Laura’s Den Refresh

Most of us have that one room in the house where we hang out the most, and for us here at home, our den is that spot! I usually work at the dining table in our front room so Lola and Todd hang out in the den a lot during the day and eat all of our casual meals there, and then it’s where we parents crash at night for a bit of TV time. We’ve made some changes since the room was toured after fixing it up a few years back (you can see how different it looks here), so I thought I’d update you on what it looks like now to share some of my favorite things and preserve it for history …

You’ve probably seen this camel leather couch over at Elsie’s house and it’s the same one! Once we had Lola, I would always hear Elsie rave about how well the couch stands up to kids and spills so I decided to get the same one and we love it! It’s so comfy but has great lines so it still looks modern and sophisticated.

I think that marble coffee table was one of the first things we bought when we moved into the home and I still love it. It can basically go with any color scheme and it’s a great size for a sectional, as it doesn’t take up too much room.

Another thing you may notice from the last tour is that I repainted the beams to be white instead of a dark gray. While I do like the cozy feel that the beams add, the dark floor and the dark beams were absorbing a little bit more light that I would have liked, so painting the beams white really made the space feel even lighter.

How gorgeous is that white arch rug?? It’s so beautiful and I love the arch pattern on both sides, as it adds a little bit of texture and pattern without it being overwhelming to what else you have going on around it.

While I’ve pared down my vintage book collection over the years, I still have a few in my favorite color range for display (and you know I’m gonna read that Encyclopedia Brown with Lola—those are the best!).

We’ve kept our IKEA hack TV stand over the years and it’s still going strong! I feel like you can’t go wrong with clean pieces like that—they never look outdated. We’ve also kept that brass chandelier in the room over the years—still love it!

We also turn on those globe light sconces every night and we have them on a dimmer so we get a nice soft glow. That print above the TV is also just a fun thing that makes me happy and I have a few of those faux banana trees in the house—they look so real!

I’ve been so happy with that double-decker acrylic hanging planter I hung next to the kitchen. I think I’m actually going to make a few more of those soon—I really love the look of it!

We updated our breakfast nook area with a tulip table and white chairs (the ghost chairs we had there before were cute but terrible for toddler fingerprints!) and I still love a cowhide rug for under eating spots so you can clean up in a snap, as it’s almost impossible to ruin them with food. I also swapped out a clear globe for a white one on our Luna pendant light, and that was a small change that made it feel like a whole new fixture.

I think my favorite decor element I added to the room would have to be the removable star decals that I made for the space. I love how they add a little bit of color and pattern without going overboard, and they were so easy to put up that it inspired me to do it later in a few other places in the house.

Now that Lola is in our lives (can you believe she wasn’t the last time I toured this space?), we’ve got kid items all throughout the house and her customized play kitchen has been in that spot for a few years now. It has a pretty wide age range, so she’s still playing with it and it’s also just so cute that it makes me happy to see around the house.

I love the pop of color the artwork on the fireplace brings and I like to change up that letter board for seasonal and inspirational quotes as well.
Those unicorn fire pokers were a vintage find when we first moved to Nashville, but I had to put them away when Lola was little in case she felt like exploring them. Now that she’s older, I put them back out and since she’s not interested in them anymore they can now hang out with us again—haha!

Overall, we use this room the most out of our whole house, so it’s got a special place in my heart. And I think in the future when we are in our new house I’ll remember this area with a cozy fondness.

Sources: Rug c/o Lula and Georgia, Couch c/o Article, Coffee Table/West Elm, Brass Chandelier/Lucent Lightshop, Tulip Table/IKEA, White Chairs/Article, Pendant Light/West Elm, Art Print/Society 6, Letter Board/Amazon.

Credits // Author and Photography: Laura Gummerman. Photos edited with A Color Story Desktop.