At Home With Jennifer Johner

We are so happy to have Jennifer Johner here today to share her amazing living and dining space with us! "After living in the country for 4 years, we decided to give that up and move into town. And while hunting for our new home, what we looked for most was a big open living area. We wanted a space that would work with us and allow us all to be together, even if we are all doing something different. We fell in love with the layout of this house as soon as we stepped through the door! The living room, kitchen and dining are are all open to each other, which is perfect! I love that I can hear the kids chatter away while playing games or crafting at the table—or catch up on the day while they relax in the living room after school, and I am busy preparing dinner. It is my favorite thing about this house. I just love the openness."   "Since it is a new builder grade home, aka mass-produced, we have been replacing fixtures throughout  as we go. It has been a slow process at times. And as much as I would love to rip out all of the builders choices and replace with our own taste all at once, we just can't do that. So, we make changes when we can. Maybe that is why we try to add so much rustic character. After all, we love this house for the space it provides for our family and for the safe, quiet community we live in. My design-loving, character-craving tendencies can live with the rest!" "There are many things we cherish in this space, like the collections of cuckoo clocks and paint by number paintings. And the Wild Unknown print above the mantle means so much to us, we bought it right after we moved in. The dream catcher in the dining room window is very sentimental to me personally. We recently went on a road trip to the west coast of Canada, and the entire time I knew that the only thing I wanted to bring back was a dream catcher. I didn't want it to be a typical gift shop version though, I wanted it to be wonderfully rustic—made with love. Well, we found it during our visit to Tofino, the very last stop on our trip before we made our way back home. I saw it in a second story window while we were walking around and had to go in to see if it was for sale. It was! It is made entirely with items found on the forest floor. It was perfect and had to come home with us. The perfect item to remember our first actual vacation that we have taken as a family of four!" "Balance is important to me in this space, since everything is so open.. it can sometimes be a struggle having the table area flowing well with the living room area, but still be their own unique space. One of my favourite things we have done since moving in is the black paint on the dining room wall. I love that it draws the eye to that space and balances out the large dark fireplace in the living area. That is the kind of balance I love, each space has its focal points, but works well together at the same time.  Everything is still evolving, and decor items get moved around quite frequently—sometimes weekly!  After living here for almost two years, I would say that this space has finally evolved into what I have envisioned all along, a cozy family friendly space. There are still things I would love to tweak and make more our own, so it is definitely still evolving. Who know where it will go from here?" "This is where we spend most of our time as a family.  It is where we unwind and catch up at the end of the day.  Even when we are cleaning the kitchen after dinner, and our oldest is doing her homework.. we are all still together. On the weekends, we enjoy using the living room for movie marathons.. just a few weeks ago, we watched all of the Star Wars movies from start to finish.  Personally, I love cozying up with a blanket and loosing myself with a book for awhile.  I don't get to do that often, but I love it when I do!  It is usually a space that is filled with activity, train tracks getting pulled out of the toy box and set up all over the room… crafts take over the kitchen table, and we constantly have to fight the dogs (two boxers) for the couch!  It is where we live.. and just 'be' a family." Thank you so much, Jennifer, for sharing your incredible space with us! You can visit Jennifer at her blog Dearest Someday. You can also check out more of her home!  xo.