Tag: Living Room

The Antique Striped Sofa

We’re accumulating couches here. I think you’ll understand why when you see the newest arrival.

I mentioned wanting a striped settee before moving into this house, and Samantha spotted this antique striped sofa on Chairish for me. It was larger than I was planning for, but it was so perfect and I was afraid someone else would snap it up, so I bought it. Delivery took a few weeks, but it’s here now and it’s gorgeous.

I’d like a pair of chairs in front of the curved windows, or maybe a round table for playing games, so the sofa won’t be staying where it is permanently. I’m not in a rush though — I’m looking forward to playing around with layouts and experimenting a bit.

Oh hey, I potted my small fiddle leaf fig. The planter had a bird’s nest fern at the old house, but it didn’t survive the move.

And that light! I’ve wanted that twin beacons brass lamp since I had pinned it and posted about it on the blog, two years ago. It was something like $800 at the time, so I skipped it, but then I spotted it on clearance all this time later for $250. I figured that was a fair price, and I was blown away by the quality of it when it arrived. It’s big! And heavy! And perfect! It reminds me of an insect (a praying mantis, maybe?), but I tend to like that in lighting.

This house, she is going to be good.

October 21, 2013
The Double Parlors, Shortly After Moving in

A lot of our furniture is working well in the new house. I’m OK with furnishing slowly and taking my time to find just the right piece, but I sort of went nuts with new stuff in the living/family rooms, double parlors, whatchamacalits.

I ordered the much-waffled-about teal sofa before we moved in. No regrets there.

The child-sized wooden rocking chair belonged to Brandon’s mom when she was a kid, and she gave it to us for the new house. Yay for good hand-me-downs!

I feel like that second parlor is coming together pretty well, even though there’s still a lot to do.

The first parlor wasn’t looking so hot though. So here’s where I’m all “I’m a blogger! I must document everything!” These look awful, and I know it.

Welcome to brown and gray town. We had that rug in our bedroom at the old house, but it’s probably going to go in August’s room soon. It’s a little small for the front room, and the color isn’t working for me.

I tried arranging the couch along the window wall, but thought it would be weird to see two sofas aligned. Confirmed.

The TV stand was a little dinky on that wall. I also tried it on the adjacent wall, but it didn’t look any better. I put it on my ‘replace eventually’ list, and I had in mind a faux printmaker’s cabinet (something like this or this).

I wasn’t in a hurry to buy, but when I went out to the Land of Nod outlet to pick up a bed rail for August, I stopped in the Crate & Barrel outlet next door and found the Blake Media Console for half-off.

The outlet box underneath needs to be hidden better and I want to stack some nice big art books up top, but I think it looks great so far. But then I also ordered a new rug — the one I asked about on Facebook. Buy all the things! That’s my new motto! (I’ma need to stop buying all the things.)

Hello, new rug! I’m not sure about you yet.

It works with the blue sofa in the next room, and I like having that visual connection, but it does not work as well with the crazy floral chair. And I like my crazy floral chair.

(The cats and the dog do approve though.)

Elsewhere, I seem to have a lot of this going on.

I feel like the stripes may not go all that well with the rug either. And I like my stripes.

It was on sale, and I used my Anthro birthday-month discount for a further 15% off, but it still wasn’t cheap. I think it would look great upstairs in our bedroom, but then we would still need a rug downstairs, and I’m not planning to buy many more big-ticket items for a while. What do you think? Keep the rug where it is, move it up to the bedroom, or just return it?

This might be a whole lot of crazy right here, even for me.

September 19, 2013
Teal for the Win

We went out last week as a family to check out the two sofas I was considering. Brandon liked the shape of the blue one considerably more, so that’s the winner. It still hasn’t shown up on Anthropologie’s site, but it’s the Winifred Sofa in teal. The upholstery color is nearly identical to the fabric on this sofa, but with more slubs and variation. Here it is in crazy-town fabric, and in an even longer length.

That photo above is an excellent example of a double parlor, by the way. That furniture layout is actually pretty similar to what I’ve been considering for the new house, but picture windows behind the sofa instead of a doorway.

I was still thinking about taking the gamble and waiting to score a floor model, especially with there being two stores with the sofa in the area. There was candle wax on the one at Oakbrook though, so that brought the odds of success for scoring one in like-new condition down by half. The store was still having its furniture sale through last Sunday, so I went ahead and bought it. It will be our biggest furniture purchase.

July 9, 2013
Coffee Table, V3.0

Erin, of Apartment 34 has one. So did Morgan, of The Brick House. My dream coffee table.

See it there, behind Erin? Here’s another shot of it, from Morgan.

That’s the one I’ve been searching for, with no luck. The original coffee table that we had (Thomas O’Brien for Target, circa 2005) was fine, but it was getting a little wobbly, and for safety’s sake, we thought it was time to find something new. (Actually, Brandon suggested it, and who am I to argue?)

I kept checking at all the usual places (west elm, CB2, Crate & Barrel, and so on), and I trolled Craigslist and eBay. Every trip to a thrift store had me searching for something that would work, and I wasn’t finding anything I liked well enough. But then I found a lovely long, wooden coffee table at The Renegade Craft Fair that I thought would be good.

Great lines, interesting details, in decent shape. Perfect! I pondered painting the top, but though I like the idea of lightening it up, paint wasn’t going to give me the look I wanted. Too slick. Replacing the top with stone would have been gorgeous, but I don’t think the table would have supported the weight.

Resigned to keeping the top wood (not that it would have been a terrible fate), I started to get used to the look of it, as-is. And I liked it! Not as much as I would with a different top, but it was growing on me. The size, however, was not. It’s about a foot too long, and in a living room that’s only 12’x12′, a foot too long really starts to bother you.

The other day, I noticed that one of the coffee tables I had initially spotted and considered, the Bel-Air, had gone on sale. I had a gift card and some store credit that brought the price down even further, so I bought it. I wasn’t 100% sure, but I figured I’d buy it and try it in the living room to see how I liked it.

Uh huh, I like it. Although I still wonder about getting a travertine top. This one is strong enough to handle it, and it gives it the look of the one I covet so. I made a mockup. What do you think?

December 6, 2012
Let’s Put Together a Reading Corner

These are always fun for me to put together. Which pieces would you pick to pull together a little reading corner? Below, I’ll show you which ones I’d choose!
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November 5, 2012
New Art in the Living Room

This new painting by Emily Rickard is making me all kinds of happy. (She sells prints and other products featuring this painting too.)

When I mentioned wanting to “frame the new painting in the living room”, this is the one I was talking about. It looks fine with its white edges, but I’m thinking it needs a simple frame in a medium-toned wood, or maybe plain black.

I’ve tried a few things in that corner of the living room over the years. Here’s an old shot from the same angle.

Sigh. I really don’t miss all that unpainted wood because it didn’t look good in person, but it was mighty pretty in photos. Anyway, I liked that print by The Black Apple for a long time, but I was ready for something different. I hung my Amy Ruppel painting there for a while too.

It’s now on the opposite wall, above the floral chair. I briefly tried this giant botanical print in that corner next.

It was way too big for the space, and it looks so much better in my bedroom. The new painting is the right size, the right colors, and I love its movement and design.

And are you digging the tiny fingerprints all over the TV? Me too.

October 11, 2012