The living room – or parlor, if you want to sound fancy - use to be horrendous. Literally, clutch your children close & shield their eyes because it’ll probably scar them for life awful.

Blue, red, and yellow with laminate floors {as of course all the previous occupant’s stuff}.

While the floors were refinished, it didn’t look that much better after we moved in.

But slowly, over the past several months, thing are starting to improve.

Painting made the most dramatic difference. {We’re still ignoring the primed-only ceiling, m’kay?}

The BONDE cabinets lightened up too and now wear sparkly new-old hardware.

And of course there was the whole couch debacle that turned into an unexpectedly large project.

The living room is by no means done but there were requests to see some wide-angle shots.

Here’s what things are looking like as of last night -

Not done, by any means. But certainly leaps & bounds better from that BLUE AND RED {!!!!!!!!} combo.  

The BONDE cabinets really do seem lighter & smaller visually now that they’re the same as the wall color.

The two chairs have been around forever. Found the leggy one at a yard sale in college. I wish I remembered how much I paid for it.

That table in between the chairs was found on the side of the road last summer. The top folds down, which I thought was cool.

The walls are Sea Pearl, by Benjamin Moore. I think the photo below shows it most accurately it. It’s a grayish beige. {Rambling Renovators used it in their master bedroom, if you want to see it in another space.}

You might also notice that “basket” above isn’t really a basket. It’s the lampshade that came with the amber glass lamp!

The mirror behind it isn’t staying. Picked that up at a yard sale a couple weeks ago for $0.80.

One day, that large blank wall will be home to all my doll molds. For now, Da Vinci the yellow metal bird chills there. Thinking he might look good in the garden. Or maybe the office if that ever gets painted.

Above is another decent shot of the wall color. It’s a very good off-white. Light but it looks like a color when paired with white-white trim {stock white Behr semi-gloss}.

After looking at these photos, I think it’s blatantly obvious how much this room desperately needs some color. Things swung from color-overload with the red/blue/yellow to almost completely neutral. The “After” lies somewhere in between.

YAY Progress!!

In the apartment, we had a large tan sectional. It worked beautifully in that at space.

In this house? Not so much.

That’s the living room right after move-in day. Sexy, no?

Through a series of unfortunate events, the sectional became too badly torn to donate or pass on to anyone. It went out for bulk pick-up and – after significant stalking – Craig, King of the Lists, came through.

For $50, this 7′ long, clean, blue-green velvet beauty had me at deep-button-tufted-goodness. She’d been in storage for the past 15-years {bed-bug free!} and, before that, lived in the “good living room” not to be touched except on special occasions or adult visitors. So basically, barely used {or so I am told}. Sold.

Welcome home, Mami.

Ditch that ugly skirt and it’ll be perfect. My own little taste of Hollywood Regency in this eclectic mix I call home.

And that should have been that, right?

Take the skirt off and be done with it. Right?

RIGHT??????

Not so much.

Christmas day – with all my family over – the support holding the back left leg broke. Whop whoppppppppp.

Thank goodness my 91-year-old grandmother wasn’t sitting on it!

What was supposed to be a relatively easy replacement of the leg support turned into a massive reconstruction of the entire frame. Not all vintage sofas were made to last, people. Let that be a lesson to you.

Isn’t that always the way?

A simple, straightforward, supposedly easy project comes with unforeseen speed bumps and, as layer by layer is removed, it balloons into a much {MUCH!} larger project.

Story of my life.

However, I really like the existing upholstery and that was in great shape. If this had also been a reupholstery job, Mami may found itself waiting for bulk pick up too.

Luckily, I have the best father on the planet Earth who fixed it for me. {This is the same father who went and picked it up from the seller and delivered it to my house. Yup. Best Dad Ever.} Not that I couldn’t have fixed it {because I totally could have given enough time & curse words} but sometimes you just have to let the master work. I took notes and helped hold the crowbar.

Also, almost anything can be fixed with either plywood, spackle, or caulk.

Dad even added a center set of legs for additional flop support {because you HAVE to have a floppable couch!}.

TA-DA!!!!

She’s mighty comfy and sturdy, by the way. Not sink-in-able but pleasantly firm. Good for shorter naps, dog snuggling, and 3-bottle-o-wine girl nights.

So here’s how the living room is looking these days -

I’m not loving the new rug with the new-old couch. I think they’re too similar in tone. The gray might move up to the guest room. Ideally, I’d like this rug but at $900 that’s unlikely. Suggestions?

Slowly but surely, it’s coming together. In the meantime, MY LIVING ROOM HAS A COUCH!!! What a thrilling concept.