So after we moved everything out of the living room to renovate, I’ve been very intentional about what goes back into it. I’m having trouble putting some of my old decor back up because I’m just not in love with all of it. (Also, please ignore the Grand Canyon up along the ceiling/upper walls. We will be covering it with crown or cove molding as soon as I can make up my mind as to which I want). I hate, hate, HATE the idea of putting holes in my walls to hang decor only to wind up moving it in a few months… am I the only one? ????‍♀️ After taking down all of our Christmas decor (and yes, even most of my winter decor, after a serious purge), this place feels like a total ghost town. It’s got me itching to fill the holes in my living room (and my heart ????) where our two Christmas trees were.

Planning decor to go around our fireplace has been a little trickier than I thought. I want to fill some of the dead space without competing with the fireplace for attention- it’s tricky to find the sweet spot. I know built-ins are really popular around fireplaces right now, but I’m not totally crazy about them, and I could just see wanting to tear them out or otherwise tweak them in 5-10 years. Plus, it would be a little awkward next to our railing on the right side.

Anyway, this is where I’m at so far. On the left side of the fireplace, I’m thinking of building a blanket ladder to the corner, adding a large basket for pillows, and then hanging 1 large or 2 large-ish signs or prints on the wall. I think I’m pretty comfortable with that arrangement because it’s similar to what was there before we demoed everything.

I’m having trouble with the right side, though. The current make-shift firewood/blanket holder will probably go back outside ???? (just making due with what we’ve got). At first I was thinking of building a bookshelf, but I don’t want anything so large that would compete with the fireplace as a focal point. I’m considering an accent chair with a side table and a beautiful floor lamp behind it (think cozy reading nook). Perhaps a large clock on the wall? My other thought is to find a small flea market side table with the decor that I would’ve loved to put on my mantle, but would interfere with my television.

Using the Procreate app on my iPad Pro, I sketched out a couple of ideas. What do you think?

I am a little concerned that my hypothetical chair would compete with the fireplace for attention, so I know I would need to make sure it is on the smaller side and not go too crazy with the pattern (which should be easy for me, Neutral Nelly).

I fell in love with a beautiful antique console (complete with radio, cassette player, and record player), but Nate was pretty quick to veto that- and it’s probably okay. As much as I would love to have a record player, and especially a record player in a beautiful console, it would probably be too big for the space.

I keep telling myself that I’ll know it when I see it, but after removing the Christmas tree, I’m really getting the itch to add some more warmth to this room. What do you think? How would you fill these spaces?