Chris & Amanda in the kitchen

It’s time for some life updates! If you didn’t know, Chris and I recently moved from Los Angeles City to about an hour outside in Orange County. We decided to rent a house before deciding where we want to finally buy. We’ve been loving the more suburban, greener life out in OC instead of dealing with all the traffic & craziness of LA. Although don’t get me wrong, Los Angeles were some of the best times of my life!

Anyways, my dear friend Alex aka @simply_sanford helped me update a lot of my home decor and find key furniture pieces I needed. While nutrition and fitness are definitely my forte, I was pretty much at a loss on where to start with decorating a house! Having a virtual interior designer by my side was truly a blessing. I highly recommend Simply Sandford Co. and can’t say enough about her ability to piece together a room no matter your budget. Left to my own devices it probably would’ve been a mismatched disaster 😉 or maybe rainbow puke colors? Who knows, and thank goodness we’ll never find out. 

welcome

Without further ado, let’s get started on the details…

The Entrance Way

Alex helped build the entrance way around this Living Spaces entry piece. Her top recommendations:

  • Add a lighter color hook rack to the left of the piece
  • Add a black mirror above the entrance piece to make the room appear more spacious
  • Swap out current baskets for lighter color baskets to tie in the lighter hook rack and to add more color to the entrance room

The new decorative element we added were either from Home Goods or Target. She additionally gave the recommendation of adding taller decorative pieces in the future to the entrance way table.

The Dining Room

In the dining room, we made some simple updates.

Here overall recommendations:

  • Swap out the aqua curtains from some plain white ones
  • Add in artwork with a light wood frame

Honestly, I was lucky this dining table, benches and matching silver lamp was a gift from my parents. I really love the elegant style and that the large table provides plenty of room for guests!

The Music Zone

music room

To be honest, I’m not quite sure what to call this zone of the house BUT I absolutely love their piece of furniture Alex recommended from Urban Outfitters. It’s a great excuse to expand your record collection and a nice addition to my home decor.

Some details of this area include:

Alex’s other tip was to add some taller decorate pieces to this shelf. I’m working on that plus expanding our record collection.

The Outdoor Area

home decor - outdoor area

This was a fun area since we were pretty much starting from scratch. The photo on the left were camping chairs we had on hand and the table I picked out with Alex. It was great to see the outdoor area finally come together.

The details:

Per Alex’s recommendation, I also got some cute plants to put in the center. Look at me, I’ll be a pro at home decor in no time 😉

The Kitchen

Not really many home decor updates here other than these cute barstools I got from Target! I love how the black part ties into the kitchen and the wood tops tie into the theme of the rest of the house. Of course that was all @simply_sanford‘s recommendations.

The Living Room

home decor - the living room

The living room room was a fun space to update once we found the right TV console. We built the room around the grey couch I got custom made from HD Buttercup. With supply chain issues from the pandemic, I will say the shipping delays and trying to find a TV / media console in stock was rather challenging. Luckily, we found one in the end and tied it together with a light wood tray.

The details:

The Bedroom

home decor - bedroom

The bedroom changes were definitely life-changing! I will say Alex was the first person to teach me how to properly make a bed (LOL). Although I’m sure my parents probably attempted to teach me in the past, I was just most likely not listening. We all know how that goes… Anyhow, Alex and I built the room around the Mid Century Modern bed frame and nightstand Chris has previously purchased from Living Spaces. Unfortunately, they discontinued the bedroom furniture Chris bought but if you search ‘Mid Century Modern Walnut Bed Frame’ you can find similar options like this one from West Elm or other cheaper options too.

Here are some of the details we added:

home decor - bedroom

Alex also somehow found this dark wood dresser from Wayfair that pretty much perfectly matched the bedroom set Chris had and we got some light wood floating shelves from target to add in a decorative elements to the bedroom.

My Office

home decor - the office

I have a fun white and gold theme going in my office and loved this white ladder bookcase Alex recommended as stylish & simple home decor piece.

The details:

Those are the main areas of the house we really focused on! I honestly can’t say enough about Alex working around pieces you already have. I would definitely check out her blog, simplysanfordco.com and Instagram, @simply_sanford for tons of interior design tips and budget friendly finds!

I definitely have a few more decorative elements to incorporate here and there but I’m so happy with how far our place has come. Here’s to a home that makes you happy and comfortable.

Lots of love,

Amanda aka MeowMeix