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Clearing Out

It’s starting to feel real. The house is starting to empty out a bit in preparation for showings.

Clearing Out

What a great time to skip town!

A while back, I arranged an overnight trip with a few friends and now it falls during a busy week. The house was photographed for its listing earlier today. I have my last studio portrait lighting photography class tonight. Brandon’s holding down the fort with the kids, and I’ll leave tomorrow morning to pick up Kim*, Jess, and Heidi. (We’re heading up to Camp Wandawega.) When I’m back on Thursday, Brandon and I will finish any last minute staging, and the house will hit the market Friday.

Quickly, quickly!

* Kim’s closing on her new house the day ours goes up for sale! I’m looking forward to boring Jess and Heidi with our real estate talk.

Pink Loves Blue

There’s a sofa at Anthropologie that I keep calling the staff to pester about. I’m trying to catch it on sale once they’re ready to let go of the floor model so I can see if just maybe it can come live at our house. It’s big and comfortable and so pretty with its curves and single-button-tufting. And it’s blue. Kind of a teal/turquoise really, but to my surprise, I’m smitten with it. My iPhone pic isn’t doing it justice.

Winifred Blue Sofa at Anthropologie

It isn’t on the website, but it’s the same as the “zesty” Winifred with solid upholstery and an additional support in the center. Same price too, but if I could sell my sofa and get that one on clearance, it wouldn’t be so out of reach. (A leather sofa can always wait.)

OK, so we’re probably not getting it. There are a million other things we could (and should) spend our money on first, but yeah, I’m embracing my newfound love of the color blue. I pinned the image below recently, and I’ve been finding myself going back to look at it over and over again. I like the symmetry, the hive vases, and the metal finishes against the wood, but what I’m really drawn to is the contrast of pink and blue.

dh-tour-lea-michele-slides-07_0
(image source)

So good! I blame the the upstairs bathroom with its turquoise blue fixtures. Six years of living with them, and the color has charmed me.

Pink Rugs: The Choice of Design Bloggers

Wood Coffee Table in the Living Room

Can I make that sweeping generalization in the title? Probably not, but I do love having a pink rug in my living room. (Although those chevrons have been done to death. It was not so when I bought my rug in 2008!)

I love this space from Holly Becker of Decor8, with its pink overdye rug. The photo appeared in her book, Decorate Workshop.

Holly Becker's Home

And Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan of Apartment Therapy has a hot pink rug, too. This was his living room, featured in Apartment Therapy’s Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces.

Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan's Home

You see what I mean about design bloggers and pink rugs? Maybe we’re an odd bunch, but I love the look.

I just wish I’d known better than to choose cotton for a busy living room in a house with two young kids, a dog, and three cats — though in my defense, we didn’t have children at the time. I’ve been looking at wool rugs for a possible replacement (maybe?), and I keep coming back to pink. Here are some of my favorites.

Pink Rugs

  1. Madeline Weinrib Zigzag Rug
    cotton, available at ABC Carpet & Home
    This is my rug. It can be ordered in custom colors, but when I came across it in shades of pink, I had to buy it. I would still recommend it, but for a room with less foot traffic.

  2. Dippy Pink Rug by Susan Sharp
    wool, from The Rug Company
    Gorgeous, and less in-your-face ombré as it appears on screen (as seen in Maxwell Gillingham-Ryan’s home, above, and repurposed in his apartment). It’s expensive though.

  3. Preppy Pastel Pink Rug
    wool, from The Land of Nod
    The color looks more vibrant than pastel to me. The price is right, but the solid color is a bit plain.

  4. Overdye Magenta Rug
    wool, from Rugs USA
    I like that the underlying pattern is less obvious than in some overdyed rugs. Less trendy. I would love this rug in my living room. Think it would work with my floral chair?

The Murphy Sofa

Murphy Emerald Green Sofa from Room and Board

I spotted Room and Board’s new Murphy sofa online, and it was love at first site. (Get it? ‘Cause it was online? Never mind.) So I proceeded to have daydream fantasies of lounging on my lovely little velvet sofa, and I imagined how adorable it would look in my living room. I looked at the dimensions and saw that it was 5″ smaller than my current sofa, but what’s five inches?

I took my tiny design assistant with me to check it out in person.

Murphy Sofa

The sales associate said that they modeled the sofa on one of their chairs, Quinn. Cute. It also reminds me a little of these two.

Orla Kiely Heals Sofa
elle blomster

photos: 1, 2

Unfortunately, that 5″ difference matters. The sofa feels diminutive. It’s also not terribly comfortable. It isn’t uncomfortable, but the cushions are thin and firm (and easily misaligned, too). The other problem with using it in my home would be that it’s too similar to the other furniture in the living room. The arms on my crazy floral chair flare out the same way, and the lines on our Eames rocker echo the shape as well. They bring feminine curves and balance to our boxier pieces, and the Murphy sofa would weight the room too far toward the girly side.

Yet I still want to love it! Foolish heart.

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