I got some gift cards and gift money for Christmas, in addition to my year-end bonus, so I was excited to use it for new living room furniture. I mean, I am frugal and all, but at almost 31, I was tired of having my living room look like a college apartment. Sadly I don't think I have any "before" pictures, but I'm sure you've seen the furniture in other previous posts. My coffee table was from 1979, I think, and I got it courtesy of my parents. My friend Meghan kindly gave me her old arm chairs as they were getting rid of furniture in preparation for finishing their basement. And our couch was a college graduation gift from my mom almost 10 years ago. So, suffice to say, as much as I appreciated getting furniture for free, it was time for a change.
Here's what I got:
--An upholstery cleaner from Amazon.com, which made our couch look like new (since I really do love our couch, but with a cat and a toddler, it looked like it had seen better days. The upholstery cleaner made it look practically like new--much more cost-effective than buying a new couch!)
--Two new armchairs from Target.com. They even had some 15% deal going on, and with your Target red card you get free shipping and an additional 5% off, so instead of paying $300 for two chairs, I only paid a little over $240.
--A gorgeous ottoman with script writing all over it. I told Dan the ottoman was made for us; it has images of the Tower Bridge in London and the Eiffel Tower--two of my favorite places. And, it also has "Rome" stamps on it, and Rome is, coincidentally, the next big trip we are going to take. See? I told you it was made for us.
--A new coffee table
--A new shelf that helps us organize our toys very well. I feel so much better when there is a place for everything; definitely helps our place feel less cluttered.
--A beautiful new blue rug; I love red, but I felt like our living room was too heavy on the reds and the taupes. I wanted to bring something else in, so since blue is my favorite color, I decided I'd bring that in to add more visual interest.
And I may still get some new throw pillows for the couch to match the ottoman, but we'll see; I don't want to be too heavy on the patterns.
So this is the one before picture I have of my 1970s coffee table
My new favorite reading "nook" in our house; I may get a new lamp for that shelf too. And I love the organization that shelf adds to our place!
I absolutely adore this new ottoman; it matches this really expensive chair (in both pattern and quality) that I saw in Steinhafels for like $900; this was only $67. Score!
That cool book on the coffee table was one of my Christmas gifts from Nancy; I love it!
