Welcome To Our New Home - Entryway, Foyer and Great Room Tour

Months ago, when we first began the home buying process, I never once imagined that this was what our new home would look like. As if putting our house on the market wasn't stressful enough, I feel like my husband and I changed plans for our new home on the daily. One minute we would be looking at older homes nearer to the boys' school and my husband's office and the next minute we were out in the "country" looking at new construction and meeting with builders to get an idea of delivery deadlines and custom options. Just when I thought I'd found a house I could see our family growing old(er) in, the sale would become complicated with issues beyond our control and I would walk away feeling defeated once again. 
As life would have it, the house we ended up buying was never on our radar. In fact, it was in a new construction neighborhood where we found ourselves seriously considering a spec home. The minute we drove by it on our way to the spec house, however, I said something to my husband along the lines of, "well, we can finish the search now. I think we found our house!" 
And yes, this was without having even seen the inside of it. Those who know me wouldn't be surprised at all..
Never could I ever have imagined that this would be what our home would look like. After all, I had spent countless hours pinning white kitchens, two-story great rooms and lavish entryways. Everything I imagined our new house would be looked like every other house I'd seen in the after's on Fixer Upper or in the design feeds on my social media accounts. In reality, our house looks nothing like those images and I couldn't love it more. 
We've been in the house for just under three months now and I hesitated to write this post, to share pictures even, because as with most things in my life, it's still quite a work in progress. Every room is about 75% finished and while I'm impatient and dying to finish them all, I find (some) solace knowing that I have years (and years) to get it all right.
Welcome to our new home...

Here is the view if you were to walk inside from our front doors.
We never use this as our primary entry into the house- it's much easier to contain that kind of chaos to our mudroom off of the garage. However, there were two aspects of this house that I immediately fell in love with when we walked inside. The first was these stunning arches that welcomed you into the foyer- the second was the lack of staircase immediately upon entering the home. I really love that our staircase is tucked back towards the right side of our home beyond a guest bedroom and full bathroom. It really opens up this space and allows your eye to travel beyond just the foyer of the house.

Here's a close up of the family room. I wanted to maximize seating in this space without using a sectional sofa. My goal is to one day have two of those navy couches in this space but it's just not quite high enough on the priority list. I've already fallen out of love with that coffee table and would love to add a round one to the space.
Home decor is just so fickle- or is it just me? Source Links: Table Pouf Rug 
  

That nail head trim is what initially drew me to this couch. While I originally envisioned a set of white slip-covered sofas for this space, I really like the unique/coastal navy vibe. Source Links: Sofa Rug

I really struggled with how to decorate our entryway. Without walls, I wasn't able to really make this a space of it's own. I had pinned so many images of console tables, hanging mirrors and framed art that it really threw me for a loop when our home boasted no available space for such decor. In the mean time, I'll let the focus remain on the beautiful natural light that pours into this space, the arched doorways and one of my favorite jute rugs.

This rug combines two of my favorite features- jute and tassels. While we rarely use our front door as the primary entrance into our home, I knew I needed a hefty, hearty rug for all of the heavy foot traffic we'd be seeing in the first few months of living in the house. Between welcoming friends and family into our home, it's also seen its fair share of visits from servicemen such as electricians, the cable company, heating and cooling as well as plumbing. RugsUSA has always been my number one shopping destination for rugs and this time was no  different!

Cross-over to the right side of the house beyond the sitting room, (pictured later) and you'll find the main staircase that leads to both the basement and second floor of the house. Tucked back in this corner is a full bathroom with walk in shower (the only bathroom on the main level) as well as a large closet (where I store my vacuum, mops, etc) and guest bedroom. While we initially thought we would utilize this space as a home office, we ended up finishing it off as a guest bedroom for my parents when they come to stay. I love giving guests the option of having their own space away from the rest of us upstairs. It's a nice little retreat from the loud, wild calamity that is our normal.
Source Links: Silhouettes

  

This is one of my favorite vignette-type spaces of the house. It came together seamlessly and I ended up utilizing decor pieces that I had in various places in our old house. While I struggled with making some of our previous furniture pieces work in the new (and very different) space, I was so happy to see this come together the way that it did.
(The console table is no longer available at Target. The basket, throws, mirror and candlesticks were all purchased from HomeGoods. The floral decor is from T.J.Maxx and the wood accent piece is also an older Target purchase).

Here's a view of the sitting room off to the right of the entryway. This also happens to be one of Sullivan's favorite places to park himself. Naturally I didn't have the heart to make the ol'  boy move!
Source Links: Accent Credenza, Ottoman, Rug

If there is one thing that I'm not a huge fan of in this house, it's the TV placement above the fireplace. While I swore up and down that I wouldn't make the TV the visual focal point of the space, the way the room is designed left us with no other option. While I tried to convince my husband to hang the TV in the morning room off of the kitchen, I knew that wasn't realistic. The TV in this space has grown on me and while I still can't quite get the hang of staging the built-ins on either side of the fireplace, their placement helps to somewhat offset the visual distraction of the enormous flat screen. 😐 Why I didn't pull back far enough to grab a shot of the room in it's entirety is beyond me- the truth is I was rushing to get it photographed before the boys returned home from church! (Real life, right?)

Source Links: Console Table

This whole process has been a huge exercise in patience, something I've always lacked. While I'm so eager to get it all done, I have to stop and remind myself how hard we worked to get here and how incredibly happy I am to have this beautiful home to share with my family. It will all get done eventually and what's missing is really just stuff. I've already got everything I could ever need in the form of family and friends to fill these walls with laughter, love and memories and I've got a lifetime ahead of me to do so. That's pretty freaking great, if you ask me (and better than any chaise lounge or credenza that I've been pining over).

Sharing our new space with you is a great motivator to not only clean and keep it clean-ish (the struggle is real!) but also to focus on finishing the rooms that we spend the most of our time in. My goal is to open up our new home and share even more of it with you in the coming weeks/months. I'm currently working on finding the perfect kitchen table and chairs for our morning room (yes, that's a hint!), as well as the right art work to hang in the dining room which is the other room opposite the front sitting room.

I'd love to hear from you, however! What would you like to see next? While most of the rooms aren't 100% finished, there's our master bedroom, the homework nook, the big boys shared bunk room, Collins' bold and bright bedroom, as well as the mudroom, upstairs laundry room, playroom, guest bedroom(s), and bar area. I'd love to hear what YOU want to see- it will help give me some guidance as to where to focus my energy on and to really focus on finishing one room as opposed to continually being swept up in trying to get it all done! 

Thanks for stopping by our new home tour!

I received the jute entryway rug from RugsUSA for free in exchange for sharing it in this post. No additional compensation was given and all opinions expressed above are honest and my own.