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Around the House: A Livable Living Room

Although I’ve been slacking on posts, we haven’t been slacking on projects around the house. In fact, my mind has been racing lately with a whole list of things I’d love to get done around here. One of which was to replace the couch in our living room with something large and comfy, but clean lined and modern at the same time. I mentioned what I hoped to find way back here.

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Well, after much looking around, I found some gorgeous options, but none in our price range. At all. And some in our price range, but not at all what I was envisioning. So we did nothing. And then one day, it dawned on me out of nowhere, that the perfect couch for our living room was one we already owned. Yep, the monster we bought for the basement forever ago.

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The one we rarely use, because we’re always in our living room and never in the basement. It was so perfect, I have no idea why it took me so long to figure this one out. There was only one tiny problem….

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When we moved that couch into the basement in the first place, we (only half jokingly) said it would sell with the house because it was never going to fit back up the stairs. The holes in the wall above was a result of getting it down there, and that was with gravity on our side. So the hub was not too optimistic about getting it back out. Like ever.

But I’m an optimist who believes in the power of positive thinking. And I surmised that what went down, could indeed come up again. So I persuaded Brett that it was possible and asked for some manual labor for my mother’s day present (yeah, I’m a little behind on posting…). I’m crafty like that. You can’t say no to mom on mother’s day. Use that power wisely ladies.

Lowe and behold, I was correct and the couch came up even easier than it went down, thanks to our good friend, Derek, coming over to help with the move.

And seriously guys… I couldn’t be happier. Not only was our old furniture looking stained and sagging, but it was never even close to enough seating, despite looking huge (thanks overstuffed couch arms!) and taking up a ton of room. Even Brett agreed that this was the best idea I’ve had in a long time (I’m choosing to ignore the implication that some of my ideas aren’t great) and said he loves it too.

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I also love how dramatic the charcoal color looks against the blue walls and bright pillows. The old stuff always looked a little dirty to me… partly because it was dirty, but mostly because it was the perfect shade of not-quite-white that leaves you confused as to if it is really supposed to be white or not. You know… that color. And speaking of the older furniture, it was relocated down to the basement. Which is perfect (and perfectly free) for now, since it still works, but just isn’t what we want our guests to see or sit on in our main living space. I still have to set it up down there, but I’m confident it will blend right in.

So all in all, our living room has become much more livable. We can all stretch out comfortably now, which is quite a feat considering one of us is 6’5″ tall. The only problem now is that the dark charcoal couch (in stark contrast to the cream that used to live here) is making the dark room feel slightly more cave-like. Solution: I’ve already replaced the heavy curtains and started painting the fireplace and bookshelves white. :D Yes-mam, I’m going all out and it looks like a brand new room. Sneak peak:

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See? A very messy new room. More updates to come!

Dawn

3 Comments

  • Sandra Koll

    Love free solutions! Glad it came up easier then going down. Was that an old pic of your drywall, or is it still all busted up? The “new” couch looks great in that space!

    Reply
    • Dawn Sailors

      Thanks! And honestly… both. It is an old picture, but it is also still busted up. Haha. I haven’t gotten around to fixing it yet, which actually proved useful, since we would have made another hole getting the couch back up anyway. Apparently that is the technical reason it came up easier. The couch must be just a couple inches too big to fit around the stairs, so Brett actually used the existing hole in the wall when bringing it back up. Embarrassing, but yay for procrastination paying off! :)

      Reply
      • Sandra Koll

        It’s almost satisfying when procrastination pays off! Great job on leaving it! :)

        Reply

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