Back when Ryan and I were house hunting, I don’t think we really knew how to define what we were looking for…we had a list of must-haves for our first home and we knew the location where we wanted to end up and I think we also may have known that we wanted an old house with character…but I think I just expected to feel something when we found the right one…kind of like the way you feel when you find the perfect wedding dress…Well personally, I didn’t actually ever feel that way about the wedding dress I chose…I didn’t really get that feeling when I walked into the house that we ended up buying either…But I think I’m one of those people that’s really good at seeing the potential in things…like how good they could be with a little extra work. Sometimes I end up regretting it, but usually it ends up being a good thing!

I ended up buying a wedding dress from David’s Bridal and then had a seamstress cut off the whole top of it and sew on a new top to the skirt…it took a little work to make it into my perfect dress…but I LOVED the way it turned out and it was kind of fun having a “custom” made dress….

I kind of feel the same way about our little house! When I walked in and saw these built in book shelves I just KNEW they had major potential…It’s been a lot of work and it’s still a work in progress but we are slowly making this house our HOME. And I’m learning to love the process of doing so, even though it’s slow…

I wanted to start with our living room because we didn’t have to do that much to it! We liked the neutral color of the walls, so I just painted the backs of the built in bookshelves to make the things I put on it stand out a little more. Most of the little things you see in this room were actually props from our wedding! I like to challenge myself to decorate with as little cost as possible…I like to call it newlywed budget decorating:). The end table and coffee table were from Ryan’s grandparents..I just added a little paint and now I LOVE them! The TV armoire was a craigslist find for 65 dollars. The little mail hutch was a housewarming gift from my mom. The rug was purchased on Black Friday for $175 and the chair is off of Overstock.com and was $250. The only thing we’d like to swap out in the not-so-distant future is the couch…It was a hand me down from my parents and it’s seen better days…but we love how comfy and big it is because lots of guests can sit on it! I want one that’s a little smaller with a chaise though, instead of the big L shape…Most of the decorations on the walls came from thrift stores or Ikea. I still have to add a few more things to the walls and I want to find some gray geometric print pillows to add to the couch too…but for now, I really love how this room feels!

And it’s the perfect room for me to have client meetings in! It feels open and light and it’s right by the front door…Plus you can’t see the kitchen from this room so it doesn’t matter if I have dishes piled up in the sink when brides come over, which I’m super thankful for. I used to want to have brides meet with me upstairs in my office, but I like how it feels so much more like I’m just hanging out with a friend when we meet in the living room!

So here’s the BEFORE that we took from a website when we were first house hunting….

And here’s the PROGRESS we’ve been making!

The built-ins…still not fully satisfied with every shelf, but I’m slowly figuring out what works!

I call this our reading corner…it’s where I have my coffee and quiet time in the morning…

It’s CRAZY what paint can do for a table..these used to be a really awful orange-y wood color…

I’m still trying to figure out how to hide that ugly speaker…:)

Our little front entryway…I’m still trying to decide what prints I want to put in these frames…

I really want to order a canvas of one of our own wedding photos to put above the TV armoire!

That little basket in our mail hutch is the catch all..this thing would look so junky all the time without it!

A canvas of my dad’s hometown in Germany…

Cant wait to keep documenting the progress as we make it!