My Home Style Before and After: Modern Boho Country Living Room

Did you know that it’s totally OK for your home decor style (and skill level!) to slowly evolve over time? I think everyone’s does as they grow and change. My home decor style has certainly evolved over the last few years as we’ve settled into the new home that we built and I’ve become better at sorting out what works for my family and for me. Today, I’m sharing with you the key elements of my “modern boho country” living room style, how it’s evolved, and how you too can sort out what your decor style is too!

I’m very excited to be a part of the My Home Style: Before and After Edition home tour hop this week hosted by Casa Watkins. Make sure to visit the links at the bottom of this post to see all of the other home decor & DIY bloggers taking part in this series. There’s a style for everyone, and you might just be inspired!

If you’re new here, welcome to The DIY Mommy! Here I share how to make things for baby, for mommy and for home. In 2013, we embarked on our biggest DIY journey ever – building a home by ourselves on an acreage in rural Alberta. That project inspired my love for home decor and the rest is history. You can read more about me and my blog right here. Thanks for popping over!

I believe in slow decorating. That is, I don’t think that a person has to decorate their home perfectly from top to bottom as soon as they move in. I think decorating each room slowly over a period of time makes the decor more intentional and more meaningful. This is also a great method if you’re on a budget – start with the very basics and layer on those elements as you can afford them… or know what they are.

Take our living room as an example of slow decorating. Here it is a few months after we moved into Our DIY House:

We couldn’t afford any new furniture, so I simply used what I had. The only new item was this beautiful gray & ivory lattice wool rug that grounded the space so nicely. I was already over the colour brown at this point, but I think I managed to spice up our old furniture in a fun way with colourful handmade accessories like the crochet throw and the DIY pillows.

When we built our home, I knew that I loved the “vintage industrial farmhouse style” so a lot of the bones (like the paint, cupboards, flooring) of our home have that feel and a very industrial modern black, white and gray colour palette. I also love colour and feminine elements in decor like ruffles and lace, so later I realized the style of our home was leaning more towards vintage modern than vintage industrial. As much as I like rough metals, weather worn items and the history that the industrial style brings, I love the colour and shapes that modern brings even more!

I didn’t realize this until we had lived in our home for about 2 years. I think a personal really has to just LIVE in their space for a while to see how they use each room, and what they and their family members could really use in each space. It also took us a couple of years simply to save up enough cash to afford the pieces that we really wanted to make our house work well for us.

Here’s how our living room looked in 2015:

Here’s how our living room looked early this year:

The deep charcoal leather sofas were both modern and practical for our living room filled with children and the messes of country life. We still adore this rug, and I’ve found some simple drapes to dress the windows. A DIY rustic clock gives the space a nice vintage farmhouse feel, and some other little DIYs (like updated the coffee table and making custom throw pillow covers) complete the look.

We loved this look, however we decided to move our TV down to the basement a couple of weeks ago. We completely changed the furniture arrangement in our living room so that the fireplace was the focal point.

Here’s how our living room looks now:

This comfy but stylish Paris sectional from The Brick is large enough to fit our entire family of 5 and more, and it’s the perfect neutral colour to use a base for lots of colourful accessories. The linen fabric is easy to wash so far, and it’s dark enough that it hides dirt. Now, our fireplace is the beautiful focal point of the room, and the seating arrangement is more conducive to talking and playing together. This Cranfill Coffee table from The Brick helps ground the space because of its deep wood tone, and it echoes the rustic feel of the fireplace and the circular shape of my DIY clock on the mantel. This vintage industrial styled coffee table can also be raised  to dining height to make the perfect spot for an afternoon tea party or a card game!

I’ve added really subtle Fall accents for the season with some Limelight hydrangeas from our yard (dried for the mantel and fresh for the coffee table), DIY pillow covers in soft grey plaid, a blanket scarf used as a throw, and some faux pumpkins. These definitely aren’t your traditional Fall colours, but I sure love them!

How do I recommend YOU find your home decor style? Browse through Pinterest. Pin all of the room images that strike you. After that, look for similar elements in all of the photos you’ve saved. Do you see lots of farmhouse inspired things like barn wood accents, antiques, and natural elements? Do you see lots of modern items like sleek lines in furniture, polished metal accents and bold colours? Are you led to mid-century modern decor with simple lines, bold art and geometric pattern? Try to find repetition in the photos you love and make a note on what sorts of things move you. Next, decide if and how that style will work for you and your family on a practical level. While I love vintage things, it’s not practical for me to decorate our home from top to bottom in valuable antiques because we have three young daughters. That’s why a bit of a mix can be a great idea – you can pull elements from one style that work for you, and then some from another that also work!

I hope that helps you find and develop your own style too. If you like my modern country boho living room, here are some key elements that you can use in your own home to emulate the style:

Nearly Natural Fiddle Leaf Fig Tree | Taza Area Rug (similar to mine; darker) | Large Wooden Wall Clock (similar to mine) | Teal Mongolian Sheepskin Pillow (similar to mine) | Cranfill Coffee Table | Paris Sectional in Stone

Now it’s time to visit some of my favourite bloggers and see their before & after style! I’m sure you’ll be inspired:

MONDAY

Casa Watkins Living

Polished Habitat

Lovely Etc.

Blue i Style

Organized Nashville

TUESDAY

Roots North and South

My Life From Home

Monica Wants It

The Striped House

WEDNESDAY

Pocketful of Posies

Up To Date Interiors

Copper Dot Interiors

Swoonworthy

PMQ for Two

THURSDAY

The DIY Mommy

Boxy Colonial

The Happy Housie

Domicile 37

Willow Street Interiors

FRIDAY

Cassie Bustamante

House Full Of Sunshine

Farmhouse 40

Iris Nacole

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by The Brick. As always, all of the ideas and opinions here are my own. I only recommend companies that I use and love myself. This post also contains affiliate links. Thanks for supporting The DIY Mommy!