miracles do happen

miracles do happen

they do. no really. want to know how i know?

my husband finally, finally, conceded to the fact that having a couch and two recliners and two shelves and a tv stand and a coffee table and three side tables and small table and mirror combo just might be a little bit too much furniture for a room that measures approximately 11 by 14.

so that is why at seven pm, my husband could be seen begrudgingly willingly carrying an old, torn to bits leather recliner to the curb.

i am hoping it either gets stolen or picked up by the trash people.
{fingers crossed}

so of course once the chair was out of my life way, i was giddy to get some work done in there.

i have to say that my hubby was such a good sport. he was not feeling well at all. all he wanted to do was to relax and watch some television and now that we have cancelled our cable the only tv that gets netflix is the one in our living room. but he is such a sweetheart that he finally posted up in the bed, conceding to only pout a little when i walked by the door on my way to grab a dust rag or the broom.



here is the living room when i got started. as you can see, we have one very large blue recliner right as you walk through the door and a pretty big couch that is supposed to be centered between the two windows. that back right corner was completely inaccessible and since that is where we keep a bulk of our dvds that was just not working for us so i wanted to free up that corner as much as possible.

the maroon and blue plaid pillow is leaned up against one of our three side tables which sits in front of our black shelves. the bottom of those shelves are covered with black curtains that i put there to keep sadie from chewing up dvds.



this is the view from the corner i mentioned above, looking back to where i was standing where i took the first picture. here is our very large blue recliner, another of our three side tables and our "mirror and small table combo". (the one that belonged to my grandma that i talked about in our house tour post). it is also a pretty good view of our rug which is a hot, hot mess. it does tie all of the colors in our room together (baby blue, navy blue, tan, khaki and brown) but since those are not the colors i want in here anymore it is the biggest eyesore. not to mention it is dirty. we got it while we had a puppy. i will just leave it at that.

you can also see here the coffee table which is really a great size and shape for the room and the couch but it really needs to be vamped up. maybe sanded down and stained a really pretty neutral gray? maybe painted? maybe a combination of paint and mod podge? who knows what the future holds for that sweet little table. i just know i don't like the color it is now.



and here is the view from the front door (that we never use). you can see where the blue leather recliner used to recline.  we get a lot of use out of the two black shelves on each side of the tv stand but i really think they could be brightened up and customized a little. this is also a nice shot of the third of our three side tables (the little clover shaped table in the bottom right corner holding the white candle). and you see the basket of blankets? i keep our air conditioner set on a nice, brisk 68 degrees. so most people need a blanket and meanwhile i am sweating it out under the fan.

are you ready for the afters??



the first thing i wanted to accomplish was to make some sort of an entry way. so i turned the couch and got it off the wall and used the back of the couch as sort of a new wall to create a pathway to the front door. i like how it divides the room physically but still leaves space visually for the eye to see the entire room as a whole. if we had a half wall there it would really make the whole space seem a lot smaller.



once i opened up that entire side of the room it seemed a little empty. we often have bible studies at our house and visitors occassionally so i wanted to make a new little seating area over there. i love this side table because it can really hold a lot. in that drawer we have all of our SD cards, index cards for writing recipes on (that i get out of magazines - the index cards take up waay less space than a glossy mag.) and a couple of notebooks for jotting in when an idea hits either of us. it also has those two great shelves where we are now keeping our collection of bibles. but wait - there's more! there are two magazine slots on either side of the table as well. one side holds my crossword puzzle clipboard and the other side is currently empty, waiting patiently for my next better homes and gardens or food network mag!  and those two little seats there are storage ottomans! one has a snuggie in it (yep gave in to the hype and got me an OSU one!) and the other has books that i want to keep but don't have anywhere to display (mainly harry potter and twilight).

oh and that pink basket to the far left has a washcloth that i have been knitting for almost a year and a baby blanket that my mom was crocheting for, presumably, my first child. i would really like to finish it for my sister in law but i don't know how to crochet and mom was left handed so i don't know if i can just pick up where she left off. so if you know how to do it i would love to learn! i will trade you crocheting lessons for the pink basket. ;)



here is a pretty nice view of the room as a whole now. to me it seems soo much bigger and a lot less crowded in there. and we might have gotten rid of one seat by losing the leather recliner but we gained two with the small storage ottomans! so it is a win-win for me!

oh - see that doorknob on the right hand side there? that is our "coat closet" which is right smack dab in the middle of the living room wall. which means that until now, it has been a major pain to get to. i had to move a chair and a table to get into it. now i just have to slide that little clover table forward about 4 inches and wa-la! instant "coat closet" access. except now it isn't a coat closet.

that is my crafting closet!
{post about that coming soon!}



and finally a view from the front door area. here you can see where i put the third side table (which matches the coffee table and will soon be getting the same treatment, whatever that may end up being).

i feel like i definitely made a big chunk of improvement in here but i also know that in order for me to absolutely la-la-looove it.. it still has a ways to go. but this has at least pushed me in the right direction in order to get it started.

so what are your thoughts? love it? hate it? think i should do this or that to it? i'd love to hear some more ideas for what to do with a small living room that is full of furniture.

i made a list of things i wanted to do in order to improve the space when i talked about painting my tv stand. let's update it a bit, shall we?

find less intrusive tv and a tv stand to go under it

paint the black shelves

new rug with bright colors to set the color scheme for the room

new window treatments

add trim to make the shelves look more custom and less tar-jay

possibly connect them over the tv to look like an entertainment stand

paint walls (most likely bedford gray)

get rid of bachelor pad recliners and get a chair/ottoman

(so i can't exactly cross this off but i can give a woot because i am 1/3 of the way there!)

paint coffee table and side tables.

art and accessories.