Home Tour Part 1 – Living Spaces

ALAS. I have finally put together a segment of our home tour! We’ve been moved in a year this month but hey, small strides right. I wasn’t used to having so much space. Moving to Arizona from San Diego, I basically had to start from scratch in regards to furnishing a larger house. So it’s definitely taken some time and patience to put together and make it feel like home!

Let’s just jump right in.

So starting from the entrance of our home, we have a long hallway leading to the main living space. I found this bench from Kirklands that I just had to have when I saw it. It’s got this vintage church pew vibe ya know? I bought it on the spot and went back with Chris’s truck the next day to pick it up lols. Somehow I always end up buying large pieces from Kirklands and having to pick it up with the truck later. Anyways, I added texture with a woven blanket and cute rhinestoned deer pillow I got at Nordstrom about a year ago. SO RUSTIC GLAM RIGHT. Here’s the link for the bench if you likey. If it comes up full price, WAIT until they have a furniture sale or if they email you a coupon. You never have to buy anything full price at Kirklands cause they literally have so many coupons that change every day. Just sign up for their emails. Yay discounts!

Across from the bench I put a side table to add some color and personality. Initially I was planning on having that huge wall be a photo wall of me and Chris, but I felt like our entryway needed some light. Our front door doesn’t have windows, so this area is kinda hidden from natural sunlight. One way to open up the space and add light is through mirrors. I love the circle mirror trend and I felt like this was the perfect spot for one. It reflects light entering in from my office and brightens up the hallway a bit. Pick up this cute mirror at Target here!

Let there be light! Detail-wise, I needed to add texture and color. The gray trend is awesome but can be bland AF if you don’t add dimension to it. I tried incorporating some southwestern vibes here with succulents and airplants, as well as a black and white Aztec-y vase. You always need varying heights on shelves, tables, etc. If you collect some things you want on a table and they’re all about the same height, try elevating some pieces on decorative books, or find another vase that’s bigger or smaller. They don’t have to match. Need decorative books for stacking? Go to Goodwill! Don’t worry about ugly binding if they’re cheap, just face the pages outward for a rustic farmhouse vibe. An easy and cheap way to add height! But if you want something with a more elegant flair, I got my cute Chanel book off of Amazon here. So chic right. If you have random smaller decorative accents but don’t know where to put them, try arranging them on a tray, like I did on my second shelf of the table.

If all of the arranging of items stresses you out, start out decorating in threes or odd numbers. Put 3 items together of different heights and rearrange until you’re happy. Which, sometimes takes days honestly. If you have a lower shelf that’s basically irrelevant, add items that just add something, but nothing that takes away from what’s above it. For example, I put a woven basket on the bottom shelf of my table. I sometimes add different holiday accents too, like Easter eggs or Christmas ornaments in there. Again, nothing to take way from the personal photos or signs with quotes. It would be awkward having photos of us or like, a saying, super low to the ground, ya know??

Here’s a different view from our first hallway off of the main hall, that leads to our guest rooms. I found these cute signs from Hobby Lobby that has the verse “Where you go I’ll go, where you stay, I’ll stay.” Dawh. Look at me having some emotion. Again, Hobby Lobby is the real MVP in regards to sales just like Kirklands. They rotate their sales on different categories weekly. And you can google Hobby Lobby coupons and there’s always the 40% off one item coupon. You never have to pay full price there either.

We have a bathroom for guests down this hall as well. And I wanted to keep to the overall theme while really adding some Arizona desert flare here. My friend found me this cactus shower curtain and I immediately fell in love. It was so convenient that cacti became like, suuuper trendy right around when I moved to Phoenix. I carried over the same gold handles we put in our kitchen to keep it consistent, and then added light pink accents. I even pathetically matched the shampoo, conditioner, and hand soap with the theme. *Facepalm* lololol I can’t help it sometimes!!!!

So on to our living room. This room is what basically sold me on the house. I loved how open it was. And major yes to the huge island that I never cook on, along with the two sliding doors displaying a nice view of our backyard and mountains. I also loved that our dining room was a part of this grand room as well, but still had it’s own walled space. I’ll include that area in the next home tour post as well; I’m not completely pleased with it yet and need to find a chandelier I like. I layered rugs below to add texture, and accented with gold and pink pieces.

Here’s the links to each item if you’re interested.

Softest blanket in the world (on sale right now!!)

And lastly comes the kitchen! Our cabinets came without knobs so I searched high and low for the perfect brushed brass handles. I loooove gray and gold together, and the kitchen was already gray enough with our walls painted gray. So I didn’t even really consider nickel or whatevs. I initially ordered some knobs from Home Depot, and the color just didn’t blend well with the light gray. Then I found some from Target and they were perfect! I bought a kit from Home Depot for Chris to drill all of the holes for them, and it added SO MUCH life into the kitchen.

Then we didn’t have a backsplash when we moved in. They just brought the quartz countertop up the wall a bit and I hated it. The gray cabinets were so pretty, but they didn’t pop or attract attention cause they just blended right in to the gray paint on the wall. I talked Chris into a little project and I was actually surprised he agreed, but I am so glad he did! He watched a youtube video on how to install backsplash, and we skipped on over to The Home Depot to look at tile.

TA DA. I had a hard time deciding between a beveled subway tile and an arabesque tile. Both would have looked amazing but I decided on the subway just to make Chris’s life easier. It would have been a bitch to cut all of those arabesque tiles for the borders of the backsplash. It took us a couple of days (yes I helped I swear) and I am so so happy with the result. The cabinets finally pop and stand out against the white.

Cute white jars from Target here.

Trendy Smeg toaster here.

In regards to barstools, I wanted something classic and wipeable, and these were just perfect for the price. I got them at Target here. I also found these glass hurricanes from Kirklands, that I love adding different seasonal décor to. I’ve added sweetheart candies for V-Day, pink easter grass for Easter, small acorns for fall and peppermint candies for Christmas. So fun right. They’re cheap too, so if Grayson decides to knock one over, I’ll just buy them again lol. Get them here.

I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed creating it!! After the wedding, I def will finish up our guest bedrooms and master bedroom into a post for you guys, as well as my black and girly office space!! Thanks for reading!