[ This post is text-heavy but, IMO, #worthit ]
[ And there’s a hefty discount for you if you make it till the end ]

I’ll admit something on this fine Tuesday.

I feel some serious shame about being a lifestyle blogger who has such a minimal clue about home design and interior decorating.

From what I’ve gathered, here’s the problem:: I approach it the same way I approach fashion. I grow attached to pieces I like, whether or not they pair well together. Enough of the time, I can make this habit work when it comes to dressing myself. But I’ve turned our condo into a bit of a mismatched–excuuuse my French–clusterf*ck over the last year and some.

We can blame part of this on the fact that my husband and I were combining many pieces from our respective bachelor/ette pads. Throw in a rushed trip to Ikea to fill in the missing gaps, and our mismatched living room had been downright stressing me out. Negative chi, I think they say.

SO. We finally took the plunge and hit up Havenly:: an online interior decorating service that gives your room(s) a professionally designed makeover for one flat fee. And while it’s all done virtually, you’re not working with a robot. You’re hooked up with a designer, and the process continues from there as it would if you had hired an in-person decorator. We chose from their list of designers based on the portfolio we were most drawn to [heyyy Chelsea!], sent her photos of the room in its current state [ew], made a list of requests [this is what we want; this is what we don’t want; these are things we want to keep vs. trash], and then she mocked up some concepts, designs, and a shopping list.

A creature of habit, there were a number of pieces I didn’t want our designer to ditch. My beloved gold bar cart, the Oriental rug from my childhood home, our vintage record player. On top of that, we didn’t have the budget to replace the bigger pieces of furniture, namely, the couches and dining room table. So I didn’t make her job easy. Give this room a cohesive, polished, ADULT look, on a very limited budget.

Oh and we didn’t want to paint. It’s a miracle Chelsea took us on at all.

We were provided with two concepts to choose from, and after feedback, Havenly gave us our initial designs::

She created a neutral palette, but gave it some edge with gold accents. A gallery wall and statement pieces, like the studded dining chairs, were easy fixes that made a huge difference.

And I tell ya, it’s amazing what some new pillows, lamps, and side tables did to bring the look together.

Havenly also provides you with a shopping list. They round up the pillows and tables and art and everything else and put them in your marketplace, so you’re able to buy everything from one place, rather than placing multiple orders from different retailers. But no need to stick to that list in its entirety– we went off and found a number of pieces ourselves, sticking to the aesthetic Chelsea offered us.

[ We’re #blessed with big bay windows, but they make for difficult photographing! Click here for a grainy zoomed out view of the room. ]

[ leftover partyware from this soiree! ]

DECOR DETAILS::
Gold Threshold Bar Cart | White Felt Garland | Christopher Knight Studded Dining Chairs | Safavieh Gold Accent Side Tables | Threshold Fillable Lamps | Gold Photo Frames | Bonjour Wire Sign | Gray & White Striped Alston Tablecloth | Gold Accent Pillows 1; 2 | Cableknit Pillow | Similar Vintage Rotary Phone | Similar Gold Deer Figure | Elements of Style Book | The New England Kitchen Cookbook

Were there more things I wish we could have done? Sure. I’d eventually like to swap out the gray coffee table for something gold like this, replace the smaller love seat with a piece that better matches the dining chairs and sectional, and find a new home for our overflowing collection of books so the cube shelves can be dedicated to records and decor alone. But for the limitations and budget she was given, Chelsea gave us a room that made black, cream, gray, and gold fit perfectly together, and didn’t even make us ditch our blue accent wall, or quirky antique market finds. This service offered us the perfect room refresh.

Now YOU. Havenly is offering my readers 20% off their design with code SHELL20 from now until March 31! Designs start at just $79. Give one room a refresh, and I promise yo’ll quickly become addicted.

Next up, bedroom…!

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Full disclosure: I was provided a complimentary Havenly design and a limited number of retail credits. We purchased many of the pieces photographed here on our own, and all opinions expressed are my own. 

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