Do you ever wonder what my house looks like behind the pretty images you see on the blog, Pinterest or Instagram?
I get asked often online and in real life if my living room or bedroom truly is that neat and organized??
No Make Up Home Tour
I am so excited to participate in the fabulous No Make Up Home Tour this year led by the fiercely talented and funny House of Hipsters Kyla Herbes.
If you are not familiar with this annual blog tour, Kyla spear headed the amazing idea to showcase incredible bloggers’ homes in real life mode proving that we all really are imperfect one way or another!
Want to see what my home truly looks like every day when the camera isn’t on? Let’s take a tour!
Family Room+Kitchen
I live in the land of master planned communities. So the combo living space layout abound in these types of homes.
However the square footage does not.
Our kitchen, barely there eating space and family room is squished all into one long rectangle.
The faux marble contact paper kitchen countertops DIY has held up nicely though! So that’s definitely a win! And that’s worth noting in today’s tour. It looks pretty in pictures and in reality has been quite durable. If you want a budget friendly way to update your kitchen countertops, take a look here!
I can hear you asking me already, ok seriously, does your home look even remotely like this during the morning rush to school or after a long busy Saturday full of kids’ activities?
NOPE. More often than not, this is what you will see!
This is a typical Monday morning after the kids have just left for school. Weekend mess not cleaned up yet, breakfast leftovers on the table. Look familiar?
Dining Room+Living Room
Next we move onto the living room and dining room space. For 10 years, I struggled with a couple of major design challenges. First was how dark my dining space was. The whole area had one set of windows on the left side. At least the living room had two windows from opposite angles to provide ample light.
So I painted it white and updated the furniture to my favorite Scandinavian minimalist style. This definitely seems to change the aesthetic vibe and transformed the space to what I love today!
The tricky part was where to draw the boundary between the two spaces. So I hid the paint lines behind the drapery. Â Tricky huh? No one ever has to know your DIY design secrets! Well, you know mine but this is one I gladly share!
On a every day basis, the dining room table is the first thing we see entering in from the garage, so what do you think happens?
Everything gets dumped onto the table the minute the kids arrive home.
Being the patient mom I am, I first, yell *errr** excuse me, firmly tell the kids to put away their shoes, jackets and backpacks.
Mind you I have hooks and baskets and shoe bins galore! Unfortunately there is still a significant amount of cluttered crap left.
I have been trying to take 10 min every night before bed and do a quick clean up. I am dead tired but I Â thank myself the next morning.
Obviously last night I did not do a quick clean up. Ouf! Stressed just looking at this! Do you get that way looking at clutter?
Bowling Alley Effect
The living room was my second challenge. Because it is one long rectangle space (even narrower and longer than the kitchen/family room) I wanted to avoid the bowling alley effect. You know where you line up furniture along the walls and it just looks like a long bowling alley of furniture with nothing in the middle. Ughs. The worst.
However putting the sofa in the middle of the space as the focal point has worked well.
Ready to see what it looks like right this minute?
Surprised much?
If you have been following me on Instagram, you know that I recently refreshed my family room. Selling the old sectional meant no seating so I swapped the gray West Elm sofa. Naturally, this room is stripped and in need of a refresh now. The Home Shuffle never ends, I swear!
Come back soon and see what I have up my sleeve next. I promise not to disappoint!
Entry way
Our entry way surprisingly is used very often and I love the fact that I can change up art work in a snap too! Having a seat for guests to change their shoes is important for our family. We take our shoes off the instant we enter the home, so this is an integral spot for us.
Bedrooms
Recently we did a major aesthetic transformation in our master bedroom. What used to be bright happy bohemian turned  into a Scandinavian minimalist vibe. My husband and I wanted a tranquil spa like environment to unwind each night.
Did you think for a second we would escape toys and clean laundry piles just begging to be put away from a week ago? Mmmmhm.
I am the champion of getting laundry done but folding them and putting them away??? That is another story my friend.
If you can analyze why that is for me and how you can motivate me to stop this madness, I would greatly appreciate it.
Girls Shared Bedroom
Image Credit: Marise Vitale Photography
As much as I clean in here, the word futile is constantly ringing in my ears. These two girls have SO. MUCH. FUN.
They are queens of imaginary play. But with that comes half completed arts and crafts, play set ups that I am firmly instructed never to touch, and stuffed animals strewn about everywhere!!
Last but not least, the guest room that I fondly call the Desert Room.
This is where my family from the PNW comes to stay with us on their bi-annual visits.
But also where Travis has chosen to work because he can close the door and not listen to me work and talk on the phone or blast music while I shoot interior shots for the blog and IG.
Never thought he worked there? Yeah, there he is. All.the.time.
Shower Lady
The girls picked out this shower curtain from Target and it has been so fun to have her around!
She witnesses all the bath time karaoke tunes and shenanigans. And messes of course.
Authentic Home Tour
I hope you enjoyed taking a authentic look at what my home looks like on a day to day basis.
I believe showing you design inspiration through beautiful imagery does not mean it is inauthentic. We all want to see pretty things in homes to get that positive feeling and feel motivated to replicate something similar in your home. After all that is what inspiration is all about!
However, using this No Make Up Home tour makes me really excited to show you our every day life is just the same any other family.
I am the first one to to share we are not a perfect family. I am not a perfect designer, mom, wife, friend, daughter, sister.
But I am always striving to be real and honest with the moment I am living in and with whom I am with. That I treasure, especially when it is with you!
There is so much more artistic and authentic homes to be seen by my fantastic blogger friends below. Please go check them out with me! I am truly excited to see what they have to show us!
Girl, I love your home! So bright and welcoming. And, the DIY countertops… what a great hack until you can get the real deal.
Gaw!!!! I hate putting laundry away too! It’s the absolute worst chore on the planet! I also love that your house looks just like mine…toys, dress up clothes and randomness all over the place LOL.
A way that I try to keep myself motivated to put my laundry away is that I fold it as I take it out of the dryer. This makes it less annoying to put away because half of the job is already done.
I feel like you have it together! Ha! Yours is wayyy better in real life than my crazy house. I’m obsessed with all of your vintage rugs… so so pretty!
Loved this SOOOOO much!! Thank you for showing us your actual mess! Now I don’t feel so alone in the world 🙂 Ha!
Thank you so much for sharing this! It made me chuckle. I really appreciate transparency like this. The best homes are the ones that are really lived in. Your home is beautiful, even when the photos aren’t Instagram-ready 🙂
No matter how you show up you home looks just amazing! I love your style.
Thank you so much Lilly! That means a lot to me!
Hi there, may I ask where you buy all your rugs. They are beautiful and definitely help make the room spectacular. Thanks for sharing your home.
Hi Miriam! I buy them via Etsy, local wholesale rug warehouse, and bigger brands like Rejuvenation. If you follow me on the Liketoknow.it app or under each blog post I usually give shop the look pics, you can click on it too. There you will find many of my home accents and furniture. I hope this helps!