Living Room Refresh
At the beginning of the year we ordered a new couch, took in the piano that’s been in my family for a couple of generations, and got some new bookshelves. So we’ve been rearranging a little, decluttering, and freshening things up.
This piano was at my Grandma Marty’s house my whole childhood and I have always loved it. I don’t play, but I just feel attached to it and have wanted it to be in my home for YEARS. When my Grandma Marty moved from her house into an apartment the piano went to live with my parents. So I waited another decade and when my parents moved to Virginia, they decided not to move the piano that far, and that beauty was finally mine.
In the 13 years we’ve lived together, this is the first time we have ordered/purchased a brand new couch not from IKEA. All of our couches so far have been either hand me downs, bought used from a friend, or from IKEA. This time we went to a real, grown up furniture store (La-z-boy), talked to a real human, picked out the fabric, and the pieces we wanted, and ordered it, then waited a million days, ok fine, four months, for it to arrive. And it is a glorious beast of a couch.
We opted for a sectional to get the size we wanted for our long skinny room and to have the option to add pieces later if we move into a house with more space. The cushions are so plush and the fabric is so cozy. We waited forever to have a leather couch and then realized during the pandemic that even though we loved how easy it was to vacuum/brush the dog hair off of it, it wasn’t cozy. And now that leaving home isn’t something we do all that regularly, we figured, might as well get that cozy couch. We like that the La-z-boy couch fabric is treated for stain resistance and they will come clean it if something happens to it. We did get a hand held carpet cleaner for when I spill coffee or an entire bowl containing a brownie sundae on the couch. I’m a wreck.
Yeah, this was AFTER Christopher picked up the bowl and the big chunks. This is why I use cups with lids and straws. And why I want a Ruggable so bad. Like anyone know someone at Ruggable? I can be your mess expert, I promise I am great at spilling and dropping messy things. I will wash the crap out of that rug, just send me one and I will do all the sponsored content you want. I won’t even have to go that far out of my way. The rug in this picture had three coffee stains on it before it was 6 months old, and they are still there. Please, Ruggable? Pretty, pretty, please?!?!
Anyway, to make room for the piano we had to move our floor to almost ceiling bookcases and we got a couple of solid wood bookshelves to go near the piano. We were almost sure that they would all fit on one wall, so it would be bookshelf, piano, bookshelf, but it didn’t all fit by like 2 inches. Dang baseboards, trim, and door jams. So we made this kind of awkward configuration, but it works for now and I wanted to buy the matching set of bookshelves so that one day when we live in a house with regularly shaped rooms and not so many hallways, I can style them as a pair.
I would say this is probably as finished as this room will ever get, and Lucy finds it pretty comfy, so that’s good enough for me.
Recently, I got a couple new blankets and an orange pillow to warm up couch for fall, start of the best time of year. After Thanksgiving I will switch into the reds and greens and then shades of blue in January. I love simple seasonal décor changes that are quick, easy, and not holiday specific. It’s the easiest way to change up the feel of a room for a few weeks or months without going over the top.
The day after I finished writing this post we bought two new to us, vintage, PINK VELVET, barrel chairs. They are what my old lady dreams are made of.
The pink chairs make it a little tight in the living room, but they are worth it. One day we will live in a house with a nicer sized living room and all of our furniture will fit and it will be glorious. Until then, we’ll just be extra cozy.
Have you rearranged anything in your home during the pandemic? Do you have plans to rearrange anything? Let us know in the comments.
