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The Most Calming Living Room I Ever Did See

Our Home Editor, Audrey, takes us on a tour of her gorgeous living room, decorated in calming neutral tones and textures.

Welcome to our living room! While it’s the least-utilized space in our house, it's certainly my favorite from a design perspective. The living room was a huge selling point when we first saw the house back in February of 2019 – I knew there was potential the second I saw the large windows and vaulted ceiling. I also quickly realized that the layout of the room would be tricky.

The living room is long and narrow, with a fireplace in the middle of one wall, a large, arched window in the middle of another, and the entrance to the dining room dominating a third. There was only one wall that could possibly be used for a television, and it took us months to figure out a seating configuration that made sense based on the location of the TV. To make things easier, we chose a television that doubles as art when you aren’t using it. 

During renovations, we did several things to the living room that made it feel more updated and workable: we painted everything white (including the vaulted ceiling beams!), removed all of the track lighting, added 4 wall sconces, laid new hard wood floors, and updated the tile in front of the fireplace. This gave us a fresh start as we started to bring in furniture and décor.

Before & After Renovations

This Preteen’s Bedroom Got A MAJOR Makeover

Before

When I was 9 or so, I decided that I wanted my bedroom to be painted in shades of purple and teal (it was 1990; I have no other excuse for this) - and my parents, to their immense credit, let me actually do it. Which is great! Everyone should have a regrettably painted preteen room; it's a rite of passage.

But another rite of passage is when you age out of that room, and suddenly find yourself wanting something a bit more...peaceful. The teenage years can be rough ones, and I think having your own space to retreat to is an absolute essential. So when my friend Margo's daughter Claire told me that she didn't like her room anymore and wanted something that felt more "her"....

Eat

I Made the Disneyland Churro Tots!

I would like to announce that I am really leaning into this Quarantine Cooking thing. (Sidenote: Are we still under quarantine? To what extent, precisely? What are the rules, and where are the grownups who are supposed to be telling us what the rules are at any given moment? And WILL SOMEBODY TELL US WORKING HUMANS HOW TO HANDLE THE TOTAL AND COMPLETE ABSENCE OF DAY CARE FOR THE FORESEEABLE FUTURE THX.)

But food, right.

I'm not ordinarily a huge kitchen-experimenter, but I'm actually having a lot of fun (fun! remember that?!) trying out new techniques these days. I've made a big batch of homemade ramen every single weekend for the past month - this weekend the plan is to try to achieve a tonkotsu-style broth - and have whipped up rainbow cakes, pancake cereal, and banana breads for days (obvi). So when my friend texted me that Disney had released their "secret" churro recipe and that the ingredients were all things I happened to have laying around, I was on that within minutes.


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