Does anyone else find it almost paralyzing to make decor changes in your home? I find it hard enough to keep the house picked up and clean, let alone spruce up the decor. Swapping out accessories here and there is one thing, but making major changes like painting and getting new furniture are things that pretty much only happen at our house when we have an event (like a graduation party) coming up. Which we do again this year. In about 4 weeks. Yikes!
I have a hard time defining my home decor style because it changes so fast, but right now this photo of Lauren Conrad’s living room represents pretty well what vibe I’d like to create in our home.
Here are all of the things I love about this space:
- Bright, white walls
- Warm wood trim
- Caramel leather
- Potted plants with green foliage
- Round mirror
- Midcentury shapes (check out that planter by the fireplace!)
- Wicker/seagrass
- Graphic white and black fabrics
Then here are other things I wanted to incorporate:
- Beach art
- Sea glass
- Gold/brass accents
- Books
- Rustic wood mantle
Here’s what the living room looked like a few weeks ago:
We’ve been wanting to relegate this big, old olive green sofa to the basement for a while and replace it with something brighter. Also, as you can see our house is chock-full of that orange-y wood that was popular in the 1990s. I’d love to repaint all of the trim white, but ain’t nobody got time for that, so instead, I decided to just paint the fireplace white and replace it with a rustic wood mantle. Photos like this one inspired me:

Image Source: @HouseofJadeInteriors












- BEFORE
- AFTER
- BEFORE
- AFTER
- Paint from Sherwin Williams: $35
- Macrame wall hanging from Kirkland’s: $25.99
- IKEA Farlov chairs 2 at $399 each: $798
- Midcentury Project 62 Plant Stand from Target: $29.99
- Shorter ($29.99) and taller ($39.99) recycled glass vases from Amazon: $69.98
- Aztec print lumbar pillows from Target 2 at $18.74: $37.48
- Rustic fireplace mantle shelf from Wayfair: $108
- Round live edge mirror from HomeGoods: $79
If you take out the cost of the two chairs, the “decorating” total was just $385.44. We’ve been planning to replace that old sofa for about 3-4 years now, so I can almost not count the chairs in the cost of this quick mini makeover in preparation for our graduation party. But Dave Ramsey would count it, so I’m counting it too. Go, Dave! 😀
I saved a lot of money by “shopping” other rooms of our house for accessories we already owned that I could use in the living room makeover.
I’m happy with the way the room turned out! It’s a pretty dramatic difference, and it took the room from cluttered, shabby, and a bit dark to bright and interesting. I do think it resembles the style of LC’s living room at least a little. Thanks to Pinterest and Lauren Conrad for helping me figure out my current home dec style.
Note: This post contains affiliate links. Clicking on or shopping via these links may result in my earning a small commission or referral fee. As always all opinions expressed here are 100% my own. I truly appreciate your support.