Furnishing the first floor.

The problem with needing to furnish an entire house from scratch is that we need everything. And when you don't even have some basic pieces to start from, the entire process can be pretty overwhelming. So, in an attempt to focus and actually get something done other than wandering aimlessly through stores, pointing and exclaiming, "I love that!" and spending hours on the internet making random Pinterest boards, we decided to work from the ground up, one room at a time.

First up: LIVING / DINING ROOM FURNITURE.

The living / dining room is almost totally empty and needs the most work. Right now it echos and it seems super cold, and putting a camp chair in the middle of the room did not help matters much. Plus it makes us look like squatters. So we basically just avoid that room for now. But not for long! Luckily we placed our custom furniture order weeks ago, and our sofa, love seat, chair and ottoman will be delivered this Friday! We took a peek at them at the warehouse this week and they turned out absolutely gorgeous... we couldn't be more excited. In the meantime we've been searching for accent pieces for that room, and we did end up making a few decisions and purchases:



These three pieces are all going in the living room, and we'll probably end up buying a second end table.
We love the distressed wood and that the lighter color is different from all the dark brown that's already downstairs.

We also bought this dining room table, which we love because of the distressed wood finish.
But we didn't buy the matching chairs or any of the other tacky items surrounding it.
I would like to get some modern leather dining chairs like these to go with the table, but so far I haven't been
able to find them in a lighter, more tan color, which is what I want. So the chairs are still pending. 

Up next: LIVING / DINING ROOM ACCENTS.

I've decided that I want blue to be the main living room accent color... lots of different shades! We'd like to get a big, blue, comfy, shag area rug and we have our eyes on a whole bunch of different accent pieces... here are some of our favorites:

I absolutely LOVE this blue trunk. I love it so much I would have bought it immediately,
except I can't figure out exactly where I want it, so until the furniture is arranged I'm holding off... for now.

We both think this clock is awesome, but need to find the perfect place for it first.

I really like the industrial quality of this side table, and the different colored wood.
I thought it could potentially go next to the fireplace to hold the Comcast box and stuff
like that until we get built in bookcases, which is what I really want.

Stew and I both loved this clock piece, which could sit on top of sofa table we already purchased.
Can you tell we're really into clocks?

We are absolutely obsessed with having a bar cabinet downstairs, and this one would be just perfect...
If only it didn't cost way, way too much. Still trying to see if we can budget this one in...

And down the road: THE DEN.

We really, really want to get this room done so we can stop using one of the guest bedrooms as a temporary office. But first, I absolutely have to have built-in, floor-to-ceiling, custom bookcases. I've been dreaming about these my whole life. Ideally, they will have a ladder just like in Beauty and the Beast. However, I'm currently in the process of researching options and costs, and it turns out we'll probably have to give up our first born child in order to make this happen. So I'm weighing our options.

But in the meantime we did find this amazing old framed map that we absolutely love.

Anyway, if you have any suggestions on where/how to buy furniture, or the best way to quickly acquire 30 years of carpentry skills, please let us know!