A Seventies Sofa for a Minute

Uh-oh. Somebody bought a new sofa and chair set!

Not sure what happened here.

I went a little crazy, I guess. Danavee, Diane and I were out thrifting, and I was supposed to only be buying a desk. I ended up finding a desk, and a peacock chair, and then this set caught my eye.

Mkay, now I know it's not for everyone. It's a little loud, I get it. But in such a retro way! That striped pattern and wood trim looks earthy and bohemian. Plus, that thing is so cushy and nap-inducing. Yummy!

I'm guessing 1970's? 80's? The tag says Benchcraft and looks pretty vintage. My favorite thing about the set is the removable back cushions. It makes them so much softer and it reminds me of the sofa my parents had when I was little.



I got the price down a bit, and reminded myself I could sell my green sectional and definitely cover the cost of this sofa. I made some calls and got someone to haul the sofa, then we stuffed everything else into Diane's mini-van and drove it back to my house. We unloaded everything, got the green sofa out of the way, and put the new sofa in place, and-

Nope.

Spoiler alert! Serious buyer's remorse.

I instantly realized that while I did really like this sofa, I didn't love it enough to part with my green sectional. Plus, with my wood floors and other wood furniture, this room was a total brown town.

Shoot.

Yep, I sold it. I made back what I paid for it, at least. And my living room is not longer packed with furniture, so there's that. But now I owe some apologies. 

Rand, I'm sorry for being insane sometimes about sofas.

Danavee, I'm sorry for taking your entire afternoon to debate the pros and cons of this sofa only to change my mind about the sofa. Thanks for listening to me talk so much about how furniture impacts my life.

Diane, I'm sorry for making you rearrange every seat and item in your mini-van in order to fit a ridiculous amount of thrifted furniture in there. That must have taken a while to put back into place. It was pretty funny, though.

Random guy who helped me move the sofa across town because you owed my brother-in-law a favor, I'm sorry for wasting 40 minutes of your Sunday afternoon. I hope you had the following day off work like I did.

Brother-in-law, I'm sorry I wasted a favor that guy owed you. Now I owe you a favor, although I don't have much to offer you except maybe some furniture.

Glad to clear the air there. I feel better!

I'm linking up with Molly from Still Being Molly and Carly from Lipgloss and Crayons. :)

I Painted Some Walls Black/Office Progress

Remember how we cleaned out Rand's messy office, painted the floor and organized it? It may have looked like I was just doing a nice thing for my man, but I was actually doing it for selfish reasons. His CPR/AED/LGI/CPO/OMG training materials had taken over the room that was supposed to be my home office, and I wanted that room back. And now I have it!

It's got a ways to go, but I've made some progress here and there. The biggest accomplishment for me was finally fulfilling my dream of painting some walls black. Verdict: I LOVE them.

Here's how it went down: First, I thought I would just be resourceful and use what I had, which was semi-gloss paint in Benjamin Moore's Onyx. Bad idea. My advice: don't try to be resourceful. Just because you have a gallon of black semi-gloss paint on your hands does not mean it belongs on your walls. Semi-gloss paint doesn't belong on walls. At least not in my house.

So I painted one wall with the paint I had, hated it, then went and bought the same color in flat paint and repainted it. Then I loved it.

So I started painting the wall next to it. It felt pretty good. I kept going, on to the next wall and around the trim. You get the idea. In the end, all but one wall in this room ended up black. And oh, it is all so gorgeous.

It's not all glamour shots around here. There still a massive mess on the floor. I need some shelves or maybe a wall unit of some kind. There was an incredible one at Urban the other day for $200. Reasons I should maybe buy it: I'll probably spend that much putting shelves on the wall anyway. I won't have to worry about the shelves falling off the wall. I could actually resell the wall unit if I wanted to. See how good I am at talking myself into these purchases?!

Still so much arranging to do, and the floor needs painted so badly. But this is progress for now. And I finally have a desk to sit at. :)

Thrifty Finds // 10

The thrifts have been good to me lately! Here are a few of my recent finds.

This huge colorful afghan was an amazing score. My friends and I went to YOTO (Youth of the Ozarks Thrift Store) and I picked up two pretty afghans that were priced at $3 each. When I got to the register, the clerk said the other one was a family heirloom (?!) and he couldn't sell it. He said it wasn't supposed to be out on the sales floor. He said he's give me this one for free for the confusion. Okay!

I'm so grateful to have this desk. This little guy came from Urban Market and he is perfect. It's in great shape and has four big sturdy drawers for me to hide my mess in. I kind of think it needs some loud 50's drawer pulls, don't you?

Finally, FINALLY I have a peacock chair in my home. I've wanted one of these things for a LONG time, but every one I have found was either a miniature dollhouse version, painted, or in rough shape. Danavee and I spotted this one at Urban on our desk-hunting trip and I couldn't pass it up. Amazingly, Diane was able to fit all this and more into her mini-van for me!

The peacock chair is in unbelievable shape. Its only problem is that black stuff that wraps around the edges is crumbling off, but as you can see in the photo, I've started pulling that stuff off and I think it looks just fine without it. Rand thinks I'm crazy, but this chair makes me happy!!

The little pillow in the peacock chair was also a recent thrifty find. Isn't it cute? Also in great shape. Danavee and Diane are my thrifty good luck charms. :)