Before we get started on the details, let’s start with a back story of how we got here.

If you’ve been with me for a minute, you know how much of a struggle it has been to decorate my home (hint: Robert aka the Home Decor Wrecker). I use to waste all my time fixing his many decorating fails, but he’s been checked since and now I can finally get to work because to be honest, I have not felt connected to my home for a minute.

It started when we replaced the seating in the living room about 2 years ago. I was all excited at first since it would allow me to do what I do, but Robert took it upon himself to buy a new sofa set without consulting me. Let’s just say that it was far from cute and for specifics sake, it was that hideous movie theater bulky brown sofa set (no shade if you have these at home, but for me it was a huge hell no). I felt so defeated because I really had this beautiful vision in my head of how I wanted my living room to look and feel.

Fast forward about a year and we got a pitbull aka my fifth child, Taz who til this day hasn’t moved past the teething phase (he’s almost 1 1/2 years old) and decided the ottoman was his chew toy. I must admit that I acted like I cared, but deep down inside I was so happy because this meant that the Universe was answering my prayers of a living room makeover through Taz! lol

Slowly, Robert’s seating was deteriorating (me still overjoyed inside) and then Sereena, my oldest called to tell me a good friend of her’s was getting rid of his sectional and wanted to know if I wanted it. Of course, my first questions were what are the measurements and is there a pic because I had to make sure it would work in the space. All worked out and we brought it home. It’s not my dream sectional, but it’s way better than the bulky movie theater set so I’m so grateful for it and have named it my place holder sectional.

I will say this, that my new vision for the space was to create a brand new furniture layout since the one we’ve had for years just wasn’t working anymore and this new piece allowed for that to finally happen (it was too big for the wall where we had our original sectional). I don’t have before pics of Robert’s furniture by the way (I don’t want actual memories of the old furniture you know?), but I did take pics of the space as is now with the place holder sectional, which I have to deep clean as well.

I always say that a decorating project starts by going within. That means figuring out how you want to feel in your space aka the mood/vibe you want to feel when you’re spending time in your new room and of course how you want to use your space while keeping in mind others that will be using the space along with you like kids, pets, etc. Answers to these questions will lead you to make the right decorating decisions such as colors, materials, fabrics, furniture/accessories, and even your design style.

So here’s my vision. Keep in mind that in my head I’m considering as much as I can, my dream furniture in the space too while allowing for this place holder piece to feel part of the family.

I want to feel cozy, relaxed yet vibrant in my living room for sure. I do also want to point out that my design style has changed over the years into a more modern, bohemian, and vintage style. Look change is inevitable and that includes our spaces since they are meant to evolve as we evolve and your girl has evolved (IYKYK).

You guys know that I LOVE LOVE LOVE colorful spaces so for sure there will be color. I also want to infuse me and my family’s style, personality and of course culture into the space so that will happen through many ways including the artwork, which btw Elijah, my son doesn’t know this yet, but he will be painting a canvas for one of the walls.

Some of the issues I’m working through is that the natural lighting in my home isn’t the best so keeping this in mind will be key when selecting new lighting and will add to the vibrant feel that I want to incorporate in the space.

I knew for sure that I wanted wallpaper in the space and it took me a minute to find something colorful and vibrant that I loved since I wanted a new spin on what I’ve been seeing out there. Most of the wallpapers with patterns that spoke to me, were very muted so they were all a hard pass and I knew for sure that I didn’t want anything boho modern themed with abstract shapes since that is being overdone in these decorating streets nowadays. I want this space to feel and look unique since I’m unique. I didn’t want it to look like anything on Pinterest or IG.

So I finally found a wallpaper that I’m in love with and I’ll share it with you in a minute. It will be the spring board for every new piece in the room including the paint color so here are the additions/changes that will be happening:

media cabinet finally! (I’m thinking of refinishing a piece I have in the living room…we’ll see though)
coffee table & centerpiece (I’m excited about this one since we’ve never had one because the kids love to wrestle so now that they’re getting older this isn’t too much of an issue anymore)
new artwork (I definitely want Elijah to create a piece for the space along with finding others online)
of course new paint color
new lighting
area rug (I have something in mind that might be able work with all of Taz’s shedding and dirt that he brings in from the backyard. I swear he might be part poodle bc the shedding is insane).
throw pillow covers for the existing pillows that are not at all cute + new throw pillows
accessories
new curtains
new curtain rods + finials
new side table
bookcase is going
round wall art is going
mirror might also go
Taz’s side chair is going he just doesn’t know it yet lol!
I also want to repaint the hallways in the house, but we’ll see how I feel once the living room is complete (I’m 90% sure they’ll be repainted since the black and white current situation just isn’t doing it for me anymore)
New lighting, art, and shoe storage for the hallways as well
I also want to remove this weird corner wall that’s part of the living room, but is also part of the foyer to open up the space. Now this is a 1 foot x 1 foot corner wall that never made any sense in the space. Removing it will make the space feel bigger and feel lighter.

I’ve done a rough sketch of the space including the sectional. Don’t mind my attempts of drawing a straight line. We’re not striving for perfection here, just for accuracy of the measurements.

Now let’s talk real quick about why I took additional measurements of the sectional and not just your typical length, depth and height measurements.

Remember how I mentioned that I wanted to add a coffee table to this room? Well these additional measurements will let me know the right size coffee table that will not only fit, but will allow us to sit comfortably on the sofa since all of us in the family are pretty tall or will be one day. Comfort is key. The measurements will also tell me the right scale of the coffee table too and what I mean by scale is the ratio of coffee table to sectional. Now this sectional is big so I have to make sure that what I select won’t be too small and get swallowed up by the size of the sectional making the room look unbalanced while also not being too big where it doesn’t allow for comfort while sitting down. The last thing I want is to have to squeeze in between the sectional and coffee table and have my knees touch the coffee table once I’m sitting and trying to watch TV…not a good look or feel.

Well before I go, I did want to share the wallpaper for the wall that houses the TV. Like I said earlier, I wanted something out of the box yet true to our culture and style and this does it for me. If you don’t know, I’m half Guatemalan, half Dominican and Robert is Black so this is a true representation of our culture.

Peel and stick wallpaper and paint colors I’m considering for the room.

This wall measures 110” and is 96” tall so I’ll need 5 rolls of wallpaper in the canvas texture to cover this entire wall and that will add up to about $400.

This wallpaper is peel and stick by choice because I just don’t have the patience to work with glue or hang traditional wallpaper. I ordered samples of three textures: smooth, canvas and fabric since I wanted to see how the colors show up in each texture and I’m glad I did because what a difference texture makes when it comes to wallpaper! Paying attention to detail is key when decorating since believe it or not, wallpaper texture is important especially if your walls are not the smoothest and it effects the richness of the colors on the paper.

Smooth wallpaper works best on smooth walls and the smoothness of the paper allows for the colors to appear super vibrant and shiny (not a look I want). The Canvas texture is just that, the texture of a canvas, which allows for better application on slightly imperfect walls while allowing for the colors to pop without them being in your face and Fabric texture is heavy making the colors a bit richer than the other material (this one also works with slightly imperfect walls).

Now you may not be shocked that it’s tropical, but let’s break it down real quick why this wallpaper mad the cut. One thing that I’m being really intentional about in this space is that I want to bring the 7 popular chakras (root, sacral, solar, heart, throat, 3rd eye and crown) into this room through colors and elements and this wallpaper does just that. If you’re not familiar with the chakras, they are energy centers in our bodies - more on this later, but if you’re curious now, check out my girl Ada’s, Healing Through The Chakras program here.

Back to the wallpaper. These colors are vibrant without being neon and in person it’s even more stunning so I cannot wait to see it up on the wall.

Now to create a furniture layout so stay tuned for part 2.

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How I'm Transforming My Living Room To Match My Vibe Part 1