Like many of you, I was TOTALLY skeptical of Ikea cabinets. When Ty and I got married and moved into our first home, we did the whole "furnish the entire home with IKEA" thing. We were newlyweds with student debt and an empty house. 1,307,682 pieces of wood, screws, bolts, and hours of building later, and our home was furnished. Our angst for IKEA grew months later when our furniture began to fall apart. We needed a long break from IKEA. (Insert : Taylor Swift "We-e-e are never - ever - ever getting back together...")

This is the room that sold me on the house. I pictured us living here as soon as I saw that brick fireplace that scaled two levels. Coming from a small condo, we had been longing for a space with abundant natural light. If you follow us on instagram, you may remember the whole "should we paint the fireplace black?" debate. I was for it, Ty was not so sure; he wanted to bring the existing brick back to life. A lot of you were rather passionate one way or another. My DM's were filled with emotion, and friends and family were texting me their opinions. What a hoot. While I prefer to keep things original when possible, the brick had too many peach undertones, so black paint it was. The black brick has become both Ty and I's FAVORITE part of the home. It's unexpected, bringing depth to all white space. 

This week, we've been working on our living room and den. The formal living room is called, "Hannah's living room." It has our beautiful Andes sofa, oak hardwood floors, the black fireplace, and feames chair ( faux Eames). Our home is a bilevel, so just off the main living space (kitchen/living room), is another family room 6 steps down. We refer to this room as, "Ty's living room." This space is carpeted; and adorned with a TV, and big, comfy leather sofa. It's the TV room, meant for comfort and coziness. 

Ah, the Persian rug trend. I used to find this trend VERY frustrating. I had so desperately wanted the perfect vintage rug for each room. I mean, is a kitchen even Pinterest worthy without one? I looked so hard for the right one while we lived in the condo. It didn't take long for me to realize that a vintage rug was not in the cards - I brainstormed ways to approach Ty with, "Hey babe, I found the perfect rug for the living room....it was only $3,000." Because I want to stay married to the love of my life, I bagged the whole vintage rug idea and moved on. Fast forward one year, and vintage rugs, or ateast good knock offs, are readily available if you do just a little digging.

We love coffee. You love coffee. Who doesn't actually love coffee? About 5 years ago, Hannah and I set an ambitious goal of finding the "best coffee" in the USA. As such, we've traveled to 40+ states, we've tried over 90 coffee shops. (No kidding, we counted!) but now, January 2019, we feel as if we have mutually reached an agreement on the top coffee shops in America.

This kitchen has made me a homebody. I want to spend all of my days curled up at the dining table with a cup of hot tea and my laptop. Bliss. We changed the ENTIRE layout of this kitchen. There was a wall between the dining room and kitchen (where that little 24" wall is next to the open shelves is). There were two peninsulas (one where the current one is, and one to the right of the sink). It was a small, crowded, dysfunctional U-shaped kitchen. Where the fridge is now, there was a door leading outside, with a second postage-stamp sized dining space (why?). Along with reworking the layout, we added TONS of windows. (All source links gathered at bottom of post!)