The Adored Abode

If you are new to the blog, welcome! I am a CPA by day and started this blog as a way to pursue my passion of design, renovation, and all things home. We bought our house two years ago and are slowly renovating it room by room.

It’s reveal day!! Week 6 of the One Room Challenge is finally here. If you missed the first week you can catch up on it here, the second week here, the third week here, the fourth week here, and the fifth week here.

We have been working hard transforming our den that was simply an empty room (that we used as a glorified storage closet) with an outdated fireplace into a space where we love to be and that is relaxing and cozy. Currently the room is being used as my “office” as a write this blog post.

This room is now my favorite room in our entire house and it’s the smallest room in our house coming in at 10’x12′. This room just feels like us. The feeling I get when I walk into this room is the feeling I want to have in every single room in our house – and I am going to use this space as inspiration for many rooms to come! Our kitchen and laundry are close to evoking this feeling (we redid our laundry room as part of the One Room Challenge last fall and you can check it out here) but there are a few lingering things in our kitchen that we need to finish before I really love the space.

On to the most important part… revealing the den! All sources are at the bottom of the post. 

This is the view you see when you walk in the doorway (there is no door to the room – it is accessed through a doorway directly to the right when you walk in our front door). Ahhh. Those big cozy white chairs. They are perfect for this space. I originally planned to put a credenza with a picture ledge above it for artwork on this wall, but after seeing everything come together it felt like to much, so I opted for a simple gallery wall instead. The gallery wall displays some of our favorite art; a DIY dot painting, a photograph we took in Yosemite National Park, a print of Aspens, and a framed newspaper print from when the KC Royals won the World Series in 2015. Nathan is a die-hard Royals fan and this was something i gave to him for Christmas 2 years ago – he loves it – plus it’s a cool way to display sports memorabilia without being to sports-y because that is just not really my jam.

The big green ottoman was my jumping off point for this whole space. I was really drawn to dark, moody colors to create a cozy vibe. I chose to layer tone on tone with different textures to create additional depth to the space.  The arc lamp was something I had originally purchased for the living room and it lived in there for a while, but as I was pulling this room together I realized the lamp was perfect for behind one of the chairs to add some height to this side of the room without being too busy.

The fireplace mantle was once wood with an orange tile surround. We leveled off the floor portion of the fireplace with our existing hardwoods and painted the mantle and tile the same color for a more modern look, on a DIY budget! I will share a blog post soon with all the details on how we made over the fireplace, for free to boot!

The mirror above the fireplace was actually my very, very first DIY, long before this blog was even a figment of my imagination. It’s still around so you know it was a good DIY!

That beauty of a bookshelf was built by my dad a few years ago for us and I am so happy to have found the perfect spot for it in our house. It holds a combination of books we love, art that is meaningful to us, and thrifted finds. If you look closely there is more sports memorabilia – a soccer print on the top shelf – two sports pieces in one room might be a record for me! It goes to show that you can use sports items throughout your home in a way that is meaningful and classic at the same time, without being overbearing (if certain individuals in your house don’t care for sports as much others do, ahem, like myself).

This right here is my favorite view of the whole room because it means I am using the room the way I intended it to be used… siting in one of the big comfy chairs and relaxing (or maybe blogging, which is enjoyable too).

That about wraps it up! I hope you enjoyed the reveal of the den as much as I did.

Be sure to check out all of the other participants for some amazing inspiration!!

Chairs – here

Rug – here

Ottoman – All Modern

Smaller frames – HomeGoods

Large frame – Ikea

Lamp – All Modern

Task table – World Market

Mirror – Pottery Barn (mine is a DIY version)

Floor cushions – Urban Outfitters

Bookshelf – made by my Dad 🙂