Subject: Living Room Update

Melissa -

Hi friend! I hope you had a fabulous weekend with all your girlfriends and had a great 4th as well. As you read this, I am at the beach...not submerging my hand in any water! Just as I promised, I would love your input on my living room.

To bring you up to speed, I ordered a rug from Overstock and not only was it a total steal (the rub + shipping was all less than $200), I am totally in love with how it looks:

The drawback: Ina the Cat is also in love with the way it looks...and feels in her claws. So if anyone wants a cat...

I kid, I kid. But seriously. I am going to skin that cat if she ruins this rug. It is hooked, which I think she really enjoys for wrapping her claws around. I know that sometimes ordering from Overstock can be hit-or-miss with the quality and accuracy of the description of the item, but I was really pleased with my purchase. The best part is that I didn't need to get a rug pad because it was soft underneath (I guess because it's a hooked rug?). I really love how the background is black because I feel like it ties in with the black & white tile in the kitchen, but I didn't really think through how it would show every little piece of lint or cat fur. Oh well. The other rug probably hid things too well and hence I did not vacuum enough :)

(Side note: I loved the rug suggestion you sent me in your story board, but it was in more jewel tones and I needed something more primary color-ish. I would love to see that rug used in someone's house though...)

So now that the rug is in place, I feel even more confident with moving forward with blue ticking stripe drapes, so just imagine they are in the room, even though I still need to buy the fabric, sew them and install curtain rods...oh, and buy curtain rods too. The blue in the rug is really nice and I think the ticking stripe will be perfect, plus the rug also gives a nod to the blue leather chair that I cannot stand but Mr. Lass insists we will keep forever.

Prior to acquiring the new TV stand, we had a big armoire thing and then a ladder bookshelf sat next to it and it worked okay. But now that the new TV stand is smaller and shorter, I think the bookshelf looks silly on the wall, so I am ready to get something different. Here is the space as it certainly is, with the new TV stand (staying) and the ladder bookshelf (going):

At the moment I love the idea of putting a bench there because it will round out the seating in the room and give the appearance that the room is not centered around the television (although we all know it's true!). Plus it would provide me an opportunity to inject some color in that area - I'm considering painting the bench green.

After such a great experience with Overstock with my rug, I decided to start my bench search there too and found this one that I really like:

The dimensions of it are right for the space and I really love the back. I could put a few pillows on it and some artwork above (more on that later this week). But the only dilemma I'm facing at this point: what to do with the cable box/DVD player? Right now the cable box is on the bookshelf and the DVD player is on the ground - not really a sustainable option. Right now I'm considering using an L-bracket and somehow mounting a little shelf under the bench to hold those two things, but we'll see. I don't know how hard that would be.

Let me know your thoughts/suggestions. The most ideal option would be if we could alter the TV stand in some way and make one of the drawers have a hinged opening and then drill a hole in the back for the cords, but while that seems like a good idea, it also seems like one of those projects could go horribly, horribly wrong and then ruin the whole piece.

Xoxo,
Kara