Bloom Where You're Planted

I titled this post "Bloom Where You're Planted" because that's what I'm trying to do in this house.  For those of you who aren't already familiar with what's going on, this is a {hopefully} very temporary rental home while we look for a place to purchase.  Once again, because of the circumstances I'm stuck with a house that I had no choice in, and I'm trying to do the best I can with what I've been dealt.  I don't have any "before" pictures because I was too busy sobbing over the filthiness of it all when we got here, so taking pictures never even crossed my mind.  

I'm not posting these pictures because they're beautiful or unique in their decor, nor am I posting them because I think they're pin-worthy.  I'm simply sharing what I've done with the house and how I'm trying to make it work.  Trying to bloom where I've been planted, so to speak.

Today I'm sharing the living room.  Now I realize this first picture is kinda terrible, poor lighting and pretty grainy.  BUT...it's such a small house that my "big" camera wouldn't give me a wide enough angle to show you the whole set up of the room.  So I had to use my little point 'n shoot.  None of the pictures are all that great really, the lighting in here is terrible, but like I said, I'm not trying to wow you with it's beauty.  : )

So, in the picture above I'm actually standing in the kitchen (you can see the corner of the island in the bottom left).  That's the front door on the right, and you can see that I have the two couches facing each other with the recliner facing the fireplace.  That kind of gives you an overview, in spite of the poor quality.

The walls were already this soft color of sage green when we moved in.  It's not a color I would have chosen, but it's not horrible and it works so I'm not inclined to change it for just the few months we'll be here.  And because this home is hopefully very temporary, I kept the decor fairly simple.  I wanted just enough to make it feel cozy and homey, but not so involved that I would have a ton of extra stuff to repack.

I was tired of having my scrapbooks packed away because of lack of a place to display them, plus I was running out of room for extra storage boxes.  So...I decided to flip my crate table on it's side and put the albums in there.  The kids have had so much fun looking through them.  They call them "comic books," LOL!

Once we started unpacking and all the boxes got moved away from the front window we realized we needed some kind of covering for it.  Blinds that large are costly and we didn't want to invest in any.  I looked around the house and spotted these shutters laying amongst the unpacking mess.  The story behind them is that I rescued them from someone's garbage back in Ohio and have hung onto them waiting for the perfect project/use.  The ledge in the window was just wide enough for them to sit on and they fit in there perfectly.  I love no-cost solutions!  

I already had the valances and the colors in them matched quite perfectly with the sage walls.

On this end of the couch, next to the front door, I hung these numbered hooks.  They were actually bought for my son's room when we re-do it, but that won't be happening for a while yet.  I needed a place to hang keys, and leashes, and Hubby's ever-present hats so they got put to work here in the mean time.  A boot tray below isn't pretty, but it serves a very functional purpose since we don't have much of an entryway.

Here you can see the end of the couch, the door in the background, and a mirrored wall behind the recliner (more on that area in an upcoming post).  My crates are used as an end table again and sit between the couch and recliner.  I used some of my Etsy money and bought a large area rug from Overstock.com.  It is SO cushy and soft, and feels great under our feet since most of the rest of the house is tile and hardwood.  

Now we're gonna swing back around to the other end of the couch.  My husband wasted no time in claiming the space around the fireplace for his "trophies."  I really didn't mind since I plan to keep things simple and have no plans of changing up the display on the mantel. 

The gate around the opening as well as the fireplace tools were already here and I just left them in place.  I figured if I moved them I'd have to come up with some sort of decor to replace them and I just didn't feel like it.  :)

The top of the mantel is very basic with four of my aqua canning jars and two pictures.  My son is on the right and his namesake (his great-grandpa) is on the left. 

(And just in case you're wondering if the hog is real, yes...yes it is.  My husband roped it {as in, lassoed it} while he was standing in the back of a moving truck, riding alongside the hog as it was running a ditch.  And also in case you're wondering, wild boar hog does not taste good.  I'm not really sure why it's considered a delicacy in some circles.)

Sitting next to the fireplace is one of my plants, a little worse for the wear from our moving trip.  It got left in the cab of my husband's truck and I completely forgot about it for the few days we were living in the hotel.  It's about half the size it used to be.

 Anyways, I lined this cute wire basket with brown craft paper to disguise the flower pot and also to help the metal tag on the basket stand out more.  It probably would be better lined with burlap, but you know... I haven't really felt like it.

Moving on around the room to the left of the fireplace is the TV corner.  I added just a few family photos above it to make it feel more personalized.  A wire basket holds the kids' DVD's and another basket helps contain some of the unsightly wire/cord paraphernalia.  And on a funny note, living so far from a main city we only pick up 3 channels, 2 on a rainy day.  So unless we want to watch re-runs of Columbo or some random cooking show, the TV is pretty much for movie usage only, lol!

Towards the left of the picture you can see the edge of a doorway and also the edge of the loveseat.  That leads us around to this view....

Here you can see that it's an open layout to the kitchen next to the living room.

 (More on the kitchen another day.)

The little vintage table I redid became an end table and holds my decorating books and a Bible.  Below it, a wire basket holds magazines.

In this little corner behind the recliner and right before the kitchen is our Bose radio and CD/movie cabinet.  Can you see that obnoxious blue paint in the left corner of the picture?  In the real estate website pictures that we looked at before moving here, the living room was also painted that eyeball burning blue.  I was glad to see it had been toned down in the living room at least by the time we got here.  (And that closed door leads to our bedroom, the only room yet to be unpacked and dealt with....thus, the closed door.)

Simple arrangement on the top of the cabinet.

A cute little wire basket keeps all the radio remotes contained.

I stood on a chair in the corner next to the radio to capture one more overall shot with my little point 'n shoot camera.  You may have noticed that there's no coffee table.  I sold the yellow trunk before we moved and I have another table in the works.  I got about halfway through refinishing it before we moved.  I'm not too worried about getting it done while we're here, though.  I think it would take up too much space in here, and 1) the recliner wouldn't be able to open, and 2) the kids wouldn't have much room to play.  So...it'll get finished someday down the road.

So there ya have it, that's our living room.  Small and cozy, but it works.  In the next few days I'll work on getting the rest of the pictures of the house edited and share what else I've done to make this place home, temporary though it may be.

I hope you're having a great week!