Zone 2 - The Living Room (post 3)

*** I apologize in advance for the obscene amount of pictures in this post. Since this is already my 4th post regarding one room in my house (you can find the other 3, here, here, and here, if you bored out of your head), I decided to make it very long instead of adding yet another post. The jury is out on if I made the right call. ***

So, I'm allergic to not changing.
We have lived in the SAME house for THREE STRAIGHT YEARS!  And, while this has been a really amazing experience...I have realized I've become accustomed to change.
I'm unnerved by things staying the same for such a long time.
Which means I needed to re-arrange furniture.

Naturally.

 This is what my Living Room looked like when I was starting February:

Not bad. Not great.

This is a long room with a gazillion windows. 

And has been the hardest room I've ever had to decorate and configure furniture. 

I love the windows! 

I love the fireplace! 

But holyheckamama it is super difficult to lay out.

The white kid-size table was a FANTASTIC Craig's list find - and didn't normally sit in that spot. 2 chairs (that were as comfortable as they were ugly), occupied that particular zone. But the chairs were out of the house for a little bit while Molly from The Industrial Cottage worked her custom-slip-cover magic.

Then one night after we put the kids to bed, My Love said something in response to one off-hand remark I'd made a couple days earlier. He said,

"Honey, you want to re-arrange the living room furniture?" 

File that under "Top 10 sexiest phrases ever."

Within an hour and a half, every single piece of furniture had been moved. 
Yes, he loves me. 

Biggest life-altering furniture move?
Taking the piano off the wall...and backing it up to the couch. LOVE it there!

But it wasn't complete.....not by a long shot. 

Poor man.

One week later, he came home to an obscene amount of picture frames (and other stuff) laid on the floor in a specific pattern...and a wife with a I-have-a-project-going-and-won't-be-able-to-sleep-until-it-is-done-face.

I told you he loves me!

A LOT.

Now, every time I walk in the living room I smile - because that wall says he loves me.

Really, he had a LONG day and came home and hung all those pictures, even though he wanted to just sit on the couch and do nothing.

Without a ladder.

Yep.

He just stood on the back of the couch and leaned back on me.

I'm a helper. :)

The bare spot under the long shelf is supposed to have a picture under it (see it hiding on the couch??)....but the command strip didn't work. I'm impatient, and wanted to post pictures anyway. Please use your imagination.

Also imagine there are actual pictures that mean something to OUR family in all of those frames...because the pictures they came with are hanging on my wall. Eventually, 8 of the small frames will have a picture of the front door from every house we've lived. 

Here is the final tour....

The view from the back of the room -

Chair #1with a custom slipcover in bleachable white denim. :) It makes me very, very, happy. We turned the bookcase on it's side and now it is an easily accessed kid zone. It holds some toys and children's books. (See earlier post detailing how we contain the beast known as kid stuff.) 

Courtesy of Craig's list, the neighborhood can now watch tv from the alley behind our house.

You're welcome, neighborhood.

View from the middle of the room (above) and the front of the room (below).

Please note beautiful chair #2. Also known as the-most-comfortable-chair-you-will-ever-sit-in. Which is what has saved its life all these years. Your butt is just super happy in that chair. Now my eyes are happy to look at it, too!

(Imagine the TV cabinet and giant TV on the right of the above picture.)

(And my floating shelves with the owls on them above the white chair in the back of the room)

There you have it! Our living room - Zone 2 - as of this second.

There is no guarantee that I will not change something in the future....but it will definitely NOT be the picture wall. 

Or the furniture layout.

But a nice round, wood, coffee table?

(something like this one I saw at Haynes)

Maybe an accent table?

(Like this super funky one from Target)

And a beautiful lamp?

(not that we would EVER buy this - but I love the look of it!)

Oh Pottery Barn, why do you have such lovely things?

I could see stuff like that migrating in. 

Window something or other should probably happen too....but my brain is hurting from all this decorating already. 

Now my poor second floor is naked. 

But hey, my kitchen is organized, my living room is beautiful, and I finally figured out a system that keeps the toy mess at bay!

I'm calling it a win. 

Thanks for reading!

~Whitney Copyright 2013