SOME PROBLEMS SOLVED, SOME NEW IDEAS

Well first I decided what was really bugging me about the living room arrangement was where the fish tank was. Sitting where it was on the wall meant that no one would be able to see and enjoy the fish unless they went and stood directly in front of it and bent down. Many of you suggested getting rid of the fish tank but it happens to be Mark's and he does want to set it up... once I can finally pick a spot where it's going to stay since fish tanks are rather a pain to move once they've been filled up with water and fish! So, since no one ever sits in the wing chair on the right side of the fireplace because it's both too far from the other seating and you can't see the TV from it I decided to move both the chair and the fish tank and set up a fish viewing/reading nook in the corner. I added a lamp/table combo I was actually thinking about getting rid of and now it works perfectly. I'll just change the lamp shade for something less boring than the current generic white one and I think it'll look pretty cool. As an added bonus you can see both the TV and the bookcase I moved around the corner from this spot. It's really turned out quite nicely. So that's a big problem solved. Now we just have to actually set up the fish tank!

I moved the Chinese chest over to the other side of the fireplace and it looks nice there and is out of the way as well.

Here's the bookcase I moved around the corner, which kind of bummed me out because now no one could see it with its cool displays, especially Mark's collection of Egyptian cats. But from the new position of the chair it's perfectly visible.

For now the fish tank is still pretending to be a really odd table but once it's set up it will be really nice to sit in this chair and watch the fish. To the left is my Sappho statue Mark got me for Xmas and the pedestal I painted for it. The pedestal is not actually finished. As you can see, it's much too green because the method I used for adding that aged patina the statue has was the exact opposite of the method I usually use for antiquing a piece. So now I need to get some bronze paint and dry brush over the entire piece in order to do away with a lot of that green so it won't be so overwhelming. Also, I have to move the mirror up higher now so I can put the rose shelf and my Evil Queen back beneath it. My work is never done! LOL

Bella and Chaos approve of the current furniture arrangement. However, I figured out one of the things that was bugging me. My end tables are both too big and too low. This made the lamps sit too low and they therefore did not cast enough light. So I've used some boxes I have to set the lamps on in order to make them higher and this helps a great deal. But I am now on the hunt for smaller and taller end tables. Also, once I put an ottoman at one end of the couch the coffee table won't fit very well. So I think I may end up using one of my current end tables as the coffee table. Actually, square coffee tables are referred to as cocktail tables. I don't know why and I don't know why any of us need to know that but there you have it. LOL Anyway, I've also discovered that the glass tops are a HUGE pain to keep clean. It's a losing battle actually. And I'd actually like a coffee table we could put our feet up on if we felt like it and generally just use a little harder than we're able to use the current tables. So I have yet another idea. I'm going to remove the glass from whatever table ends up being the "coffee or cocktail" table and take a piece of plywood and back it with felt and then cover the top in slate tiles and set it on top of the table. This will be pretty inexpensive and the grays of the slate will go great with my color scheme. And the whole thing will be much more user friendly.

What follws are just some more random pics of the room. This will be my last "living room update" until I actually start getting some of my projects finished. And that's going to depend largely on when my tax return decides to show up!

So what do I have left to do?

1. Window treatment! Gotta go fabric shopping!

2. Recover wing chairs in black or gray/silver. More fabric shopping!

3. Acquire and recover an ottoman. Yep, still more fabric shopping!

4. Paint the long and L shaped walls.

5. Find side table and coffee table solutions/projects.

6. Redo the art on the long wall which is going to involve a complex decoupage project.

7. Purchase and paint knicknack shelves to go on the long wall.

8. Set up the fish tank (tho that's actually Mark's job).

9. Purchase a black table cloth and black seat cushions for the dining set. I've decided against refinishing them because I use the dining table as a work table so I'm bound to damage any finish or paint job I put on it. It's easier and more effective to just cover it up with a nice table cloth. And since I'm not going to do the table there's no point in doing the chairs. So there's some work saved.

10. Paint the storage armoire in the dining room.

11. Acquire and probably refinish barstools.

12. Purchase new rug for living room in vivid shades of red.

13. Make some more pillows for the living room.

14. Acquire a floor lamp to put in the corner by the sofa.

15. Find some cool red knicknacks to bring out the red pillows and (future) rug.

So there you have it! Wish me luck!

DESIGN INDECISION

Well here's Bella enjoying the fireplace. I'm glad SHE'S relaxed, 'cause I'm not! LOL

OK as you can see I've changed up this corner a bit. First of all, I moved the bookcase around the corner and put the cat tree in its place. This helps eliminate the unbalanced look and when I paint the wall gray here it'll help the cat tree blend in better and hopefully not be so noticable. Now about the TV stand... I haven't replaced it yet for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it turns out the TV armoire I THOUGHT I wanted from Target turned out to actually be cheap particle board with cheesy veneer when I actually went to the store and looked at it. Nor did it look as cool as it did in the picture. SIGH Then there's the issue of me just being cheap. Because the fact is there's nothing actually wrong with the TV stand we have now, it happens to be in perfectly good shape. So I feel guilty replacing it. It's only REAL drawback is that it just doesn't have enough media storage. And because it's so wide there's no room for a media cabinet. Also, I just LIKE the idea of the armoire because I like the ability to just shut the doors and have all the electronics hidden away. The indecision is killing me! LOL Any ideas or suggestions?

Yes I know the window looks like crap. Fortunately, I DO know what I'm going to do here! I'll be replacing the current window treatment with curtains in a silvery fabric (yet to be determined, it'll depend on what's available when I'm finally able to go shopping for it) with a valance that will actually go in the middle rather than on a seperate rod in front of the curtains. This is because I never close my curtains. My view is too pretty! Plus I do have a blind that I can close when it's hot and I want the room to be darker. The OTHER thing I'm going to do is raise up the curtain rod to the height of the ceiling and extend it out to where it touches the walls on either side. This is because the wall surrounding the window is very narrow and our fusebox is on that wall. The curtains will hide the fusebox this way and also give the window the illusion of being much larger. And it'll hide more yucky white apartment wall! Yay!

Now here's the real bane of my existence... no not Bella! Well, not most of the time anyway. LOL No, I'm talking about the wall behind her. On the plus side I've recovered all the couch pillows. The small ones are a metallic red cotton with a cool raised pattern. The big ones are done in black crushed velvet on one side and black upholstery velvet on the other incase I want to throw them on the floor. I'll do closeups later. Anyway, I think they look pretty cool. But then there's that blasted lonf wall. It's going to be painted in textured gray like I plan to paint the L shaped wall behind the TV. I also have a plan for dealing with the art and knicknacks that will look MUCH cooler than the current arrangement. So what's the problem? I'm just not happy with my furniture arrangement! For one thing, if you look to the left of the couch and see the tall black velvet draped "table"... well that's actually the dratted fishtank again! That's right, it's been booted from the bedroom and it's now in the living room. Where I also don't like it. And we can't set it up and put fish in it until I can finally decide where it's going to go! ACK! The OTHER problem is that the furniture in general, couch, tables, chairs, just don't "flow". There's not a good conversational area and the furniture just seems to be all bunched up in one section of the room. For the life of me I just can't figure out a configuration I'm happy with. Where are you guys when I need you?????

Well, at least Chaos also enjoys the fireplace. I guess if the creatures are happy something must be right! LOL Anyway, feel free to give me some ideas! Better yet, come over and help me move my furniture around! LOL