The living room is definitely my favorite room in the apartment – and it’s also the room I’ve changed the most over the time we’ve lived here! In this post I’ll share all the details and links for my Charleston apartment living room!
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To be completely honest with you, I have no idea how to describe my decor style. I feel like my tastes are always changing and I really just decorate with things that I like.
But I wasn’t always this way! I definitely got caught up in the trap of trying to make everything the same aesthetic and design style.
I thought the only way to make my apartment Pinterest-worthy was for everything to match.
But thankfully over the years I’ve started branching out and being less rigid about my decor style. I now love mixing antiques and modern decor, adding different patterns, and playing with color.
I think my living room is a perfect representation of my current design style – collected, mismatched, and cozy.


And it seems like the internet agrees! It’s definitely the room in my apartment that people ask about the most on social media.
So I thought it was finally time for me to do a little living room tour here on By Leah Claire.
But first, let’s take a look at how the living room has changed in the time that we’ve lived in this apartment.
Apartment Living Room Before And After
Here’s a little snapshot of some of the changes that this living room has gone through:



It honestly looks like a completely different room now and I love all of the color and warmth that we brought in over the past year and a half!
I’m sure I’ll keep making changes as time goes on (I can’t help myself) but for now, I’m so happy with how everything looks in here.
Shop My Apartment Living Room
If you want to get this look for your apartment, I’ve added links to everything I could find!
My coffee table and a lot of my smaller decor pieces are thrifted, but I tried to find similar items to link to.
Living Room Furniture
I get SO many questions on social media about my living room furniture. Everything is on the more affordable end but still feels like great quality.
- TV Stand – Our media console is actually two of these cabinets from Target pushed together. In our old house we had 3 of them but they didn’t quite fit in the new space.
- Couch – Everyone asks about this couch and it’s just from IKEA! It’s super comfy and the covers are removable/washable. The color is Gunnared Beige but it definitely has more gray vibes in person.
- Storage Ottoman – It’s the matching ottoman from IKEA and we use it to store our throw blankets!
- Sideboard – Can you believe this gorgeous piece of furniture is from Petsmart? It’s actually an aquarium stand but it works perfectly as a sideboard/storage console.
- Accent Chair – An affordable Amazon find that is surprisingly high quality!
The only furniture item I can’t link is our coffee table. It was a $20 thrift find and it doesn’t have a brand name anywhere on it.
Here are a few that look pretty similar:
Living Room Lamps & Rugs
Lamps and rugs add SO much warmth to a space. These have made such a big difference in our apartment living room.
- Purple/Red Area Rug – One of my favorite things in the entire apartment! It added SO much color and warmth to this room and it’s not too expensive.
- Floor Lamp With Tray – I get a ton of questions about this lamp and it’s another affordable Amazon find! The base is so heavy and it feels like good quality.
- Cream/Blue Area Rug – This was our living room for a long time. I still love it but now it lives in our guest room!
- Ceramic Table Lamp – We used this lamp on our TV console for awhile but now it’s a bedside table lamp in our primary bedroom.
Living Room Decor
A lot of my decor items are thrifted, but anything I bought in a regular store was pretty affordable. Most of my prints are from Etsy, my throw pillows are from Target or Amazon, and my frames are mainly from Target.
Here are some exact items I use in my apartment living room decor:
And here’s some items that are similar to my thrifted finds:
Curtains And Hardware
Our apartment has so many windows so it would have been so expensive to add curtains to every window.
Instead of doing curtains all the way around, we decided to just add them one wall. I’d love to eventually add them to the rest of the windows but for now I actually think it looks pretty nice!
Here are the exact curtains and rods we used:
I always get comments about how the color looks different online so be aware of that! The ones we got are the beige color but I think the rug and the lighting in our apartment makes them look more pink than they are.
Hopefully this gave you some inspiration for decorating your own apartment living room!