The Room Where We Live

I think one of the hardest parts about this blog (aside from having clean enough rooms to take current pictures) will be locating "before pictures". For a small house, it sure has enough black holes for computer disks to disappear into.

Perhaps I should work on organization too.

We call our living room the bowling alley. It's long and skinny, which aren't really desirable features in our most occupied room. Furniture arrangement has been a constant puzzle. I used to rearrange regularly.

When we moved in, I painted the walls an orangey tan color called "Dune". I went for a tan/dark red motif, because that's what the early 2000's were all about. We had next to nothing as far as furniture was concerned, but we soon began to fill it up with garage sale purchases and the cheapest furniture we could find. We eventually ended up with burgandy curtains, a dark brown couch and loveseat set, black shelving, and a huge darkly colored rug.

I liked it in the spring time and fall when I could open up the front door and let natural light in. But in summer and winter, it felt like a cave. We have a huge picture window in the front that is very old and very drafty, so the curtains were always closed. (That's a really expensive project that we hope we will someday have the funds for. It would save us so much money in energy costs!)

Looking past the adorable children, you can see why I often felt closed in, like there was too much clutter. And since I spent about 89% of my life in that house, eventually, I decided it needed a change.

As it always does around here, change came slowly. First, I repainted the walls in a gray-taupey Sherwin Williams color called "Roman Column". Three years later, I still love it, although sadly, they discontinued it, so unless I can find some touchup paint in the basement, I may be repainting soon. Even with lighter walls, it still took awhile to purge out the red and brown. Rugs are expensive! As are couches!

Eventually, I pulled this look together.

Or variations of this look anyway, since I was still constantly rearranging furniture.. We swapped the dark brown couches for the light one we had in our basement, took down the red curtains, and got a thirty dollar rug. The black bookcases and entertainment armoire didn't feel as heavy anymore, so they got to stay as they were.

After a couple years though, some things needed updating. The children had trashed the couch. It was stained and literally falling apart. The dog had puked on the rug more times than I cared to remember, and Homegirl was about to start crawling. 

We made do with an old futon for about a year. It sucked. George made it gross. Thing Two had some potty training accidents on it.

So, on Christmas morning, when I saw this, it was like angels singing.

We had been discussing this couch for awhile. It solved a lot of problems for us. It worked with our long, awkward room. It was wipeable. And even though my style dream would be white slip covered couches, that didn't seem very practical with three kids and a messy dog. Second best Christmas surprise ever. (The first being exactly one year before when I found out Homegirl was on the way.)

This couch also makes it impossible for me to rearrange the furniture, but I haven't had even one inkling to since we got it. It seems to just make sense now. I also used five dollar Wal-Mart white sheets to make no-sew curtains, and I love them.

A few weeks ago, we finally replaced that gross rug (even though, I admit, I liked the look of shag), with a huge carpet remnant we got a great deal on. 

So, I'll stop prattling on. Here's the living room currently. Notice I said "currently" and not "normally". Normally it's covered in baby toys and dog fur.

Much brighter than the old days, even on a cloudy day like today.

TV area, featuring a dresser I painted last year. Still need to do something about the wires.

Our old garage sale recliner. It's not pretty, but I use it a lot. I'd like to find a more modern lamp.

Ikea pillows

Awkward space behind the couch. I'd like to do something more functional here. Maybe shelving? And I love that armoire, but I'm thinking about painting it. (Surprise, surprise.)

Still need to add homegirl's handprint to the picture.

So that's where we are right now. I like it much better in here, but there are still things that need to be done. I'd like to do more artwork, more fabrics and tweak a few things. Needs a pop of color. I've been entertaining the thought of yellows or turquoise in here. We shall see.

A brave new day of blogging for Sethswife

Setting sail on a new blogging adventure, my friends.

Okay, that sounded really epic. That might have been a little misleading. It's really not going to be that fascinating.

Seth and I often refer to our home of nine years as our practice house. When we bought it, there was a five year plan to be out of it. Well, we're still in it. And we probably will be for awhile, thanks to plummeting property values in our area. 

Sometimes, I struggle with wanting to move. Usually every spring when I get irritated with smoking, rowdy neighbors and a teeny tiny lawn. This house is small for our family of five, and the closet situation leaves much to be desired. It's old, outdated and can be hard to clean and maintain.

But, it's home. It's the place we've hung our hats for most of our marriage. It's the only house our kids have lived in. 

It's sorta like an old ratty tee shirt that you can't help but be comfortable in.

We are not awesome at designing, building and renovating. But we're learning. Sloooooowly.

I like to read a lot of interior design blogs (as you will soon see in my "Inspiration" list off to the side). I drool over these houses and think "how can I make it look like that in here?"

Well, the truth is, I probably can't. I have to work with the house and the (nonexistent) budget I'm given. So this blog won't be one that wows you with perfect design. But hopefully it will encourage me when I'm in one of those discontent moods that this house is changing and becoming more beautiful and comfortable. And maybe it will inspire me to work harder at it.

And maybe it will get me to clean up more. 

We'll see.

P.S. Lots of photos to come.