Put the Life in the Living Room

There are a lot of awesome benefits to being a military family, like living in foreign countries in a huge apartment for free. But this time around we got a furnished apartment. Everyone that works with my husband has the same furniture. It isn't the worst furniture I've ever seen (and it is super comfy) but I've had a hard time arranging this huge room with minimal resources. My mother-in-law came for a visit and I had her fresh eyes help me make it family and company friendly.

We also have plaster walls (my friends from Sicily know what means!) and they are hard to clean and hard to hang things on. But I managed to put up some pictures. This is a trick I love! I stagger them just right because I can never seem to get them lined up! These are a few favorites of all my boys. Don't worry there are pictures of me in other places. I matted the pictures with paper that matches the couches (not going for a Christmas theme, I swear). That would be Bravo Burgundy and Always Artichoke from Stampin' Up! Just in case you want to make something cute for me to coordinate.
And, yes that is a fan. It is in the mid-70's here and because we are on the 8th floor with little ones, there are safety things on the windows that only let them open about 4 inches. I wish we had ceiling fans just to circulate the air. We have full sun all day on those windows, in the playroom and our bedroom, too. Whew, gets a little warm in here.

I want this to be a quiet and relaxing area or the area to entertain guests if we ever have any. I have books for the boys in every room, why not here?

Our boys love to look at our "princess day" aka wedding pictures. They also love to share these when people come over, even repair men!

A few books for mom to read. My crochet project will probably rest here, as well.

This is the view when you walk in the front door. Our mini Christmas tree will probably go here through the holidays. I would love to have a huge wrought iron candle holder here... some day.