Home Tour: Emma's Living Room

Welcome to my living room! This is easily one of my favorite rooms in our house. This is where we chill out at the end of the day (usually over beers and The Daily Show). One of the first things you are bound to notice is all my living rooms walls are black. Whoa, right? It took some time before I was able to pull the trigger on that decision, believe me. I remember telling Trey my plans (he didn't live with me yet), and he wondered (as did I) if it would make everything too dark and small. Like a cave. Most people think black will make a room look smaller. And I'm sure this is true sometimes, but because of some other features I added, the room ended up feeling taller/a little bigger. And the black is a bold statement, which I love. But first let me show how things look when I bought the house.

(Click to enlarge the image.)

As you can see, the living room featured a kind of yellow/tan color throughout. I had dark wood trim, popcorn ceilings and... well... not a lot of furniture. The one feature I loved and didn't change are the wood floors (they are actually wood laminate). But everything else I slowly began to change, as my budget would allow. I had the ceiling scrapped and painted white. I was surprised by how much bigger this made the room feel.

Painting all the walls black also makes everything else in the space really pop! I painted my front door and the door that leads to my back yard orange. Orange and black. Get into it. I also LOVE how the black wall proudly showcases my gallery wall.

Due to my bookshelf (more on that in a second) my fireplace no longer felt like much of a focal point. So I added stripes.

My favorite part: the book shelf! And it has a library ladder! This fulfills all my childhood Beauty and the Beast fantasies (even if my book shelf is about 1/100th as big as Belle's). I had this shelf and ladder custom built to fit my wall. It's perfect to house all our books, a few knick knaks and our tv. I love having a tv in my living room, but it's always a challenge to find a stylish way to display it/not really display it. If that makes sense.

A few other details I love include the antler collection above my liquor cart (including my wedding guest book), my painted coffee table and side tables, fun throw pillows (I regularly change these from room to room, just to spice things up) and my vintage cowhide rug. I feel like my style is pretty eclectic and still changing quite a bit. This is my first home, and I always want to give myself the freedom to try new things and be adventurous in my choices. I believe your house should feel like you, no matter what's in style that year. :)

Thanks for stopping by! xo. Emma

Photos by: Janae Hardy

Source list: couch/Macy's, chair/Thrive Furniture, side tables, coffee table, wood basket, rug, bar cart, record player table, lamps/vintage, throw pillows/West Elm, curtains/Target, record player/UO, pendant light/Young House Love for Shades of Light, antlers/vintage Etsy. Leave a comment if you're curious about something else. :)