Sitting Room Makeover

Back when Melina came to visit this January she helped me pick out a fun new area rug to help perk up our sitting room area in our kitchen, which desperately needed some help (check out the original post here).  Even though we spend lots of our time together in this room, other projects in the house needed our attention more desperately when we first moved in, so we lived with the mismatched fabric and tired upholstery.  It's no wonder I never took a true before photo (whoops!)-- but this is at least an early one that shows the new rug Mel and I picked out. 

So at this stage in the process, the rug had given us a starting point, but we hadn't yet decided what to do about the rest of the space.  The couch is a hand me down from my parents and is a sleeper sofa, which could come in handy when we have an overflow of guests... but then again, we'd have to be pretty desperate to put someone up in the kitchen. I love the couch's lines and how wonderfully comfortable it is, but the color of the corduroy fabric has faded over the years into a blah, muddy yellow, which needed to go.  As soon as possible.

Here's what I ended up doing to spruce up the place:

1) Big decisions: have the sleeper sofa reupholstered (professionally-- no way I was going to try to tackle that beast!)

OR

Find another sofa to fit the space;

2) Paint and reupholster the side chair, also in desperate need of some attention;

3) Paint the coffee table in hopes of camouflaging the cheap "wood";

4) Paint the double doors going out to the screened porch to match the trim.

Reupholstering and painting the old side chair was such a fun, satisfying project, and it gave me a chance to try out something wilder than I normally go for on a small scale (knowing if the result was awful I could always repaint it in no time).  

The coffee table (also a hand me down-- we'll take anything from anyone:)) is a great size and has decent lines, but the color and quality of the wood left a lot to be desired.  Two coats of Rustoleum's oil based paint and suddenly this homely, utilitarian table looks a million times better.

And the sofa... After months of considering the pros and cons of reupholstery v. buying a new couch, we finally made a decision!  We had looked online at possible replacements, but I couldn't find something that 1) fit the space and 2) that we loved enough to justify the cost of a new sofa. So when I ran across a single cushion camelback for less than $300 at a local consignment shop, I knew it was time to pull the trigger.  Happily we found a good home for the sleeper sofa and sold it on Craigslist easily, and I figure it can pay for an aerobed for any extra guests.  And they won't have to sleep in the kitchen:)

Here's the after, or at least what it looks like now.  Progress! 

xo

Liza