There is always so much to do with a house, both inside and out. We are slowly, yet surely, making our new house our home.There are still so many other things that I want to do. The list grows longer and longer by the day and I’m convinced that it’ll never be complete. But that’s okay. I’m just grateful for a nice and safe place to lay my head.
This post is about our formal living room beginning to come together. There are a few more things we need in order to complete it, but it’s on its way. This is my color scheme. I found this Ralph Lauren Home fabric for $2 a yard. I’m planning on making drapes out of it. Total cost for custom drapes = $8. The pattern is actually quite small so I’m hoping it doesn’t clash with the sofa. If it does, I’ll use it to cover a chair seat or for pillows.
First up, our new sofa. I wasn’t looking for a print, but this was such a good deal I couldn’t resist. We got this at Linda’s Furniture on Highland Drive. They sell new and used furniture and we went there looking for a used sofa but found this instead. It was new but a floor model so it had been marked down significantly…and I mean significantly. I looked up the price online and it was a whopping $2000. Guess how much I paid. Nope, too high. $350.00. Yep. Three hundred and fifty dollars for a brand new Ethan Allen sofa. Whoo!!
I’ve been lusting after nail head details as of late and this just happened to fill that desire of mine. I haven’t even mentioned how comfortable it is to sit on. Cushy. Firm. Sturdy. Perfect. So, with all the perks, I was willing to go with a pattern.
Next up is this chair. Solid hardwood construction. I found this brand spanking new Holsgag Canada chair at DI for $15. I couldn’t find the exact one online but similar chairs were priced at over $100. It’s a petite-sized chair which is perfect for me, but I’m undecided whether or not it is too small for the space I have for it in the room. It may end up going somewhere else. Eventually I will recover the seat, not because it needs it, but just because it could use a little kick. I also have a dark green upholstered arm chair on the other side of the room.
I bought this fabric for about $6. I will use it for to either cover the chair or for pillows.
My lamp. I like the texture of the lampshade but the color blends in too much with the rest of the room, so I’d like to change that some time. But I just love the shape of its base. It’s resting on my piano.
This next piece of furniture deserves a post all its own. My mom’s dad built this for her mom in the ‘70’s. From what I understand, he wasn’t a vocally loving man and he wasn’t particularly kind, even. But he did love his family and showed it by always providing well for them and made sure they had nice things. He loved to woodwork and built this huge and lovely china hutch for his wife. Look at the detail!
I feel so, so privileged to have this piece passed on to me and I’m lucky I have space for it! Did I mention it’s about 7 feet tall? This is still a work in progress. I need to get some new glass for the doors. I’m not sure if all these things work in here, but they are mostly things we already have that are meaningful to us and just happen to be in the color range of the room. Great!
Here is some info about the accent pieces. I rarely buy things just because…I like to have some sort of connection to them. But two of the pieces in the hutch were bought on a whim. I’ve always wanted an hourglass and the one on the top left was actually bought for the kitchen (the accent color in there is granny apple green) but then I realized that the only place to put it is within easy reach of the kids. So for now, it’s here.
The # sign on the bottom is also a chance purchase from the clearance aisle at Hobby Lobby. Rob works with numbers all the time, so I figured it kind of worked for us. Plus, its carved out of a solid piece of wood which I thought was cool.
Rob brought the conch shell on top of the books home from his mission in the South Pacific. The books underneath it are from different countries we have visited. I still need to put something in the planter, but I don’t know what yet.The two photographs are from Rob and I. The next set of books were Christmas gifts for each of the years I worked for the Church. Next to them are Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower from my trip. The glass jar with nuts, etc. in it has no meaning. I just happened to have it. The brass bowl on the bottom is from Rob’s Grandma and Grandpa Williams from when they lived in Pakistan, I believe.
This oil painting was my first (and only) work of art. When I was visiting my Grandma Clark in Tehachapi, CA one summer when I was 10 years old she gave me a lesson. She is an artist and has done many paintings. This is a picture of the Tehachapi Mountains in which she lived at the time. I have many good memories of traveling to her red house in the mountains but her giving me a paint lesson using all her best oils is one of my favorite. Maybe I’ll take up the hobby some day…
The last thing to do is decide which art work we want on the wall above the sofa and above the chair. Since the furnishings ended up being very traditional in style we want to juxtapose them with something more contemporary and with something that stands out from all the green and beige tones. We have a large library of photos to choose from and if we don’t want any of those we can always go out and shoot what we want. But what do we want?? That’s the question that has left our walls bare.
If we ever finish the room, I’ll be sure to post the final project.
