Christmas Present For Ourselves

I feel like I start every post lately with how busy I am, but sadly, it's still true. This is the time of year where my job takes over and I've been working 12-14 hour days over the past few weeks. Last year I was able to prepare, by starting my holiday projects earlier, but with the charity event I worked on taking place the first weekend of December, I had no choice but to jump into work mode as soon as the event ended.

Oh well, Christmas happens every year, and there will always be time to get to the projects I didn't have time for this year. Not going crazy and taking on more than you can handle is important for your sanity sometimes.

So instead of spending time crafting and scrambling to make last minute Christmas gifts this past weekend, we did something for ourselves. We took a drive down to Charlotte and bought the very important first piece toward finally fixing up our family room, a new couch.

 Karlstad, by IKEA, in lindo beige

I'd done quite a bit of research over the past year or so on sectionals, and found quite a few that I liked the look of, but not the price. So we decided to go with the Karl, since at $999 it was a lot easier to swallow than the others that were in the $2,500-3,500 range. I love that it has the removable cushion covers, so it will be easy to clean, and how comfortable it is (well, the in-store one was, we still need to break ours in a bit). I'm sure that being from IKEA and at that price point it won't last forever, but given the fact that we have pets, I don't think spending more on a couch would make it last longer either.

Our family room has a LONG way to go, considering all we've done is paint the walls and trim, and scrape the popcorn off the ceilings. But getting rid of our 70's couch we bought at a thrift store in 2001 is a good first step!

Right now we've got way too much beige on beige with the laminate flooring. But just envision it in about 2 1/2 years, once we get pretty walnut hardwood floors for our 5th wedding anniversary (the 'wood' anniversary), which will tie in nicely with the ceiling beams.

But since new floors are a ways away, for now I'm going to be searching for a bold area rug to break things up and anchor the seating area. I wanted a really neutral colored couch, so we can bring in color in other ways, namely with fun throw pillows and a rug, and eventually wall art.

Some mock ups I've been playing around with, although I'm still not set on a rug style, or even color yet.

 Hand-hooked Alexa Moroccan Trellis Wool Rug

 

Herringbone Rug in Grey

Herringbone Rug in Navy (sadly not available until March in 8' x 10')

The coffee table in my mock ups is the Pottery Barn Benchwright Coffee Table, which retails for $699, but I plan to build it using Ana White's plans for much cheaper. I think it will work great with my plans to bring in some more wood elements to go with our beams (walnut floors and tables), to play off of the neutral furniture and really make the bright colored walls and accessories pop.

And of course, we still have plans to build a facade over our huge red brick fireplace on the other side of the room, which we're planning to tackle in late January. We're still working on the plans, but as a reminder, I made this mock up while painting of what the other side of the family room will eventually look like, sans furniture.

So yeah, lots of stuff to do in this room. But since we're now only two weekends away with being done with our never ending bathroom project, we can finally start working on the family room, which we were going to start in July, if only we hadn't found mold in the bathroom. I can't wait!

Did you buy yourself any Christmas gifts this year? I love that my husband and I did a joint gift to ourselves, since it takes all the pressure off to think up a good surprise gift!