Our Living Room (with Fall Touches)

 Happy Wednesday!  We've been experiencing one extremely hot day after another, and for the first time, I'm actually looking forward to some cool fall days.  :-)  I've been enjoying bringing in a few fall touches... I love pumpkin season and driving by the stands with their rainbow of pumpkins on display is definitely a highlight of the season!  

I haven't actually dedicated an entire post to our "new" (ha - two years later) living room, so this will be a little tour of sorts.  I'm also joining 13 other talented bloggers again as we share fall touches in the living room for the Seasons of Home tour, so you can also tour some beautiful homes by clicking on the links at the bottom of this post. 

 Any of you faithful readers remember the dough bowls my father-in-law made me?  I love filling them with mini pumpkins this time of year.  Once again, my seasonal decorating is very simple.  I do have a few knick-knacks that I like bringing out, but mostly I gravitate towards real natural elements.  I think it's so important to mention that any seasonal decorating doesn't have to cost a lot of money or consist of rearranging your entire home... it's as simple as bringing in some pinecones or branches with fall colored leaves.       

 When we first moved into our home, our living room really perplexed us.  Since it's open-concept with a fireplace, we were basically left with zero walls to place a sofa against.  Because the living room is narrow and receives a ton of foot traffic, we bought a sofa just for this home.  It's a full sized sofa, but with petite dimensions.  We initially placed the sofa centered across from the fireplace with two wing chairs on each side of the fireplace, but it left our living room feeling very cramped.  Then my husband actually had the idea to order an identical sofa so we could place them across from each other.  We measured and measured and then placed another order.  We've now had this arrangement for a good year and have been so happy with it.  I also love these sofas and highly recommend them if you're in the market, particularly one with petite dimensions... they were investment pieces for us, but so comfortable and well made.  (Channing Sofa by Rowe - we custom ordered them through a furniture store and chose the fabric.) 

 The rug is an indoor/outdoor rug from Ballard Designs.  Another purchase I highly, highly recommend (not sponsored - I wish!).  We actually have since ordered four more of their indoor/outdoor rugs for various areas around our home (inside and out), and we absolutely love them.  They are so easy to clean and hide stains really well, plus look pretty!  Since we have a dog, live on a farm, and have two girls that are constantly in and out of the house, I likely won't ever have anything but an indoor/outdoor rug in the living room.  ;-)  

The coffee table is vintage Lane (Acclaim series).  My mom actually had this coffee table in her attic.  She had purchased it at a garage sale for $5 and it was covered in paint.  She pulled it out when I mentioned that I needed a narrow coffee table, and Justus and I proceeded to strip it to see what we would find underneath.  As we were stripping it, I saw the name underneath and realized what a treasure we had!  I love this coffee table and it was absolutely worth all the hard work getting it to its natural state!

 One of my favorite seasonal things to have around the house are fresh flowers.  Most of these are from our flower garden, with some wildflowers and herbs thrown in. 

 The oak tree drawing above the mantel is one I found in a local antiques store, and it's definitely on my favorite finds list.  It was framed so beautifully.  I still love collecting little wooden boxes, and the brass candlesticks and the seasonal acorns were gifts from my mother-in-law. 

 Another inexpensive way to decorate for fall is with a little pot of mums (under $3, you just can't say no).  I placed the old piano stool that belonged to my father-in-law's grandpa next to one of the sofas and frequently use it for my coffee mug.  :-) 

 You may recognize this little cupboard from the one we had in our old house in the kitchen.  We do have some new furniture in this house, but placing some of the antiques I've collected over the years here and there has made it feel like home.  I keep all our board games inside the doors.  

We purposely changed the house plans around to accommodate our piano.  Both girls play daily and it gets a lot of use being in the main room of our home. 

 One fall I may change my pillow covers, but right now I still love the touches of blue around the house. 

 I'm also loving little hints of brass and gold here and there!  It feels like it just glows, especially when the sun hits it, and we receive a lot of sunshine in this house! 

 Eventually I'll probably move some blue cinderella pumpkins into this room, but so far I haven't seen any at our market stands.  It's still a bit early, and we still have our pumpkin patch trip to look forward to.  ;-)  

I'm looking forward to turning on our fireplace before too long.  This was something we knew we wanted in this house, and it's been so nice when we have really cold days.  We had the fireplace wrapped in shiplap and kept the mantel design simple and more traditional.  Funny story, when they were working on the trim in our house, I walked into the living room and the top of the mantel was about a foot higher than this.  I was pretty much speechless!  I always feel bad having changes made after the fact, but there was no way I could have the mantel that high - ha!  

 We also opted to use brick as our fireplace surround.  We used the same brick as the outside of our house, and asked them to make it look as old as possible.  ;-)   

The gate leg table behind the sofa is a newer antique purchase.  I mentioned it when I gave a tour of our dining room, but we actually use this table for overflow when we have guests, and I love it so much.  

Besides obvious fall decorating like pumpkins and flowers, I also like to bring in a basket with some throw blankets.  It may be 100 degrees now, but we know cooler days are on the horizon!  

Living Room Sources (with links if available):

Paint Color (Walls & Trim): Sherwin Williams Alabaster

Sofas: Rowe (Channing design)

Rug: Ballard Designs (Cable Knit design) - color gray

Lights: Pottery Barn

Floor Lamp: Target

Pillow Covers: Pottery Barn

Brass Lantern: Target

Windmill: Ballard Designs

Blanket Basket: Pottery Barn

 Other furniture and decor is all vintage and/or gifted

And finally, here are links to some beautiful fall living rooms for you to tour.  :-)  Thanks to Kristen at Ella Claire for hosting this tour! 

Ella Claire | Inspired by Charm | Handmade Farmhouse | Rooms For Rent

 
Julie Blanner | Craftberry Bush | Zevy Joy | My Sweet Savannah

 
Boxwood Avenue | Dear Lillie | Nina Hendrick Design Co. | Maison de Cinq

 
Keeping it Cozy | French Country Cottage