2 Years – Living Room

Whenever I feel depressed about the speed of progress around the house, I just drag out this picture. It was taken about 3 weeks after I moved in. The walls are blue, the kitchen is yellow, the curtains are lace, the floor is carpeted, and my stuff is everywhere.

I’m still not completely in love with my living room, but I’m certainly closer! Here’s a shot taken from the same position today:

And facing the opposite way:

If you guessed that the sculpture by my front door is there only because I’ve been avoiding carrying it back down the stairs into my basement, you get a sticker. Heavy sucker. If it stays there long enough, I might start using it as a coat hook.

I still love my cow rug, which is a relief considering how much of a presence it has in this room. It’s the easiest thing in the world to care for, though. Just sweep it off with a broom along the grain of the hair, or wash it with a sponge the same way.

If I were a real design blogger, with sponsors and advertisers and product reviews and fancy stuff, I would totally have styled this shot on the left with some summer scarves and, like, a burlap grocery bag full of flowers. But hey, this is how the house actually looks. I hang coats on my coat hooks. And I never have money for flowers.

The pipe shelving unit project is a favorite accomplishment. It has become something of a curio cabinet for me, attracting all kind of feathers, seeds, plants, shells, and art about feathers, seeds, plants and shells.

I do rotate items frequently, which keeps it fun. I’m trying not to bog this unit down with too much stuff.

Well, except for the gecko. He’ll be a permanent fixture once he’s big enough to move into the new vivarium.

Here’s the rest of the art collection:

These pieces also rotate. I’ll probably need to do some editing of the wall-o’-art in the near future; I’ve gathered a whole lot of stuff.

I like the effect for now, though.

And now it’s time to talk about the lingering ugly bits. Because while I may have a cute end table on this side of the sofa…

… what the heck is this thing? A bland Ikea bookcase holding a yoga mat and a cricket cage? No good. This should obviously be some kind of low, modern side table/credenza with doors to hide all of the weirdness. Like this thing. Too bad all the good thrifting for such furniture is on the west coast.

I think I have settled on using two end tables, though, over a coffee table. My living room is a decent size for a small Philly rowhome, but the space is long and skinny. Having that coffee table in the dead center of the room really messes up the flow of traffic. Which is why my table is here:

Yeah. That’s… special. I’m also going to need a low, modern media storage system, aren’t I. Why is attractive furniture so hard to get? Can’t I just build it all with pipes?

Oh, and then there’s that thing. Right. Pipes won’t fix that nonsense.

Ooorrr that situation. The astute among you may have noticed that my cable box is hiding somewhere that is nowhere near my TV. Definitely need to fix the wiring and consolidate this mess within a media storage unit.

And then there’s this. Every time my heating contractor comes in here, he tells me not to paint the brick. I remain unconvinced. I’ve scrubbed the heck out of these floor-level puppies and that’s as clean as they get.

Something’s getting painted. I don’t know what and I don’t know what color it will be, but it needs to happen soon.