I Was Naughty!

Well... I caved today and I got a new couch (amongst other things). But before I show you pictures, you need to know about today's adventure in order to appreciate my new couch.

On Monday, my mother in law had delivered this absolutely amazing couch that in both color and design, would be absolutely perfect for my living room. I know you're thinking "How great could a couch that some old woman picked be?" Yeah.. I thought the same thing when my boyfriend ran in to get me after seeing it for the first time. I should really go take a picture of it, but it would take away from the pictures of my couch. Haha!

Alas, we loved her couch so much that we started off by going to the same store it came from. We found a few great couches, but none of them were in the right color. We were really looking for something in chocolate brown or a medium tan at absolute lightest. My boyfriend really wanted this one couch in Cobalt Blue and he was extremely unhappy that I put my foot down and said no. I keep reminding him that he agreed to me decorating every room of the house as I wanted it so long as he got to do the kitchen as he saw fit. And the brick in the living room is red. A rich, almost blinding blue couch would have been hideous (in my opinion). We ended up leaving - disappointed in our lack of findings.

He took me to the next store - some Furniture Showcase and within three couches, I knew it was time to leave. The prices were outrageous - $1,500 for a couch that looked almost identical to a couch we'd seen at the previous store for $800 or less. Needless to say, we quickly left that store. It was definitely out of our range.

I have to talk about the next place. It's too funny not to mention it (sorry sweetie... I just have to). We're driving along and we see some very small, rather run down looking building that claims to sell furniture, hardware and building accessories. I wasn't too keen on the idea, but we go in. It turned out to be a 2nd hand shop (actually, it looked more like a 4th or 5th hand shop). We walked through it for a few minutes - all the while, I'm trying not to laugh. Again, we left!

Finally, we stop at Big Lots - which was the original plan to begin with. My mother in law had come from there early this morning with a Pub table. It's basically this very small table that is a bit higher than a regular dinner table and comes with two chairs. She told us they had a lot of good deals going on and that a lot was on clearance so we wanted to go take a look. Ended up finding a couch we could afford that we liked. Okay, I admit it... my mother in law's couch is better than ours. But I don't think it would fit in my living room anyways!

So without further a due... here is my lovely couch (be advised, this is just the floor model that I took a picture of in the store).

It looks like my boyfriend has made his decision on the kitchen's theme. Funny, I'm the one who chose the theme to begin with and he originally said no. *smirks* He's definitely doing black and white checkers. In fact, we now have a bar table for the kitchen to prove it. It's... different. I'm not sure how it will tie in with the rest of the house but ya know what? - If he's happy with it, then I'm happy with it.

We ended up with the floor model - it was the only one they had left. So we took it just as it was, piece by piece out of the store. We got $75 off of it and it was originally $199 so I think we got a really nice deal. He seems so happy about it so it was worth every penny.

I apologize that these pictures aren't that great. I'm only 5'2" so my perspective on these is poor. The table nearly comes up to my chest. I probably should have had my 6'8" boyfriend take a picture. Don't worry... we'll get better pictures later.

But you have to take the bad with the good. There were some horribly annoying people in the store while we were there who just couldn't stand that we'd gotten there first and spent a lot more money than they were planning too - thus we attracted the attention of the employees. They not only interrupted while we were being rung up for the couch, love seat and table set, but they made sure to make a small scene while employees were helping us put the furniture into our truck. The approximately 12 year old bratty girl was the worst. While the employee was wheeling out our couch, they were having a panic attack and fussing at him, saying "That's not my couch!" Well no kidding - it's my couch.

All the while this is going on, I was off being naughty. I couldn't help myself. I found some super cute candles that I thought would look really nice in the room. I also found this really dark cherry wood frame with shadow boxes and mini shelves. It looks so nice and I'm super excited about all of it. Unfortunately, this counts against my budget. I'll get into how much I spent total at the end of the blog. Here is a picture of the frames.

I'm going to off set the dark colors of the floor, red brick fire place and couch with some nice accessories. The pillows that came with the couch, have blue in them - which makes no sense to me. The couch is warm milk chocolate color and blue is such a cool color. I'm going to find a fabric I like and recover the pillows, as well as have pillows made for my coffee table (my boyfriend bought it long ago at a garage sale and it was missing its pillows). Then I am going to use said fabric to choose a matching, flat color for the curtains. I'm hoping to find a rug that has the same type of color and pattern as the pillows. It should all add a nice brightness to the room and tie it all together.

I'm really excited. I think it's all really going to come together nicely. Besides the rug and some paint, I think I have everything I need for the living room for now. I may get some more lighting. It really depends on the budget and how things work out. I sort of splurged today without pricing things like I said I would. But I was really afraid that what I wanted wouldn't be there any more.

Amount I spent? $72.00! Yes, I was naughty. On the one hand, that isn't a lot of money but I suppose it was a bit much for some candles and a wall decoration. But on the upside, I don't really need much more for the area. I'm now left with $928 of my budget.