Entryway and Living Room
Executive summary: These spaces were probably the easiest for me to design, as it felt like everything had a natural spot to go. The living room is largely identical to that of our previous home, so I knew from the outset that it would be comfortable, functional, and low maintenance.
We don’t have much of an entryway in this duplex, but it’s more than ample for our needs, especially since the front door and garage door are relatively close together, so it’s kind of like having two entryways in one. This (town)house is way bigger than we need (at 2,200 square feet), but the layout is relatively “economical,” I’ll call it, forgoing “lavish” features like a grand staircase or double height ceilings or an extravagant entryway. Ours is mostly one strip of wall, against which we’ve placed our hall tree to hold everyday jackets, keys, my purse, etc. Around the corner by the garage door is a built-in cupboard (peeking out in the pic below) that we use for school backpacks, umbrellas, hats, etc. There is also a small coat closet across from the garage door that houses our vacuum cleaner, some rarely-worn cold weather jackets, and not much else, because we’ve run out of things to store in the entryway. It helps that our shoes live outside, in the garage, so I don’t have to find a spot for them inside.
Hall tree: Pottery Barn
I went bold with blue for the front door. All the doors in our home are painted — I now consider it my signature design move. I dithered for a day over whether I should paint the front door only and not the sidelight or trim, but in the end, I decided we would go the whole nine yards. I love how it turned out: the front door is the focal point of our otherwise basic entryway and adds so much design impact in a minimalist space. I also love this blue-gray shade (Benjamin Moore Newburyport Blue) — it’s what I had imagined for our condo but had gotten a brighter blue last time than I realized (Benjamin Moore Admiral Blue). While I like both, this is the navy-gray shade I’d been looking for.
Sofa: Article | Throw pillows: Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn | Drink tables: Target | Ottoman: Wayfair | Rugs: Lowe’s
Our downstairs is basically one big open floor plan, but I’ll talk about the living room for now. The furniture arrangement was easy to figure out, as we have an upright piano that only makes sense in one spot, so that determined the layout of the entire room. This is almost identical to our condo living room; even the size of the rugs was well-suited to this space, so I was able to basically “lift and shift” our former living room into this one. There is one major change, though: we got a new couch! Our previous couch has been moved upstairs (explained in Primary Bedroom and Bath), so we needed to replace it with something similarly sized. We’ve liked Article for our sofas in the past, so now we have their Landry couch (in a deep blue synthetic velvet) joining our Sven armchair, holding court in the living room. In an ideal world, perhaps I would’ve waited two more years before buying a new couch, as our kids are still apt to deposit bodily fluids on it (e.g., drool, tears, occasional potty accidents), but that’s why I went with a dark color and easily cleaned fabric. In the past, I’ve been very conservative with the color of my couches, opting for only grays and beiges (I would like something lighter, but can’t risk it with little kids). This time, I decided to go bold with blue (apparently a theme in my home), which I basically use as a neutral color in design. A solid, dark piece of furniture like this takes up a lot of visual space (especially since this couch is blocky and not “leggy”), so it’s not something I would suggest for a smaller house, but this room can handle it. We have so much extra square footage in here that I’m happy to have any excuse to make it appear filled up, but without actually adding anything to the room. That’s one of my minimalist decorating tactics!
Piano: Yamaha | Sheepskin: IKEA | Canvas art: Minted | Arch lamp: Amazon | Stool: IKEA | Armchair: Article | Throw pillow: Crate & Barrel | Tension rods: Amazon | Curtains and rings: IKEA
I didn’t want to put in too much effort or money into window treatments for this room, as we only have two narrow windows (three if you count the one in the dining room) and they overlook an open space outside, not straight into a neighbor’s home. A little privacy at night, when the house is brightly lit, is all I wanted. So I brought over our “light filtering” beige curtains from the condo and shortened them into cafe curtains. A couple tension rods and a handful of curtain rings later, and we have ourselves easy window treatments for minimal expense. I leave the curtains open during the day to maximize light and let us see the open green space beyond, then flick them closed at night when we don’t want every passerby to witness us chasing the kids around inside.
This room is so easy to live in and so easy to maintain. We feel very lucky to call this our home.