3.7.2010

After we finished the bathroom remodel last year, D and I decided to tackle the living room next. We had our living room furniture set for about 14 years. The dog ruined the couch while trying to get to a ball that had rolled underneath it and the cat finished off the chair by using it as a scratching post. For nearly a dozen years we kept the damage hidden with slipcovers and sheets. But besides the cosmetics, the couch was very worn. The springs squeaked and sometimes it was difficult to get up. It was time to make a change.

I neglected to take a "before" picture of the room. This is an outtake that D took the first day we had Elora at home. It's the only picture we have of the original room.


The couch was our first course of business. We looked at couches everywhere. Ethan Allen, Ashley Home Store, Rooms to Go... we even drove all the way to Charlotte to go to IKEA! We discussed fabrics and length and it seemed to go on forever. But if you're only going to get new furniture every 15 years, you have to get it right. One of the things we didn't like about our existing couch was that it only seated three people comfortably. Whenever we had company, it was a little awkward about who would sit in the chair. And if there were more than four of us, someone had to squeeze in on the couch or sit on the floor. So we wanted a large couch. It came down to two choices. An L-shaped couch from Rooms-to-Go, which was a light green fabric, and had a chaise at the end of it, or a cream leather-blend sectional we saw at Ashley. After weighing all the factors, price, pets, etc, we decided to go with the Ashley couch. I found it online with free shipping so we ordered it and crossed our fingers. The new couch arrived on Jan 29th.


When we got rid of our end tables, we lost a place to put our surround sound speakers and antenna. We decided that a small hall table or buffet table, which are generally narrow, would be perfect to squeeze behind the couch. We looked at Wal-Mart, Target, even the antique store in downtown Simpsonville. Ultimately we ended up with a small bookcase from Garden Ridge.


We struggled about whether to have a coffee table or an ottoman, because we've had both in the past. We like to put our feet up, but we eat and have beverages in the living room quite frequently too, so a table was important. I was browsing on the internet and found this one at Overstock.com. It's a wood table with vinyl bolsters, so you can have the best of both worlds.


We wanted to protect the wood but we weren't sure the best way to go about it. Our first thought was glass. D found a beveled candle platter at Hobby Lobby that was perfect, and even though it was the largest size they stocked, it was too small for the table. Our next attempt was to search for an 18" square picture frame that we could take the glass out of. We actually bought this 17" one at Old Time Pottery:


When we put it down on the table it wasn't bad, it just wasn't right. A couple of days later one of us had the brilliant idea of using a ceramic floor tile. It'd be durable, it could handle heat (if a plate or mug was warm), it came standard in 18" squares and it was inexpensive. Thus a quick trip to Lowes and we were all set! I like the way the color of the tile draws the eye to the couch.


A while back we window-shopped for a living-room rug quite extensively but never found what we wanted. We didn't want fringe or floral. D finally spotted this one at Kohl's. I liked it because of the circles. We had already decided to keep our circle-spiral wall-art and this rug kept with the theme. It also had both cream and brown in it (and turquoise!). It was 50% off already but because D noticed a 'power hour' sign that had not been removed, the manager gave us an additional 10% off!


D and I wanted to keep our original chair. It still felt in good condition. Having it re-upholstered would be pricey. I actually ordered a slipcover for it but it didn't fit and we had to return it. It has a T-cushion and it's difficult to fit. Being an 'overstuffed' chair, it took up a lot of space and after consideration we eventually decided to replace it entirely. We were shopping one day and saw this chair in Kohl's (I didn't even know they had chairs, but I hadn't known they had rugs either!) It was on clearance and we thought it would go well with our color theme. I bought a cream circle pillow for it from Wal-Mart, so it would match the couch better. Elora likes the chair! We decided to purchase a small brown towel to keep her fur off of it, a trick we learned from D's grandparents.


We bought our swirly-circle wall-art at Garden Ridge several years ago. We felt there was too much blank space on either side of it and we needed some sconces to match it. We actually bought some at Hobby Lobby that just didn't suit it very well and we had to return them. Then one day we were at Kohl's and we saw these. They match better than any others we've come across. Knowing Kohl's as well as we do, we waited until the weekend and they were discounted 50% off, under $10. We usually keep white tea lights in the candle cups but we found some turquoise votives at Wal-Mart that were inexpensive. I couldn't get the camera to do them justice. In person the color just pops.


Pillows. I got so tired of looking at pillows. The first batch had circles on them, but they didn't look quite right so we took them back. Then we bought stripes and solids, but I felt it was too much stripe, so we returned one and swapped it for an additional solid. We've taken the tags off these, so they are keepers!


We decided to incorporate things we had in other places in the house into the room. I had an angel shelf I had purchased years ago at Old Time Pottery that we hung on the wall. We found this candle on clearance at Hobby Lobby. It's real wax but there's no wick. Instead it has a battery-powered LED in it and it actually flickers like a real candle.


We hung the coats-of-arms that we bought at the heraldry shop in St. Augustine. We had more wall space so we decided to hang the sword LRL gave to D. We looked at several sword hangers online but in the end, we just used an inexpensive coat hook from Lowes. Works for us.


We also brought in the afghan BBL made for D when he went off to school. It matches the room perfectly and we always curl up with a lap blanket on TV night.


And so the room is mostly complete. We still haven't found a clock we love, which will hang above the TV. And I still need to find the right picture frames for the tall black bookcase. But for all intents, the project is finished. It's not how I imagined it would be when we first started couch-hunting. It's so much better. I'm surprised at what a journey we went on and I really enjoyed going through the process with D. It's so different than our first set of furniture. Our tastes have changed since then too.

We had our first guests in the room last night - LRL and BBL came over. After dinner I think BBL and I could have napped on the couch, we were both so full. It's a comfortable room and I'm pleased with it.