A Rustic and Functional Living Room Design and Reveal

When we first bought our house, I had no idea how to style this living room. It’s a pretty long, deep room with a shiplapped wall (definitely something the previous owners loved as it’s also in three other rooms as well). I knew we would end up spending a lot of time in this room so I really wanted it to be functional and beautiful.

I wanted something cozy but bright, a little rustic but modern – and I think it all came together! I used Modsy (which is no longer a company but I switched to Havenly for other rooms in our home!) to help me figure out this space. They do tend to suggest a lot of expensive items but I found a lot of great dupes and alternatives for their suggestions! I didn’t go with their design 100% but I did feel very inspired by it to land on what we have here.

I’ll leave links below in case you’re interested in any particular item. Overall I knew we were going to have to buy some bigger items for this space as we didn’t bring any living room furniture with us in our move. I did try to find dupes and spend less where possible, though.

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We’re lucky this room has a gas fireplace – it makes it super cozy in the winter and is a focal point of the room. One thing I knew I didn’t want was the TV above the fireplace. I like how it’s off to the side instead of the centerpiece.

Most of the furniture in this room is new. We had the area rug previously and most of the decor, though.

I chose not to put curtains in this room, for now at least, because I like the blinds and how easily they let in light. I didn’t want the wall behind the couch to feel too heavy either.

I found this mirror at Target! For $70 I thought it was such a steal – and much cheaper than the $500 West Elm mirror Modsy suggested. I like the look of the Target one better too for this space.

We bought the end tables they suggested but they haven’t held up well. Instead, we purchased these end tables from West Elm.

I previously styled our mantle for Christmas. There’s a picture on my Instagram here if you want to see. I’m still working out the prints I want to put in the frames for the spring but I figured I can get away with these winter prints for a little while longer.

I also knew I wanted the circle mirror on there (from Target) but had to figure out how to balance everything else. I went with tapered candles to add some height. These are from KrisitinMade.com and the holders are from Etsy.

We also have some battery operated candles left over from the holidays that pop on on a timer for ambiance at night. I’ll never light the tapered candles where they stand now so I like that the lights come on and bring warmth to the area at night.

I really like this set of three shelves on this wall. Modsy originally suggested these three shelves from West Elm but at $160 each, it was more than I wanted to spend. Instead I found a similar shelf to this brand on Amazon for $216 total.

The chair in this corner was my last piece of furniture to be delivered for this room! It’s the Noelie Rattan Lounge Chair with Black Cushion from CB2. And I found the ottoman at Target.

And this lamp from Overstock is the Harrison Arc Blackened Bronze Floor Lamp which is a pretty good dupe for the Precita Home Fletcher Floor Lamp recommended in my design.

It took me a while to style these shelves. I mostly used things we already had and a few sentimental pieces (like the eagle that belonged to my dad). I ended up buying the cute wicker tray, a plant, and a planter from Target to finish out the shelves.

This little space in front of the TV took some time as well. The Modsy designers suggested a $1,000 bench from Serena and Lily and I just couldn’t spend that amount on a bench that was just for decor. If it was a more practical piece of furniture… maybe but given it’s purpose in this room, that wasn’t happening. Instead I bought this little bench for $99 from Hearth and Hand.

The blanket basket here is from IKEA and the fiddle leaf tree is from Artiplanto. It’s one of the most realistic fake plants I own – I would definitely recommend shopping with them if that’s your vibe!

Our coffee table is from West Elm. I looked at dupes but none of them we’re actually empty inside/usable space and they didn’t have great reviews. It’s the Drum Storage Coffee Table and retails for $599.

I really love having this dresser in here. It gives us lots of invisible storage space. I didn’t buy it from this website, but it’s this dresser here.

I bought this print from Target mostly because of the frame. I haven’t switched the print out yet, but I don’t hate it like it is!

For our big pieces of furniture, we purchased The Frame TV from Samsung. We got the 65″ for about $1500 during a sale. We usually have it on an art print but I left it off for the photos. I like how thin it is and how it doesn’t just look like a TV.

We also bought the Lewis Sectional from Joybird for our couch. I like how deep it is – super great for lounging! I didn’t realize it was going to quite so light in the fabric we chose (not super great with a toddler, ha) but it does clean pretty easily.

Overall I’m super pleased with how our living room looks! Trust me, it doesn’t look this nice most the time. My son’s nuggets and a basket of toys are pretty much permanently in this room — but hey, that’s part of the fun right? And bonus points to you if you can spot a Santa Claus in this pic 😅

In the bottom left of this picture above we also have a rocking recliner that will eventually make it’s way upstairs to my second son’s nursery but for now it’s hanging out down here.

If I didn’t link to something you’re curious about, let me know in the comments!

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