Living Room Progress, Styled for Summer

Our living room has finally pulled out of winter hibernation and I have made progress on the bare wall situation over our fireplace mantel. I’m excited to share this space styled for summer and the great deal on my statement mirrors, but first, let’s chat about my design process.

It’s been a year since we moved into our new home, The Forest Modern. You may recall me saying a year ago that my mind was so depleted after designing this house and overseeing the building process, that I had nothing left in me creatively to actually decorate it. When we moved, we sold a lot of our furnishings and home decor. The purge felt SO GOOD. It felt like a good cleanse that was overdue for years.

Over this past year in our home, I haven’t felt rushed to “get a room done” just to say its done. I’ve learned that good design should really evolve over time.  I know myself all too well and recognize that impulsive shopping only leads to discontent down the road and ends up costing more money than it should. I really ponder a space and give myself months if I need to in order to make a wise purchase. I tend to preach the design philosophy of patience is a virtue. Think it through and how it will look in all seasons. Yes, even seasons. I’ll explain that in a minute.

In blogger-land it’s pretty standard to see bloggers decorate for all four seasons and do home tours of each. Things are different on my piece of the of the map in bloggerville. We have snow on the ground through May. I could actually leave my Christmas tree up until May and it would still fit in with the setting around here. I really don’t do much restyling of sorts between end of Christmas season and June. Honestly, I’m good with that. I’m over the constant cycle of switching things around in my home. I’ve been so content since we moved into The Forest Modern to let the home evolve slowly. Which leads me back to the bare wall above our fireplace mantel. Let’s take a look at our living room before…

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Slowly the room filled with furniture, yet the wall above the mantel remained bare. I actually loved it!

Then came Christmas and a simple wreath filled the space for the season.

When I mentioned earlier about how it’s important to consider how your design will work through the seasons, I had visions of a Christmas wreath above this gorgeous fireplace mantel in mind. I had always envisioned a huge statement piece of art on this wall but then realized I’d not be able to hang my wreath there every Christmas. I even went as far as ordering a large piece of art and let it sit on my mantel for a couple of weeks. I debated back and forth to keep it or not but ultimately, I wanted something that was visually more “airy.” Our living room felt bigger when the mantel wall was bare. As soon as I put up the art, it felt like it shrunk the room and I didn’t like the feeling of it.

The next choice would be a large mirror. However, one large mirror over the fireplace is so common and if you know me well enough by now, I like to make my style my own. I was back to the drawing boards, this time researching large mirrors. There are plenty of them but for a HEFTY price tag. We have 12 ft ceilings in here for reference so you can imagine even a 48″ round mirror would look too small. I found this 60″ round mirror but did not want to pay the price tag or the shipping fee. I also felt like going with a round mirror was settling. Doing what you see everywhere else. Plus our powder bathroom right off the living room has a large round mirror so it seemed too redundant.

{I’m getting to the photos, promise, just let me finish explaining my process. Or scroll down straight to the pretty pics ;)}

After hours and hours, days upon days of searching for the right mirror, I found this one!! So unique with the X grid pattern! Problem was it needed to be bigger. So I bought two (the price is super affordable). Each mirror is 60″ x 40.” When side by side it gives the illusion of one large reflective mirror of  60″x 80″ and I can’t tell you how much bigger they make our living room feel! The best part, the price of two mirrors was still quite a bit less than one 60″ round or square mirror. I love how the metal frame ties in so well with our steel transoms.

The intent was to hang them side by side on the wall, within the skinny piece of trim detail meant originally to frame art. But, when I saw them leaning against the while just like this, I loved it. At first, I thought I was going to need to have my pencil trim detail removed but after I just focused on the mirrors, the trim didn’t bother me. It’s perfectly imperfect and I like it. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll get tired of the mirrors and decide to put art on the wall (only if some amazing, perfect size piece comes my way). Until then, I’m embracing this more casual style of displaying mirrors.  I love the reflection of the room and how much bigger they make the space feel.

Now that I’ve written a novel about my design process and this wall, you can scroll through all the photos of our living room styled minimally and simply for summer. Of course, Kodak will be debuting at the end. Always a photo bomber.

I hope you enjoy the progression of designing a space as much as the complete look!

Sofas & stools (sources in this post ) // Chandelier & Sconces from RH

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