Yet Another Living Room Post

I'm not obsessing about what to do in the living room.  No, I would NEVER do that.  It's just not how I work. Are you buying that?  Any of it?

Yeah, me neither.

I know, I know, this is becoming a common topic for posts.  Obsessions'll do that to ya.

Here's where the obsession room currently stands (sans the solid pillows which I sold at my parent's tag sale last weekend).

Hubby and I had an awesome discussion on the scenic drive home from a friend's wedding in upstate New York on Saturday about the state of this room.  We both agree that we need to focus on one space at a time so that we don't get overwhelmed (too late).  Logically, the living room is the place to start.  It's the first room you see when you come in the house and its the room we spend the most waking hours in.  We also agree that it's the room that just isn't working for one reason or another.  Unfortunately, another thing that we agree on is the fact that we shouldn't be spending a lot of money on new furniture right now, so my dreams of a new couch will need to be put on hold.  A girl can still dream though, right?

Isn't she sweet?  She's from Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams (which is located 5 minutes from the house.  Coincidence? I think not).  But she'll have to wait.

Hubby and I plan to "shop" our house first to see if we can spice it up with minimal $$.  We plan to try our vintage red chair (which has been hanging out in the office/computer room and I don't seem to have any real pictures of) in place of the matchy chair and see how the scale works.  With a smaller chair in that spot, it might open up that corner a little bit- which is currently a dead area.  I'm torn about this corner.  To bookcase or not no bookcase?  I keep waffling.  As of this current moment, I'm leaning toward no... but then I need to find a different end table for that space.

This weekend may be an action weekend to make something happen in this room.  I'll keep you posted!!

What rooms have you been obsessing dreaming about revamping?

Living Room Progress!

One of my personal rules to live by is:

You aren't allowed to complain about something if you're not doing anything to change it.

For example: you can't complain about the size of your rear if you don't get up off of it and work out.  (the exception is things you can't change of course, but if you can't change something, you can change how you look at it and stop complaining anyway).

Hubby pointed out to me that Friday's post was a laundry list of complaints about the living room so I figured I should practice what I preach and put my $$ where my mouth is and whatever other cheesy cliche's apply.

So I did.

I've been far too ADD with design ideas lately, so I just need to focus on one room at a time.  I'm putting jewelry organization/display and some other projects on hold and focus on the room that irks me the most: the living room.

2 notable changes were made over the weekend.

#1. Harry Potter's room has a new door!  No, Harry Potter does NOT live with me, however we do have an awkward closet that spans the entire space under the stairs.  We call this Harry Potter's room, or the hall closet, whichever you prefer.  The bi-fold door to this space was the only non-white door in the entire house and was a very awkward orangey wood tone that was not finished well in the first place.  Since the hall is wide open to the living room, I consider them 1 large space.

Pre-primed white doors with paneling similar to the other doors in the house were less than $50 at my friendly local Home Depot, so I was on the ground running.  I'll spare you the enthralling progress shot of painting white primed doors white satin and I'll jump to the after.

As a finishing touch, I picked up a mercury-glass knob from Anthropologie and put up a mirror from HomeGoods to give the space more presence.

You like?  So much better if I do say so myself!

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Weekend Project #2:  New vignette/storage.

I've been hunting for some type of table to put against the stair wall, but am challenged by the narrow space.  While looking at HomeGoods, I fell in love with a small asian style cabinet that was too deep.  After re-measuring the area several times (hoping that somehow the space would multiply- no luck), I decided to bring it home anyway.

It worked as I was hoping next to the chair (which Hubby is all about replacing now, yay!).  I took down the brown curtains (not the hardware yet though) and styled the new cabinet with a new "&" sign, Starry Night (removed from the opposite wall), a few tag-sale books, and Archimedes the owl.

I'm so pleased to see the living room finally start evolving!

Living Room Sparks

Aside from the organizational challenges that come with a small house, my Achilles heel has been the living room. I've been struggling with how to design the space to make it special without replacing all the furniture, which our budget and Hubby would totally let me do (said with dripping sarcasm).  It's your standard small living room.  Nothing architecturally notable.  With pass-throughs to the hall and dining room, there was only 1 way to layout the tv and seating and the furniture, rug and curtains that looked so phenomenal in the apartment look lackluster in the house's living room.

I'm always hesitant to admit this, but I preferred the layout of the living room when we first toured the house to our furniture layout.  The previous owner had more of a collection of smaller scaled pieces and not just your standard couch, chair, coffee table.  Although her pieces weren't my style, the overall composition was effective:

Now I really don't want to show you our current living room, but I will anyway....

It doesn't help that I'm not particularly happy with our living room furniture.  The rug and coffee table were purchased when hubby and I moved in together (and I think both are too visually heavy for this space) and the couch and chair were purchased with wedding gift $.  Ugh, the couch and chair.  Let me just say- in the future, couches will be purchased for style AND construction, NOT style and low price.  In less than a year, the couch back cushions started looking terrible and the fabric started  bubbling.

The chair is not abused as much, so it's in better shape, but its still not ideal.  When we were picking them out, I kept pushing toward a non-matching chair in a different pattern or color than the couch.  Hubby insisted on the matching chair, and I picked my battles.  Now, however he denies that the discussion went down that way, but we all know who's right (eh hem, me).

Ok. Enough complaining and on to the "sparks" part.  Ideas are forming (FINALLY)!

I've been obsessed with this sofa image, and its gotten me thinking about what I love about certain spaces.

I love an eclectic and chic collection of pieces and textures.  I don't want a living room that looks like I went to the furniture store and bought the complete vignette they had on display (which is the vibe I think our current living room is giving off).  As a designer myself, I feel like its the biggest cop-out for me to have a 'collection' that another designer selected to market to the masses.  Don't get me wrong, furniture store collections look nice and I wouldn't hate on you if you had them.  I personally want a distinctive space that you won't find walking into any furniture store or anyone elses house.  I'm a design snob- I admit it.

So here are my plans for our living room so far:

• The curtains gotta go.  I love the look of floor to ceiling curtains, but after giving it the old college try, it's just not effective in here.  We don't need the curtains since we have the plantation shutters, so out they go.
• Textured paint treatment.  In the apartment I had a satin stripe treatment in the same color and it was subtle but chic.  I'll either do a similar satin stripe (at a smaller scale) or do a glossier stripe in 1 shade difference.
• I've resigned to the fact that the sofa's going to stick around for a little while.  I'm going to keep my eye out for chair(s) that I could reupholster, though.
• Artwork or a mirror behind the couch.  I have some DIY thoughts on that, so it'll be a surprise.
• I need to do something with the sad little Starry Night canvas (from a fleamarket for just $10! I did have to fly home from Florida with it as my carry-on though).
• Coffee table.  I'm looking for it's perfect replacement.  When I see it, I'll know.
• Mount the TV on the wall.
• Accessorize & style!

I will conquer this living room beast eventually!!

What do you think of these ideas?  What would you change/do differently?  I'd love your input!

*all images via Pinterest