Front Room: In Progress

I wrote a few times last spring about refinishing the floors in our front room.  We had done the porch floors about a year ago and with the carpet looking worse for the wear in the front room we knew refinishing the floors was the right answer.

Almost 4 months later I have an update!  Which, is also the same amount of time we lived without a couch.  Although not the same 4 months since I last wrote about this room.

To refresh, here is basically what our front room looked like for the first 11 years we lived here.  The wall hangings changed a little but none of the major furniture, or it's placement, or the wall color, had.  (This is literally hours before the couches were gone.)

And here's where we left it just as the floors were done:

We finished the floors in early May.  I had spent some of our floor drying days looking at rugs online.  And ordering rugs.  And rug pads.  We've now bought SEVEN large area rugs (and rug pads) in the last 12 months.  Three on the porch, one for our bedroom, two in the front room, and one in Matt's office.   That's a lot of rug shopping. 

We bought this one for the front half of the room and this for the dining half.  That dining half one was originally supposed to be for Matt's office but turned out to be too big.  This is what happens when you are ordering rugs without being able to go in the room and being too impatient to wait 24 hours.  I think we are now done buying rugs for awhile (we are also out of rooms that need them, which is helpful).

Then we debated about couches for a good 6 weeks.  (This is after a good two months of debating couches already, between when my sister picked up the old ones and we finished the floor.)

You guys, couches are hard.  It was one of the few big furniture purchases we've made in ELEVEN years.  And I was pretty insistent of buying one online, mostly out of being lazy and not wanting to drag Luke around to a bunch of furniture stores while we got increasing frustrated with each other over not agreeing on a couch.  But buying a couch online, never sitting on or touching it, also not the easiest, although the lazier option.

We definitely hit a point where Matt told me he didn't care what couch we got, as long as we got a couch.  (But not the couch I wanted.  Any couch but THAT couch.) 

 And this is what we ended up with.  

Since we were giving up a couch and a loveseat I really wanted a couch with a chaise, mainly for movie watching convenience.  I swear I looked at every single grey couch with a chaise on the internet, under $1,000.  I looked at a lot of couches.  We bought this from Wayfair via Walmart because at the time Walmart had 10% eBates (my referral code in there).  TEN PERCENT.  When you spending that much on a couch, 10% back is a nice chunk. (And the couch has increased in price since we bought.  Score.)

This is what we are looking like now:

travel gallery wall | 30 minute pillow covers

I enjoy it all SO MUCH.  We didn't realize how bulky our old couches were until they were gone.  The new couch feels a lot lighter and the room, bigger.  (And it's comfortable too!)  The room feels brighter with the window fully exposed and a lighter color couch.  And still ALL the heart eyes for those floors.

This rug sheds like an animal, that's it's only fault.  (One of my sisters asked if we got a cat when she saw the fuzz balls it was turning up.)  We got an extra thick rug pad for underneath so it is pretty cushy to sit or lay on for movie nights (since there is NO WAY Luke is eating any food on the new couch, and popcorn is a must for movie night).

Besides the beautiful couch, in this room we also have one of the chairs we remade earlier this year.  The couch and chairs both have subtle lines in their fabric which helps tie them together.  The lamp is a new purchase from Target.  We previously had really cheap (dorm style) tall lamps and it was about time we classed it up a little bit more.  Snagged this one on sale just two weeks ago. 

Of course, the room isn't "done" yet.  I still have a list of things I'd like to do.  I'd really like to replace the end table:

With something more in this style (of course, Matt has been recruited to build this).

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Then the coffee table, which we bought on clearance for $30 at Target between agreeing to and closing on our house, could also use a replacement.

Something along the lines of this:

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Or this:

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(Which, again, I am heavily hinting that Matt build.  I just have a coffee table and end table and bed frame and two nightstands on the schedule for him to build next year.  He doesn't need to work for money, right??)

THEN, where that bookshelf is...

Matt is going to build (seriously on the docket to happen by the end of September, we already have the wood) some sort of floating shelves like this:

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(It's up to him on how the floating shelves are going to work, I'm the big idea person here, clearly.)

I am waaaay too excited about filling those (not yet existing) shelves.  May have started accumulating things specifically for them back in April...

(And the bookshelf that is there, made my by Grandpa, will be relocated to our closet once I tear out a little used vanity there.  No way I'm getting rid of something Grandpa made.)

This is the view from my office, as it is now:

BEAUTIFUL.  It's not 100% where I want it (For starters, besides what I already mentioned, I think that rug needs to be moved about 6 inches to the right but I haven't yet convinced Matt (the muscle, since the couch needs lifted) to help me make it happen.  Also, that blind needs a few stitches in it to fix it...) but it is SUCH an improvement over this:

(Although, I still have a fondness for those couches...I took so many great naps on them.)

Quickly, the back half of the room only had changes to the floors (and rug):

DIY easy tote bag

Those medals?  From placing 3rd (me) and 4th (Matt & Luke) in a 5k we did last month.  (Our placings are much less braggy if you saw our "winning" times.  It was not fast, at all.  And there were more than 4 people in the race, thank you for asking.)  (And if you noticed the missing lamp in the last picture...you are very observant.)

(AND I didn't even mention Matt's office much, which also has had a pretty big remodel thanks to the floors and a few other things (this problem, among them), which I plan to share soon as we finish the last pieces.)

This view still makes me so happy.  

Fully reiterating that the two weeks of crazy and mess we lived through was completely worth it.  Now if you could just help me convince Matt he needs to build 5 pieces of furniture...I'd really appreciate it.