Decorating Dilemma party?! YES, please! Thank you, Amanda, for hosting this. And thank you, Tanya, for posting your dilemmas, which are JUST like mine!
Okay, here are my dilemmas. I hope it's not overwhelming. And sorry the pictures are a little blurry. My dinky camera is just not like my husbands nice one, but I have no idea how to work his :)
#1 . . . My corner fireplace.
Because of our narrow living room, there is NO where to put the t.v. except on the mantle. I always thought I'd enjoy a corner fireplace until I had one. Seriously! Andy started building a "media closet" but it will take him awhile to fix it all up. Until then, our Dish box and t.v. and PS3 (yes, that is a controller charging...my hubby plays games after I go to bed!) on the mantle! BOO! (And yes, that is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Never knew a 5 month old could have a favorite show!). We are getting new hardwoods in the next couple of weeks and will be pulling up all that brown tile and replacing it with glass tiles, so the fireplace will look really pretty, but the top of it just bums me out. Until we can move and I can find a beautiful entertainment center with doors to hide my t.v. . . any suggestions!?
#2 . . . My couch.
Much like Tanya, I have an issue with my couch. Because of the size of the room, Andy and I bought a sectional. Bummer - we didn't get the kind where we could break apart. So, it is one big massive couch and it makes the room look closed in. Also, just like Tanya, I HATE that the first thing you see when you walk in the door is the couch. Sooo... I want a new couch. I am in the process of trying to find a good deal and selling ours. Any suggestions on furniture arrangement, however? I'd love a sofa and a chair and a half, but worried I won't have room for both.
#3 . . . My couch (again).
Until I get rid of this couch, I need any advice possible on the pillows. Our unruley dogs always sit on the cushions and they are all mashed down and misshapen now! They have that green stuff inside them. To top it all off, they are velcro, so they fall down all the time! How can I get them full again, and how can I get them to STAY on the velcro - besides the obvious, get the dogs to act right? Even when someone sits down, if they sit the right way, you hear a loud screeecch as the velcro separates. UGH! Don't ever buy a couch like this one, FYI :)
Any advice would be greatly appreciated :) And just for fun...
Proverbs 18:24
"A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother."
10 comments:
It sounds like your media closet is the solution for the TV. If the spot above the fireplace is the only place for it now, you might just have to wait it out. :s
Have you tried Decorator's Velcro for the couch? That stuff is pretty heavy duty! :)
Thanks for linking up! Hope you're having fun "mingling." :)
Your daughter is just adorable! Hmmm, tv's above the fireplace are always so tricky. I can't really think of anything to hide it unless you hired someone to come in and build something on top of there with doors that retract inside.
For the couch, maybe there is some way to add some filling to the pillows to give them more rigidity and then use that velcro to make them stay connected to the back of the couch.
Good luck!
XOXO
Jen
What about shutters to hide the TV? Would it be possible to set a couple up that attach to the walls and can fold out to cover the TV and entertainment stuff?
Also - what about a sofa table, dresser, or low bookcase behind the sofa, at least the part you see when you walk into the room? Would that cut off access from other parts of the room?
I'm so glad I'm not the only one with this problem!! At least you have more room on top of your mantle. mine is barely big enough for the TV. UGH! The dish dude told me if I moved the box down on a table, that my remote wouldn't work. I hate that thing! UGH! I think I'm going to have to paint a canvas or something to hide it, or wrap one in some great fabric.
Looks like you have room for a sofa table behind your couch. BTW, I love the zebra pillow on your couch! That's a sweet picture of Emory!
Glad you linked up!
I wish I could see to the left of your fireplace. Is that solid wall there? I have the same problem with a corner fireplace. I have a huge window to the right and we have our tv on the wall to the left of the fireplace. Also, I had a sectional similar to yours at my last house. I thought it would be so nice to have down-filled cushions. ugh! I left that couch with the new owners. Ha!
I can feel your pain because it seemed that all I ever did was push those darn cushions back in all day long. I don't know what you could do, but velcro was a thought I had before and never tried it. Your beauty is precious! My LO loved My Friends Tigger and Pooh at that age.
Hmmm. THis is a hard one. But I did have a thought... I see a pretty yellow dining room in the distance. Would it be possible to switch the two rooms. Move your dining room into the room with the fireplace and then your tv and sofa into the dining room? Just a thought.
Hmm, thanks for the tip on the corner fireplace!
Looking at your layout, I don't really see a reason why the tv can't be moved to the windowless wall next to the fireplace once you get a new couch.
Until then, I would try to calm the area by taking off unnecessary decoration and components. Can you move the PS3 behind the tv while your husband isn't using it?
I wonder if you could buy a big canvas and paint something on it and then hang it from the ceiling on eye bolts. You could make it easy to remove so that you could watch tv and then hang it back up when you were finished.
I think your couch actually looks really good in the room, but I might add a console table or maybe even a bench behind it. As far as the cushions go, I am no help! Our old couch did the exact same thing from the kiddos climbing on it!
I have a similar living room - but we don't have the option of putting the tv above the fireplace b/c there is a big, beautiful, glued to the wall mirror up there {I am sooo sarcastic}. Our tv is to the left of the fireplace {if you are looking at it}, our sofa sits across from the tv, and a chair and half sits facing the fire place. While I don't know the dimensions of your room, this arrangement works well for us and maybe it would work once you sell the sectional.
For the current placement of the tv, could you buy or build a simple wood shelf that sits above the fireplace? The tv could sit on top of the shelf and the "gear" could go underneath of it. It doesn't solve the bigger problem, but may help organize and keep you happy while the media closet is being made.
I hope any of this helps in some way! I am always hesitant to offer my 2 cents b/c I don't want to offend anyone!
Thank you EVERYONE for your help! Each one of you had great ideas and I am so thankful for all of them! :)
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