We've been in our house two years this month.  That comes with a whole lot of feelings that I'll save for another post (I've never lived anywhere more than two years since I was 17).  I know many of you have asked me to share a our home in it's current state.  That's hard to do because so many treat anything that's not a clear before as a solid after.  Our home is so personal and it's an evolution (which I love!) but I feel like every room comes with a long list of what I wish we could do and what we need to do.  And that list changes.

Yesterday I shared our den (the old dining room) and today I've got our formal living and dining room for you.  Sometimes I love our all white linen curtains and sometimes I think they need trim.  Sometimes I want to wait until we have something properly sized to go above our sofa and sometimes I feel like I just want to hang a print that I love and not really analyze if it's perfect. 


In the image below you can get a feel for the flow of the house.  The opening to the left is original to the home and leads immediately to the front hall (front door on the right), and past that the navy room, our old dining room that we have started transforming into a den/library, and past that the kitchen.  The opening on the left side of the navy sofa is the new pass through my husband around New Years this year and connects to our family room.  That wall is where the old built-ins were located that have since been re-built in the navy room.  The sofa you see below faces the fireplace.


If you are standing in the family room you can now look directly into the back of our living room which we have set up as our formal dining room.  I split the room in to two spaces.  The living room sitting area in front of the fireplace and the dining room behind that in the back.  It's working perfectly for us right now.


You can see the connection to the family room better in the last photo below.  This has helped immensely with the openness and flow of our home.  It's incredible when we entertain and it's really awesome when it's just me and the kids at home.  The playroom is on the other side of the fireplace wall/buffet wall so it's created a direct line for the kids.  I love that.  I would love to knock out those double windows and replace them with french doors leading to the backyard.  We'll see.


Anyway, this is our formal living room/dining room as it looks today!  I'll be posting more pictures of our work in progress home over the next few weeks.  It is fun to see how it's changed as we've lived here longer.

Walls are painted Classic Gray by Benjamin Moore