Living Room Progress with Celeste & Pearl

This post has been a long time coming! If you follow me on Instagram, you may have already seen some home progress (and I shared a few updates in this post awhile back). I couldn’t be more excited to work with the ladies of Celeste & Pearl on our living room. It’s come a long way over the last few months, and while I thought this would be more of a secondary family/living room for us as we love our other family room with the cozy fireplace, we continue to find ourselves in this room every night.

Prior to last year, I had never worked with an interior designer, and in full transparency, I couldn’t justify the cost. Since furnishing a home was expensive enough, I thought I could make all of the design choices on my own. However, I found myself spending hours and hours looking for products and thinking through layouts. I can’t tell you how many times I would text with my girlfriends trying to narrow down my selections and wishing we had someone to help piece everything together. I don’t know about you, but it’s really hard for me to start from scratch. I do better when someone presents me with some options and then I can react. Ultimately, I felt like getting some more time back was worth the cost. I was also trying to narrow down baby products for our registry and just couldn’t handle making more decisions on our living room. I was fortunate that Lauren and Liz reached out about collaborating at the most perfect time. Since some of you might be in the same boat or still on the fence about an e-design service, I thought it would be helpful to walk you through their process to understand what you’re paying for.

Step One | Fill out a questionnaire and share current photos

*If you live in the Chicago or Milwaukee area, they will also come to you with their full-service packages. Liz actually came over to take all of the measurements.

The questionnaire includes key information about how you want to use the space they’re designing. You share more about where you like to shop for home products and color preferences as well. This is also where I noted that we’ll want some strategic storage for when Ainsley arrives and that I would love a desk area so I could get some work done, write or organize bills, etc. downstairs while Ainsley plays. Bill has his office/closet upstairs, and while I use it if I’m working from home, I wanted a more feminine space downstairs.

Step Two | Review layout options

I was really struggling with the layout. I have a very hard time wrapping my head around how a space will come together until I have everything in the room. This step alone was worth their consultation. They sent over the below options for our review.

We selected Option 2 (although we also really liked Option 3 too). We both have pretty large extended families and knew we wanted a room with another TV and this layout allowed for the furniture to face our dining room so when we’re hosting, it wouldn’t completely separate people in the two different rooms. Bill has been talking about a recliner for years so they also made sure to include that in some of the options. And no, I still haven’t bought one for him 😉 Once you’ve made your layout selection, they move onto creating concept boards – this is where it gets really fun!

Step Three | Review Concept Boards

I was extremely impressed with their attention to detail (hello, faux fiddle leaf tree because I told them I can’t keep anything alive and our wedding photos on the wall!). They even utilized my paint color of choice at the time since I changed that like five times throughout the process – do you see why I needed help?

I sent them feedback, and they came back with the revised board below which was a combination of all of the rooms and some updated chairs (thank you for your patience with me, ladies). And then as I got closer to having Ainsley, I started getting nervous about having a light colored sofa and a jute rug. I messaged back and forth with them and ultimately decided on an indoor/outdoor rug and a navy sofa that I found for under $1,000 on sale, while still keeping with the overall aesthetic.

For now, we’re using a side table and lamp that we had in the guest room upstairs, but I can’t wait to update those pieces and finish the room up this year.  We still have to get curtains and rods, order pictures, artwork and the faux fiddle leaf. Plus, I can’t wait to set up my little desk area which will hopefully be where I can get some more blogging done on the weekends. We also moved the leather chairs that were in our family room in here since it’s the room we’re using more frequently but still need to decide if we’ll keep them here or get new chairs for this room.

Step Four | Receive shopping list

Lauren and Liz put together a super thorough shopping list once you select your concept board. It includes different price point options and dimension information, although they always recommend measuring one last time prior to purchase. I personally taped down our rug, sofa and media console dimensions prior to purchasing. You click the ‘Buy’ button, and it takes you right to the product detail page. The other thing I loved about their services was that while they send the below shopping list, they completely understand if you use it as inspiration for a HomeGoods or Target trip.

If you’re not ready to take on a full room, Lauren and Liz offer one-off services like a paint consultation or help with pillows, art and accessories. It took me one year (and no I’m not exaggerating) to pick out the grey paint for our first floor, and art is probably the hardest for me to buy so I really appreciate that they’ll help with the smaller projects, too. They have even worked with clients just on updating the lighting throughout their home, which can make such a difference.

Celeste & Pearl is offering 20% off your first Design Package with code FIFTH&ROSE now through April 30, 2019. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask them in the comments or you can contact them directly at design@celesteandpearl.com.

I can’t wait to share more as we put the finishing touches on this room!

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