Well I think the title of this blog sums it up fairly well. Why is it when I have things I need to do, I instead find other things to do? Like rearranging rooms, moving dressers from the basement to the main floor to the garage to the dining room and family room to the basement again? Does anyone else ever find themselves doing this?
The family room has a gas fireplace and is also where we keep the tv. On Wednesdays our home is opened up for a high school small group to meet in, we are not the leaders, they use our home for a meeting place and all we need to do is clean it. Well we probably don’t even have to do that but we do.
In our basement we have a room that could be a family room, play room, workout room, etc. This means our home has three areas that could be used for sitting/tv watching, playroom, etc. Our formal living room is never in use, at all. Ok, well we use it for the occasional piano lesson and also the dogs think it is a great place to go when you have to throw up, less traffic in there I guess.
Then we purchased the leather set and I switched out the IKEA stuff into the family room.
Now here is the family room since June. I’ve rearranged this room too many times in six months. Just ask the poor youth group kids, I’m sure they think I’m a nutso, everytime they come the furniture is either rearranged or is not the same furniture that was in the family room two weeks ago.
After realizing the ektorp sofa was getting too dirty for me and I was tired of washing it every two weeks, I made the decision for it to go in the basement room which has a tv in it and no where to sit. It worked out nicely as our guests stay in the basement so now they have somewhere to sit (a dirty slipcovered sofa) and watch tv if they want. I don’t think anyone has done this yet, maybe because the slipcovers look like they haven’t been washed since 1976 we are so fun upstairs no one wants to be in the basement away from the party.
The leather couch ended up in the family room with the white Ektorp chairs which for some reason stay much cleaner than the couch did. Maybe because the only ones that sit in the chairs are the dogs?
My evil plan to switch the living room and dining room casually happened the other day and the hubby was pretty cool with it. I moved the chairs and blue dresser/console/buffet whatever we want to call it into the formal living room along with the dining room table and chairs.
I moved the leather loveseat into the family room and reunited the leather couple. The white dresser/buffet from the dining room went into one of our daughter’s bedrooms. I then brought the black buffet that used to be in our old dining room and was residing in the basement back up into the family room. Then the old white buffet that was in our old dining room before the black one but that I painted coral one day on a whim ended up in the garage but has since been moved to the basement room where the ektorp lives. Do you have that all straight? HA!
This is the family room today. It was fun decorating the mantle, I missed doing that when the tv was over the fireplace, it made it really hard to put anything on the mantle.
The hubby removed a drawer from the dresser and had a spare piece of half inch plywood leftover in the garage from another project, so he cut that to fit in the bottom of the drawer space.
I painted the plywood black and now we have a nice new home for the Wii and Blu-ray player. My hubby then drilled a hole in the back of the dresser for the cords to fit through and we put some duct tape over the hole so you can’t see the light coming through the hole in the back of the dresser.
I had a few problems with it though and it wasn’t sitting pretty with me.
We are ordering a longer HDMI cable so we can move everything a little more to the left to cover up the cable outlet on the wall. With two good size holes in our wall, I think the tv and dresser will be staying on this wall for quite a while. Or until I have PMS again and want to rearrange everything.
I can’t decide which chair I prefer in the corner, I am leaning towards the white ektorp but then I won’t have the matching chairs flanking the buffet in the dining room. What’s a girl to do?
Here is the reason why the blue blanket is missing on the back of the sofa in the picture above.
The bookshelf will be getting a paint job and I am going to cover the back with some fabric, paper or a different color paint. Eventually I’d like a mirror for over the mantle and I”m debating a gallery wall around the tv. For now, I’m pretty happy with how this room is coming along. Next week I’m hoping to show you the formal living room turned into the dining room but don’t hold me to that.
I can promise you a posting next week from this guy though and you will definitely want to read it and maybe even let your hubby/man read it to!
Ha, I laughed at your PMS comment…sometimes we get into wicked room changing do it all at once moods. I like the new space though and I vote for the Ektorp chair in the corner.
FYI, we buy a lot of our cables and even tv hangers at monoprice.com.
I love this post — and all the rearrangements!
Hope you are well
Off to read more of your posts to see what you've been up to lately.
Take care
Jenny
Oh my gosh, your little pups are so cute. I love rearranging! Your place looks great too!
I have so much to say and am going to forget half of it…but first and foremost I have to be all about me and wonder aloud why oh WHY don't I have a hubby that can do anything remotely like that. I will never admit how much we paid to have our TV put on the wall and all the other shenanigans, only to get a new console/cabinet deal that is inches away from it and now one of the speakers would have covered the whole kit and kaboodle anydangway. /vent
You are awesome. What is Savers, and where do I sign up for my rad $12 chair??
Where did the blue cabinet go I got lost.
I heart ektorp forever.
I have that same floral pillow that is in the ektorp chair at the end there.
Loving the end result of all your labors (do you move this stuff alone? You're my hero, I need to workout with you asap), needs more floor lamps. I want this to be over by the ektorp or savers chair, whichev.
I LOVE these kinds of posts…I must be a voyeur. Happy weekend Ange!
No wonder I haven't heard much from you lately. Busy girl, you! Honestly, all of the ways you have arranged the furniture look great! Can't wait to see what the hubster writes.
Haha, I'm constantly changing my rooms around as well (drives my husband nuts!).
I found an easier way to plan it out:
I miss the beautiful blue dresser behind the leather couch though! One suggestion I have is place the leather sofa couch/blue dresser where you have it in one of the above pics, with the leather loveseat on the wall opposite the window, and place the blue side chair in the corner in-between the fireplace & window (in front of the bookcase), and put tv over fireplace.
However, I understand you might not want to move the tv again…and I too, don't necessarily prefer the tv above the fireplace (I like pretty artwork instead).
But I still miss the beautiful blue dresser in the living room!!!
Ohmygosh that was a long a** post! You are all over the place, as usual! Your husband is a hero for running those cords behind the wall knowing he'll be patching them up next week. Hee hee. I loved the blue chair in the living room with the leather couches-it gives the room some color and height. I'm sure it's all rearranged by now, so I won't get too attached. Happy weekend!!
heck yes! the thriftiest way to decorate is to shop your own house!
and i like the white chair!
and looking forward to your hubby's insight next week!
love the rearranged rooms! next time you get in a mood to rearrange, you should come to my house – i need help!
Ange, you crack me up!! Good thing we don't live next door to each other or we'd spend all day moving furniture around together!
I have to say that I really like the current arrangement of the leather furniture together, with those curtains and wall color and pops of blue here and there. I think the blue chair looks really pretty in there too but sometimes it's all about comfort and coziness, so I could see the white chair winning out for that reason!
The room looks wonderful. I'm constantly shifting things around too. Drives my husband crazy. He can't understand it. I can't stand those T.V. cables! Don't we have the technology yet to make everything wireless? You did a good job of concealing everything.
I really like where it all ended up landing! I don't move things as much… maybe because I'm kind of wimpy and can't talk the hubby into doing it with me – he likes things how they are. But, I do switch out accessories – pillows, lamps, vases – every once in a while. This is when it pays to have similar color schemes throughout the house! Thanks for the birthday wishes today! Oh, and we've lead so many high school small groups over the years that it's insane. I used to work full time in youth ministry.
I LOVE this post. Cuz I'm a furniture moving fanatic too!
I too have a major case of rearrangitis! I love that I’m not the only one. I love all the changes you’ve made. Although I’m sure by the time you get this comment there will have been at least a few others!