Hosting and lifestyle experts, Shannon and Jenna of The Busy Bee, are on the blog today sharing Jenna’s Cozy Timeless Living Room: How to Create a Space You Love.

Over the years, we’ve read books about simplifying your space, curating an atmosphere that is calming and welcoming, and how to create a home that serves your family well. Upon purchasing her first home in 2016, Jenna has been on a mission to weed out the clutter and implement all the tools and information she’s learned in her own home, room by room.

This Summer, Jenna set out to refresh her Living Room by doing just that - simplifying, curating, and creating a cozy timeless living space to intentionally serve her family well, and we’re here to encourage you to do the same!

How to Create a Living Room You'll Love

1. Clear the Clutter

Emily Ley, Jenna’s favorite author always says, “Best, Favorite, and Necessary,” and this is your first step in creating a space you love. Take every living room decoration you own and place in a pile to sort through. Ask yourself the important questions, “Do I love this?” and “Would I purchase this in the store right now?” If the answer is “NO,” donate or sell the item. Repeat this step for everything in your space: Furniture, Throw Blankets, Rugs, Curtains, Curtain Rods, Paint Colors, etc. The key component here is to only keep items that are the best, your favorite, and necessary for your space. Finding the perfect home storage organizers at Old Time Pottery is simple!

2. Create a Mood Board

While designing her living room, Jenna knew she wanted a space that was warm, open, and welcoming - a cozy and timeless living space. We challenge you to ask yourself what words come to mind when you envision your new living area. Use those adjectives to drive inspiration for a mood board. All too often, we hear from friends and family members wondering where to start when refreshing a space, to which we answer, “What do you want the room to feel like? What purpose does it serve?”

Once you have defined the purpose and feeling of your space, begin constructing a mood board to curate the design. There are many free tools online to create mood boards or you can use a simple program such as Microsoft Word.

Start with a color scheme and your key elements: for Jenna these were the couch, TV stand, and new doors. Continue to work from there.

3. Think Long Term

You weeded out the clutter, defined the purpose and ambiance of your living space, and designed a mood board to drive your overall inspiration, and now it’s time to think long term as you shop for home decor for your space.

In order to create a cozy and timeless living room, you’ll want to shop for decor that is not tied to a specific trend or season. The goal here is to curate a collection of pieces that can be well-loved for a long time.

Old Time Pottery offers a variety of styles when it comes to home decor, which made it easy for Jenna to find key elements to elevate her space. From vases and delicate plants to high quality area rugs, Jenna found a variety of items at an affordable cost!

As you shop, ask yourself what is most important to you and focus on those pieces first. Jenna selected her area rug first and worked from there. You’ll be amazed at how easily everything will come together during this step because you’ve already implemented the hard work and know what’s important to you.

4. Style

Here comes our most favorite step to creating a space you love: style and tie it all together. You’ve put in the hard work, and we’ve saved the best step for last! We love watching everything come together and decorating a space to completion. While Jenna’s living room refresh is only on phase one, this phase already has her feeling right at home. It’s everything she’s been dreaming of and more. Take some time to enjoy this process and soak in all the fun that is styling a living room you love!

For the complete transformation of Jenna’s Living Room Refresh (Phase One), be sure to head to The Busy Bee where you can find all the fun before and after photos!