Small changes
When I first moved into this house I had no sofa for the main living room off of the kitchen where everyone gathers to talk and eat and watch TV, so I grabbed the cheapest one I could find at IKEA. A year later I realized no one was ever sitting on that couch because it felt like sitting on top of a jagged rock. Instead, everyone was either standing or moving dining chairs. They were avoiding that couch as if it were a fatal disease. It was just so stupid. It was like living in a house in college where one of your roommates grabbed a stained couch off of the sidewalk that had a sign on it: “FREE OR BEST OFFER.”
So I splurged on this couch from West Elm and it changed everything. Friends and family actually started using the living room and spending more time at my house. They had a place to sit! And it wasn’t poking through their pants and piercing their butts!
In the meantime I tried to warm up the space with accessories including some of what you see here: blankets and pillows, metallics and textures. My kids love blankets, the more the better, and there are far too many in my living room now. Which is I will probably get that ladder and use each rung to hang a different throw. Everything here is under $100 in case you’re saving up for a sofa that people will actually use.
1. Mongolian Faux Fur Pillow
2. Air Plants, Set of Five
3. Tall Beden Vase $34.95
4. Tick-Chalk Clock $59.95
5. Pom-Pom Cotton Throw $45
6. Fair Trade Storage Basket With Leather Handles
7. Whitewashed Teak Ladder $98
8. Turkish Kilim Pillow Cover $17
9. Nautical Brass Accent Table $69.99
10. Moon Phase Poster $24
11. Glass Cloche With Rope Handle $30
12. Skipper Stool $49
13. Metal Framed Mirror With Chain