I finally got tired of having a torn-apart living room and decided to go ahead and change a few plans. Everything has been revolving around the fact that my front door (which I don’t use except to lean out and grab the mail) opens smack into my living room as seen in this post. I scrapped the loveseat-in-front-of-the-door idea though partly because I didn’t like the curtains I’d put up to disguise the door (it didn’t look like what I’d imagined) and partly because it dawned on me that the dining table didn’t have to go against the half wall, that I could put it further into the living room if I wanted to. And so I did.

It’s parked smack against the bathroom wall; there is room to pull it out to add two more chairs to the other long side or just to spread the existing four chairs evenly around it. Then the question was: if I’m not covering the front door over and therefore don’t have that for wall space, where do I put the seating? I didn’t want it all along the wall opposite the table because I didn’t want the table to be the focal point and I wanted a cozier atmosphere than that, so I’ve taken my two of my three seating options and placed them in a cozy, chatty arrangement seen above. I have a few things to add to that space but nothing big.

That cozy, chatty arrangement then created a space at the front of the room like so:

So what to do with this space? The curtains from the door will be coming back off. I’ll use the rod in my bedroom makeover instead and either return the two panels (I’ll only get store credit though) or use them to upholster that little swivel rocker in the photo above. I’m thinking a papasan-type chair (I’m talking with someone on kijiji about one) where the clock and painting are leaning and a tall bookcase to the right of that. I have a cheap 6-foot tall one at my mom’s that I could pretty up. A little paint, a plywood back instead of the carboard one, fill in holes that I won’t be needing for the adjustable shelving, and there’ll be room on the bottom for B’s books and room on the top for mine with a bit of room interspersed throughout for a few large knick-knacks (I’m not a knick knack girl). The little chair above will get a new dress and probably be slid down to the other end of the loveseat, still on the back side of it though. Maybe a cozy little rug tossed down on the floor, a small end table (or something posing as one) for the little chair and we’ll be good to go.

So that’s the what things are right now. The living room still needs a couple coats of paint in a nice neutral slightly-browner-than beige colour, pictures and other wall accents need to be hung, a few accessories need to be picked up, and projects need to be started and completed. I’ll update when it’s done! There are still a few small things to be done in the kitchen as well and the closet in the back entrance and then it’ll be an almost-completely done (damn that bathroom!) upper floor. Full before and after photos will be posted at that time. Exciting!