I favor a slow approach to decorating, taking the time to find the perfect pieces and making little changes so a room grows along with me, reflecting my changing style. I recently made a small change to the living but it's the kind of change that suddenly makes everything "click". I thought this would be a good time for a quick look back at the living room, to see how it has shaped up in 19 months - and what it looks like now, with the new additions!
Although we sold a lot of things right before we moved to the lakehouse, we kept most of our old furniture for the living room. Although things were moved around a little, the cream leather sofa, teal velvet chair, minty mingo chair, black organic chair, Ikea wall unit and even our brown ottoman (although that's on the chopping block) all made the move with us.
When we first set up our furniture, the living room looked a little bland, but it was already more our style because we had painted the walls and trim white and the fireplace a deep charcoal grey. It looked quite different from when we first viewed the property:
When I spotted some Marimekko Kirsikka fabric on sale, I scooped it up and coerced my Mom into sewing four bold pillows to liven up the neutral sofa:
I liked how the Kirsikka pattern looked with the spherical glass shades of the big chrome lamp we had at the time. Suddenly the room had more life - pillows made all the difference!
When I stole my Mom's 1960s blue Lotte lamps, I was surprised by how much I liked the blue. I hadn't planned on adding blue, so the pillows - with their aqua, green, black and white palette - weren't perfect anymore, but I loved them too much to part with them. Plus, no way was my Mom going to whip up four new ones!
When I switched around some furniture, moving our black organic chair and replacing it with the mint mingo from the bedroom, the living room started to boast a riot of patterns and colours, but I still liked the pillows. I especially liked how the swirls of the Kirsikka complemented the swirls of the upholstery on the mingo chair.
Because the same shade of blue from the Lotte lamps pops up in the both the living room and dining room art, I was confident that the new tweed dining chairs I found would suit our open concept living space quite nicely - providing a visual break from my love affair with aqua, without introducing yet another colour.
With the addition of more blue, though, it was time to introduce a textile that would play nice. That's right - I finally conceded that the old pillows weren't right:
FinnStyle (one of my favorite shops, long before the days of sponsored posts) recently reached out and offered to help spruce up a room. I immediately started perusing their inventory of Marimekko pillows and fabric. Have you checked out their selection? SO many gorgeous prints and if you shop in store there's a great remnant section too.
I found the perfect fabric right away: Marimekko's Lumimarja, which comes in different colourways, including one with two shades of leafy green and one with nearly the exact same blue as my Lotte lamps and dining chairs (called "white/green" and "grey/blue," respectively). FinnStyle generously sent me two of each and they're perfect for the living room:
They add just enough colour and interest without competing with any of the bolder elements in the space. They tie in the blues and greens, as well as the warm teak and walnut wood tones, and complement our cream leather sofa beautifully. Plus they boast a beautiful, organic print that I think pairs just as well with the Mingo chair as the Kirsikka fabric did. The rooms feels lighter and airier and I'm so amazed what a difference just swapping out four throw cushions can make!
After mixing throw cushion patterns in the townhouse, I went for a bold set of four identical cushions when we moved to the lakehouse because I liked the graphic quality. But now I'm inching back toward pattern mixing and the Lumimarja is a great way to subtly achieve that look because the prints are the same scale, but the colours vary - making mixing effortless!
Thanks to FinnStyle for providing the Lumimarja pillows for this living room spruce. I was provided the product, but not paid or prompted to provide a positive review - this is the best kind of collaboration, because you already know that I'm a huge fan!
