guy at Home Depot said to never hire someone to lay this specific type of flooring for you because it is so easy to do!) but it is helpful to have at least someone who is familiar with home projects on your team πŸ˜‰ We specifically needed a miter saw to cut the wood; this could be rented if you don’t have one or you don’t have a friend who has one!

We also painted all the walls, the ceiling, and the brick. We did hire someone to paint the ceiling, the built-ins,  and the brick as these were specialty paint projects that required a lot of resources we did not have or want to buy, so it made more sense to hire this project out!

After we painted the built-ins, we knew that we wanted to incorporate some wood tones back onto that side of the living room to break up the white. We hired our friend Kyle at Moonridge Made to build a “mantle” around our already existing mantle that was made from natural, non-painted wood. We LOVE how the final product turned out!

The DΓ©cor 

My best advice for decorating your home is not to rush it. Like I said in the beginning of the post, this room is not complete and we are a year into the home. Waiting to buy furniture and decor items is a good idea, in my opinion, for two reasons.

  1. Sometimes you can think you know what you want but then after you live in a space for awhile, you realize that your  taste has changed. For example, I initially thought that perhaps I would paint ALL the trim in the living room white but after being in the space for a few months, I knew I wanted to leave a majority of it the original wood color. With adding so much white paint, I love how the natural trim brings back warmth and character into the living space β€” super important for my goal of having a livable, cozy room.
  2. Waiting allows you to score GREAT deals. We didn’t have a coffee table for six months because I couldn’t find one that would work in the space in my budget. I had my eye on one that was close to our budget for the coffee table but never pulled the trigger because it was just a little too much … until it went on SALE! Six months after I first saw it. Waiting allowed me to get the table for under budget! Additionally, filling these floor to ceiling built ins is no easy task. I decided early on that as much as possible, I wanted to fill them with things that meant something to me. In my stubbornness, I also declared I wouldn’t buy anything for them unless it was on sale. This slow purchasing has been a win-win in my book as they are coming together wonderfully and are filled with things I LOVE!

The white rocks in the glass vessel below are from a beach we visited on our trip to New Zealand! The succulent was a favor from a baby shower! I love having memories tied to the items on these shelves : )

We opted not to mount our TV above the mantel. I don’t know why, but this is something I felt very strongly about! Once you mount into that brick, there is no going back! What if TV’s cease to exist someday? What if we decide we don’t want a TV? It just seemed too risky to ruin the brick for! I am happy we chose not to mount and I don’t mind how it looks sitting on the mantel!

We used a thin, white extension cord that we ran behind along the mantel and then down the sides of the bookshelves to plug the TV in. We had to do some drilling in the shelves to make this happen. This basket holds Vivian’s toys and also doubles as a way to hide where the cord plugs into the wall!

We chose black (it’s not quite black β€” the color is called Broadway by Behr) for the accent wall to bring some warmth back into the room as well. It has green undertones which is perfect for my main accent color of … green! I love how it looks with all the brown and white tones!

Our household mantra : )

Bar cart or record player holder? ; )

I am MORE than happy to answer any questions about how we did things or where we got things, etc.! Just comment below and I will respond to you! I wanted to keep the blog post *fairly* short so I am refraining from posting all of that kind of information within the post!! Thanks for reading!! More rooms to come … eventually ; ) We keep saying, this will be a lifelong project! HA! <3

Lifestyle

  1. Trish Kachel says:

    You guys rocked this renovation!!!! It looks great!!! I especially love the dark wall and decor around it, that lamp!! I also love the painted brick and the beams are gorgeous! You both really did an amazing job!!!

    • Maison Engel says:

      Oh Trish! This means SO MUCH coming from you! We need to do some sort of collaboration sometime! Wouldn’t that be fun!?!? Thank you SO much!! <3

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