We are continuing to make more changes to the living room. It’s STILL not complete, but sometimes I feel like no room in my house will ever be 100% complete. I just thought I would share some of the updates since my last post…
Before I begin, please excuse the junk on the coffee table and the large cardboard boxes behind the sofa in the top photo. These big furniture deliveries always seem to come with HUGE amounts of cardboard and shipping materials. We have broken down SO many boxes for recycling over the past few weeks, and obviously we still have a few more to go. Also, on the coffee table are the components for some shelf lighting we purchased yesterday for the tops of the bookcases. Apparently we need some kind of adapter for them, so we can’t install them yet, but Tadd was still in the process of sorting them out when I took that picture.
Yes, we added an armchair! It’s so nice to have some extra seating. We needed something small-scale that wouldn’t take up too much room, but I also wanted something that either had an ottoman or footstool. This chair we ended up with is actually a recliner! So it takes up even less space. I love that it doesn’t look like a recliner. We ordered it at Overstock.com.
We finally got the baskets for the bottom shelves of the sofa table! I love it…SO much storage. One of the bins holds a small collection of household tools that we want to keep handy just in case (most of Tadd’s tools live in the garage); a hammer, a nail/wall hanger set, some basic screwdrivers, flashlights, etc. One will hold spare vases. And the rest is room to grow for now, until I decide on something else I want to store.
Ever since seeing this post by Thrifty Decor Chick, I have been wanting to buy a tillandsia (also known as an air plant). I finally found one yesterday at Ikea for $6! These are supposed to be really easy to care for…they don’t even need soil!
In addition to the tillandsia, I have been working on adding more decor (and color!) into the room. I bought the little ceramic fish planter filled with succulents at Lowes. The daisy plate and yellow/coral candle holders were from Hobby Lobby. And the framed bird postcards were from Ikea ($0.99 for the entire pack of 5 postcards and $2.99 each for the pre-matted frames!)
Still in the plans for the near future:
- Installing cabinet knobs on the bookshelves (we have the knobs, just need to install them).
- Installing the cabinet lighting we already bought once Tadd gets the adapter he needs.
- Paint/treatment on the backs of the shelves…still trying to decide exactly what I want to do with that.
- Spray paint some of the existing accessories to match the new color scheme.
- Curtains…Already found the panels I want. Just have to buy them and a curtain rod and install.
- Lamps…I want one table lamp for the sofa table and one floor lamp for over by the armchair.
And lower priority plans for a little bit further down the road:
- Looking for a piece of furniture that we can use as a small bar near where the living room transitions into the kitchen. We actually have a very small bar already (it was formerly the ONLY storage piece in our living room and held all my candles), but it has been broken for years. I would like something much larger, but it can’t be too deep because we don’t want the entrance to the living room to feel cramped and narrow.
- This is technically more in the kitchen then the living room, but while at Ikea yesterday, we saw a small shoe rack/bench combo that would be PERFECT for the area of the kitchen that transitions into the living room. That tends to be where our shoes pile up, and I thought the bench would be a nice place for me to set my purse down when I walk in the door.
By the way, now that we have been really living in it for a week or so, I can say that I am completely, totally in love with my new living room. The new layout and furniture are doing exactly what I had hoped they would: provide a feeling of coziness, and an amazing amount of storage.
