This Ole Couch

Goooooood Morning Blogland!

I'm so happy it's Friday. Even though this has been a short week, I still feel READY for a Friday when it rolls around!

Plans this weekend? I ain't got none. And couldn't be happier about it.

I have been a *super-dee-duper* slacker on the workout front. I'm sorry. I'm a disappointment to myself, and to you. I promise to do better next week.

TODAY because it's Friday and because I've been such a slacker, I wanted to talk about my old couch.

Yes that's right. An old couch.

When I met Tom he had this old, worn-out, doggie-chewed, hand-me-down couch. It was rough. Really rough. But that thing was a magnet for naps! Because it was so old, it was soooooo comfortable. But there comes a time in every man's life when he needs to say good bye to his bachelor furniture and give in to his wife and get a new couch.

So that's what we decided to do. And I updated the living room just a smidge. I was beginning to feel like it was so masculine in there.

Here is a picture taken last October. This is what you see, standing in our kitchen:
Notice the old bathroom in the background? I love our house because of this open floorplan, but after living here for almost three years I was itching for a teensy tiny inexpensive change.

Here is the view as you're standing with your back to the bathroom, facing into the kitchen. See the old couch? Reba loves it, Mama does not.

That pair of pictures on the wall to the right of the TV, and the little trinkets on the table below the TV...I dunno, I was just getting tired of those things too. Most of this stuff was bought by Tom's mom when she was helping him decorate after he first bought the house.

When I met Tom, I was impressed with how well this bachelor pad was decorated (<----I found out later that Lilibeth and one of her friends went to on a shopping spree armed with about $1,000 and a long list of things to buy!). But now a woman (that would be me) lives here and it was high time we spruced it up a little.

So I just made a couple of easy changes. New frames and pictures on the wall, some lamps, etc. It brightens it up a little, don't you think?

THEN I was actually able to talk Tom into getting rid of Ye Old Couch and enter....a new one!!!

When I was picking out a couch I had four main categories I was looking for:

• Size: We needed something LONG that my 6'1" husband could stretch out on


• Price: I won't go into details, but if you know Tom, you know I was working with a pretty small budget. :) Gotta love a thrifty man. I am thankful Tom is cheap, I am thankful Tom is cheap, I am thankful Tom is cheap....this is my life's mantra.


• Style: I wanted something comfortable, but not too terribly overstuffed. And definitely not leather.


• Color: We were trying to lighten up the room a little, so something in the linen/oyster/khaki family was in order

And here she is!! So after searching high and low, I found one that both Tom and I agreed on. And I got three out of four of my categories I wanted. Can you guess which one I sacrificed?

That would be style. This couch is slightly more overstuffed-mushy-cooshy-we-spend-85%-of-our-time-on-this-very-piece-of-furniture than I had hoped. I was aiming more towards we-are-super-sophisticated-and-need-something-snobby-and-tailored. But everything in the latter category ran well over my price range.

So compromise I did, and I must say I am still very happy with the final choice. What I wasn't happy with are those throw pillows that came with the couch. I loved the size and the structure of them (they are 100% DOWN and lovely), but hated that fabric. It's just so....so...what's the word I'm looking for? It just looks like it came with the couch. Because it did. Too matchy-matchy. So for a few weeks we lived with them like this: turned around with only the back side showing. No big deal, but very...vanilla. So I pulled out my trusty thinking cap and sewing machine, and decided to recover these bad boys. Much to my delight, I found true pillow FORMS when I cut a tiny hole at the seam in one. Instead of feathers. If there had just been feathers, I would have had to buy my own forms. At my favorite fabric store (Premiere Fabrics on the corner of Poplar Pike and Forest Hill Irene for any of you Memphis readers) I found two main fabrics I decided to use.

A damask: And a...parrot. Ha! I know it looks funny up close like this but bear with me because the end result is cute, I promise. I loved the blue/teal/understated turquoisey (<---I just made that word up...turquoisey) color combined with the linen in the background of both fabrics. And I felt like the brown in the parrot drew in the darker tones in the room.

So after countless hours, two trips to Joann's, about 10 YouTube tutorials, one emotional hormonal baby fit temper tamtrum, and about $80 later, this is what I've got: What do you think? I think they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! I did the bodies of the big pillows in the damask and parrot fabric. The piping in a plain, unprinted linen, and used one bamboo accent fabric to do the little pillow in the middle. The 'W' on the accent pillow I had done by a professional because I don't have a monogram machine. And a painted monogram wouldn't do of this particular project.

Ta-Da! I loved how they turned out, and I think I love them *even more* because I made them with my own two hands. :)

Here are a couple of the fabrics together, close-up. One of the things I'm super proud of was this zipper closure I put on each of the four big pillows. I had originally wanted to hand-stitch them to finish them but that's where the emotional hormonal temper tamtrum came in. I haven't the slightest clue of how the hand-stitch. I don't know what I was thinking. I consulted the interwebs and found an easy tutorial on how to do hidden zippers. And, I had some other custom-made shams that were done by a professional. I turned those inside-out and examined them to figure out the best way to do it. Here are a couple of close-ups of the other changes in the room... Sara Whit's babysitter custom-made this frame for me and I am in love with it! I love the colors, and the shabby-chic distressed look. I got all these frames at Target and filled them with black and white pictures. I am not 100% crazy about this arrangement but am living with it for now. Still pondering on what I'll change about it...if anything. I got a new lamp and some crisp white frames for the end table beside the couch. Again, trying to brighten it up in here a little! My next project is...this chair. THIS CHAIR is terrible. I goes with a set in our formal living room and is totally too big for this space. And (sorry if this offends some of you) I dispise this overstuffed leather look. I realize it's for some people, but I am just not one of those people. Premiere Fabrics does custom upholstry for really reasonable prices, so I may look into have a piece done for this spot. Ole Brownie has got to go.

So I hope you like my new couch and pillows! I'm pretty fond of them if I do say so myself! Now if I can just get these two to stop lamenting the death of that 'ole squishy couch....