Living/Dining Room Re-Do

So... a few pics of our new look in living and dining rooms.  These changes were made after our trip to Ikea a few weeks back.  There are a few more edits to be made, but I'll go ahead and show you the work in progress.

A few before pics:

A shot of the old curtains (and baby C learning to walk... awww).  They belonged to the previous owners and were hanging when we bought the house.  Sort of pretty, but really long and always dragging on the floor and resting on our baseboards and generally seeming unsafe.  Plus the girls loooooved to pull on them. 

Look past C in the bike helmet to see our old arrangement of couches-- leather one against the kitchen wall and our old scribbled-on Ikea sectional against the other wall:

See the scribbles?  Thanks for that Miss C.  That whole couch had seen better days and both M and I were extremely sick of looking at it.  So out to the porch it went, probably to be donated pretty soon.  The picture above shows you how we used to watch TV (when we did) in the living room-- on Mommy's laptop.  It was taking a beating and since I need it for work that was not a good thing.

Okay, so here's the after:

I have another set of turquoise curtains for the second window, I just haven't bothered to hang them since they still need to be hemmed.  Yes these are the same curtains that are in the girls' room.  The set that is now in the girls' room was originally intended for the dining room, but when I put them all up (in both the living and dining rooms) our house looked way too blue.

A few toys for the corner that we've been switching out periodically since our (unheated) playroom is just too frigid this time of year.

New rug from Ikea, and our former living room area rug got moved into the dining room.  The black futon (a hand-me-down from my sis when she moved to DC-- thanks!) took the place of the scribbled-on couch, with a slightly different couch arrangement.

I'd love to get a cover for our Ikea Poang (the red chair) that matches the room a bit better.  You can buy them online if you want to spend the cash, and it seems from my bit of research that they're fairly easy to make as well.  We shall see what time allows.

The above pic was actually taken by L, so it's a bit blurry (do you see our reflection in the TV? we were having a morning snuggle on the couch and she stole my phone for some photography).  I include it because I needed to show you that our TV is now in our living room (it had been in the playroom).  And....... it's hooked up to cable.  This is the first time in our entire marriage that M and I have ever had cable TV.  We've only ever used our TV for DVD watching, and watched select shows on our laptops over the internet.  But now we have basic cable.  In our living room.  It's unheard of!  And to be quite honest, I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with that TV right now.  It's awesome for me and M in the evenings, but waaaayyy too easy for me to just pop on PBS Kids for the girls during the day.  It has been wonderful to have while we've all been so sick, especially when I was sick to my stomach and barely had the energy to lift my hand and press the button on the remote.  And it provides a great motivation for the girls to get ready in the morning... "We can watch 10 minutes of Curious George if you get dressed quickly!"  We just need to set some ground rules and that will be happening shortly now that we're all feeling better.

But I digress.  The dining room:

Before Pics:

Lacy curtains from the old owners can be seen behind me and C in this pic.

And a pretty good shot of the old rug and table orientation (and general messiness) behind wee little L (awww!) in this pic.

The after:

Table turned to face the other way (which creates a ton more space in the adjacent living room), rug switched out for the former living room rug, and curtains replaced with some Country Curtains hand-me-downs I got for free from my great Aunt Joy (thanks!)

One item remaining on the to-do list... a framed piece of artwork for that blank wall.  M likes this since our apple tree is visible through the adjacent window.  A good idea, I think.

{We'd like to get some framed art for the wall behind the leather couch in the living room, too.  I lean towards something kind of romantic-looking like a Mary Cassat or John Singer Sargent, perhaps... but M has something more modern in mind, I think.  What's your opinion?}

We're also going to get some shades for the windows for privacy.  I'm definitely decided on cordless cellular shades in both the dining and living rooms-- currently trying to shop around online for the best deal.

So that's the re-do so far.  More work to be done, but a *huge* improvement in my opinion!  I no longer want to curl up in a ball of shame every time a guest comes in and sees our scribbled-on couch. ;-}