A new take on an old mantel

Pretty much the whole point of having a big fireplace is to decorate it for Christmas, right? So it was a big relief when last night we finished (for now) a project that will actually allow me to do that. Yes, I know it's December 20. I'm working on it!

I've mentioned before that I have a real problem decorating our mantel. Christmas is generally the exception to this, because if you pile enough greens on a mantel it will look Christmassy. The rest of the year is a challenge though.

While I like the stone mantel, it makes it very hard to set anything on it because it's always crooked so I end up sticking folded up paper under candlesticks and things to avoid having them look like the leaning tower of Pisa. Also, with all that stone in what is really not that big of a room, the whole thing can be a little overwhelming.

The man (who was our neighbor when we first bought the house) who built our house put in stone walls and fireplaces similar to ours in every house he built. You can often spot his work just by seeing them, so I would never do anything that would compromise the integrity of his work.

So I came up with the idea of a mantel "sleeve," which is basically just a box missing a side that slides right onto the existing stone mantel.

So here's the before:

And here's the fireplace with the new mantel sleeve (in not nearly as nice lighting):

The hold up has been in the finishing, which is always an adventure to me. I love paint. If you paint something you know exactly what it's going to look like. But you never really know with stain. It's always a crapshoot. At least it is with me. And as with other stain projects, I probably did a lot of extra steps that I ended up not needing to do.

I'll run it down quickly for you. We used red oak to build it, only because the lumber options for such long pieces were limited. I think life would have been so much easier had we made it out of maple or beech, but I don't mind the oak.

What I was really going for was a finish like this blogger did on a table. Unfortunately the instructions on how to get to that finish were a bit lacking so I did my best to interpret them. I also did a LOT of sampling on cut offs from the boards.

1. Sand the whole thing, making especially sure to sand off any glue that might not have been wiped off.
2. Fill the nail holes, cracks, etc. with wood filler. I'm partial to Timbermate, which I have only found at Woodcraft stores so I always order it online. It smells like Band-aids, but it never dries out and you can change the consistency by adding water to it.
3. By this point, I had decided that the grain on my test boards was just getting too dark in my stain samples, so I made a slurry with the Timbermate to use as grain filler. This helps smooth everything out even more, and hopefully would keep that grain from soaking up too much stain.

Just starting to sand after the grain filler had dried. (Notice the Christmas tree and wreath in the background!) You can also see how we (and by we, I mean Mr. Much More Patient) coped the back to go around the stones.

4. After letting the grain filler thoroughly dry, I sanded the whole thing down with 220-grit sandpaper and made sure to remove all the dust (wear a mask during this part because that grain filler makes dust almost as fine as drywall dust). I made a wash by adding water to Carrington Beige paint samples (I only needed two of the little 2 ounce sample bottles), applied it quickly and wiped it off. The idea was the pull out some of the pink tones that red oak has.

This was the consistency of the watered-down paint that I applied first.

5. Then I applied two coats of Minwax Classic Gray stain.

6.We took the mantel upstairs and tried it out and I didn't like it.

This was try No. 1 on the finish. I didn't care for it. I also changed the bow on the wreath!

7. So I sanded it all down with 220 grit again, and repeated the grain filler step (I don't really know why to be perfectly honest). I wasn't trying to start from scratch, but rather build upon what I already did.

8. Using a mixture of Classic Gray, Special Walnut, Driftwood and Weathered Oak stains (when you don't know what to do just throw 'em all in there and see what comes up, right?), I applied two coats of stain.

9. I did a light sanding, then applied one coat of Minwax Fast-Drying polyurethane in a satin finish.

10. Sand the whole thing with 400-grit sandpaper after the poly is really dry.

11. Normally you'd put on another coat of poly here, but I was running out of time and wanted to make sure I liked it before I really sealed the deal with more poly. After Christmas I'll put on another coat if I'm still happy with the look.

I'm really looking forward to decorating the mantel tonight, all while brainstorming what I'll do there after the holidays. What do you think? Are you partial to the original mantel or do you like the new twist?

New table, even newer color

Sometimes I think about my DIY journey and it sort of blows my mind. Six years ago I was scared to try to improve anything I didn't totally hate for fear of screwing it up. Now I have to restrain myself from NOT trying to improve things that are perfectly fine the way they are.

I think the first time I painted something brand new was when I took the can of spray paint to the speakers. By the way, they still work fine, they totally blend in with the wall and I don't regret doing that for one second.

Now I really have no problem painting something new if I can't find what I'm looking for. I've been wanting to get a new side table for between the chairs in front of the fireplace for ages. I had an overly contemporary el cheapo thing there for the last 10 years or so. What I really wanted to find was an old spindle table or maybe something with some faux bamboo that I could paint a fun color. I looked for a LONG time and found nothing that was the right size or in the realm of affordable. 

I orginally saw this side table on Joss & Main. And then I found it on Overstock for significantly less. Those daily sale sites are not always such a great deal, it turns out. 

Even at a really low price, I have to say I was not happy with the quality of this Safavieh table. It is really cheaply made. The top and the shelf on the bottom are made of luan and sort of feels like glorified cardboard. Still, it was cute and I was sick of looking (of course I found a table at Home Goods two weeks ago that would been equally good and was less expensive). 

It came in this perfectly fine gray color.

But you know it wasn't staying that color. I gave it a good dose of Benjamin Moore Cornwallis Red (which I also wrote about here), which is the most lovely orangey tomato red ever. I really have a thing for this color. 

I'm not going to give you a tutorial on how I painted it because you know the drill: Sand, clean, prime, two coats of paint, sand with 400-grit in between coats. Done.

And here it is in its new spot. With all the blue, white and gray in the living room, I think it's the perfect accent and it since its in the red family it works with the ikat dot chairs on the other side of the room too.

It's hard to get shot of our very long and skinny living room that give you an idea of what it looks like, but with the help of a tripod I was able to get one of this view, which is one I don't think I've shown you before. This is what you see when you walk out of the kitchen into the living room and it's what sold me on our house immediately. The lights you see on the mantle are from the track lights that hide on the backside of that beam. I'm still moving them around to figure out where to point them all. By the way, speaking of that painted speaker, there's one in this picture. Can you find it? Also, I am officially the worst mantel decorator ever. I'm actually thinking about making a temporary wood mantel sleeve to put over the stone mantel because I think it would be a lot easier to accessorize up there.

So have you ever painted or otherwise seriously altered something brand new? It's funny how once you just suck it up and do it once, it's not so hard the next time. Yet another slippery DIY slope.

How to salvage a stained marble tabletop

I have been on the hunt for a marble side table for about two years now. I'm pretty sure it's because secretly I would have loved a marble countertop in either the upstairs bathroom or the kitchen but I knew I'd lose my mind with a marble counter. Some people love marble countertops for their patina or are willing to baby them a little, but that person is not me, so I went with no-muss, no-fuss quartz in both places.

But marble is beautiful and I really wanted to bring in a little more white by the blue chair in the living room. Not finding the right thing was just killing me (sometimes I get consumed by these searches) and I was just about to sort of give up and order one from West Elm that I had been eyeing. I liked the table a lot although it was lower than I was looking for and I'm always a little worried to go down the West Elm / Pottery Barn / Ikea road. Its not that I don't love their stuff. It's just that I don't really like it when someone walks in the house and automatically knows where something is from. I already have the Malabar chairs from Pottery Barn (and honestly who doesn't know someone who has or had those chairs) in front of the fireplace so I was just a bit wary of having things look like they were all ordered from a catalog.

West Elm Hex Side Table

Anyway, I was literally on the verge of buying the West Elm table when I decided to do my routine Etsy search for "marble side table" and lo and behold, a new one popped up.

Etsy listing photo

It was this cute little vintage number that cost about half of what that West Elm table cost. It wasn't perfect by any means. The marble top clearly had some stains on it and a few chips. Plus, the legs and the "handle" on the top were shiny fake brass. I like brass, but I like it when it's darkened, and antiqued and, um, real.

There were a number of stains of unknown origin on the tabletop.

When it arrived I set to giving those stains a shot. I really didn't expect them to budge, since I had no idea what kind of stain I was dealing with nor how many years it had been there. Honestly, I would have been fine with the table with the stains patina too. But I did a little bit of googling (how did anyone DIY anything before Google?) and decided to give hydrogen peroxide a shot.

Instead of using regular hydrogen peroxide that comes in a bottle, I went for the industrial strength stuff. And the only place I knew where to find that was in a box of facial bleach. I bought the extra strength Sally Hansen creme facial bleach (I don't know where the extra strength comes in but it sounded good), pulled out the bottle of powder labeled "Activator" and threw out the rest of the contents of the box.

Then I mixed some of the powder with a small amount of ammonia, as I read in this article. I spread it thinly on all the stained areas, covered them with plastic wrap and sealed them with tape. Then I put it in a sunny window for about 10 hours.

Later, I took off the plastic wrap and tape and washed the whole thing with warm water and a little soap. Because of the size of the table top, I was able to stick the entire thing in the kitchen sink.

There were darker areas where the plastic wrap was, but it was just residual moisture. A day later, they were gone.

But then I went back to the tabletop a few days later and I noticed that now the areas that I had treated were actually lighter than the rest of the table. It was a very, very small difference, and it may have even faded with time, but since I was dealing with a very small piece of marble I figured it would be easy enough to fix (I also could have lived with it the way it was). I just mixed up more of the hydrogen peroxide powder and ammonia and spread it (very thinly this time because I didn't have much) over the entire table, and wrapped the whole thing in plastic wrap. I kind of forgot about it this time, so I would say it sat for about 20 hours, but I washed it the same way I had the first time.

And this time all I saw was a beautiful, white Carrara marble top.

I've delacquered the legs and handle, but that's as far as I've taken it so far. I'm sort of hoping it will get a little rusty or something (I don't really know what I expect to happen, and I'm pretty sure they are made of aluminum as a magnet doesn't stick to them and I know it's not real brass). My intention is to live with it like this for a little, but I'm also considering spray painting the legs an antiqued brass or bronze color. I also put on a coat of marble sealer to prevent future stains.

Despite that shiny gold glaring at me out of the corner of my eye, I'm just loving this table, and even more so now that the marble looks practically new.

Let's get bold

Slowly but surely the living room transformation from a warm modern French country feel to a more casual, slightly nautical feel has come together.

I showed you the new main seating area (our living room is long and narrow so we have three seating areas). I also showed you how I reupholstered the set of chairs by the game table over near the front door. In between those two areas is the fireplace.

We've had two Pottery Barn Malabar chairs there since we bought the house. PB stopped making those chairs after everyone in the world bought them and there was no one left who didn't own one. I don't care if they are ubiquitous, I still like them and they are one of the few wicker chairs on earth that is actually comfortable.

Here's what the living room has looked like for the last 10 years. 

When I redid the main seating area of the living room I was hoping that the old rug in front of the fireplace would still work, but it quickly became obvious that was not the case. Fortunately I've found a good home for it (I really loved that rug) at my brother and sister-in-law's house. With all of the pattern happening between the striped rug and the navy chair and ottoman I was looking for a rug that was a solid color but with lots of texture to keep it from looking boring. Jute or sisal would be my first thought but our light floors rarely look good with natural fiber rugs. When I found this chunky braided wool rug (at rugsusa.com at a really nice price thanks to a good coupon) I loved that it picked up the off-white from the stripe of the main rug and reminded me a little of a fisherman's sweater.

The chairs before with the great cushion covers my mom made for me, on top of the new braided rug. It just doesn't work.

So the rug was a keeper but then it became obvious that the yellow large-scale floral on the chair cushions wasn't going to work. That made me sad too because my mom made those covers for me out of leftover fabric from her family room couch and I still really like the pattern. Also, as you can imagine, even though I got pretty good deals on almost everything new in the room other than the sofa, the "budget" (I use that word loosely because I never really set an amount to spend on it) for this room was pretty much used up. Fortunately I remembered that I still had the original cotton canvas cushions that came with the chairs.

But off-white canvas on an off-white rug? Boring. So a little cushion sprucing up was called for.

I really liked the racing stripe pillows from Serena and Lily, but at $64 a pop, I wouldn't exactly call that budget-friendly.

Serena and Lily racing stripe pillow

I've painted a few strange things (including speakers and hinges), but I have never been really keen on painting fabric. But I couldn't possibly add another sewing project to my rapidly growing list of things that need to get done when I finally pull the sewing machine back out.

So paint it was. I sampled some fabric paint on a canvas drop cloth (I figured that was close to cotton canvas) but I hated how crispy it was. Plus I was not satisfied with the colors I could find in true fabric paint, so I bought acrylic craft paint that I mixed to a color I liked and fabric medium, which is sort of liquidy white stuff you mix with paint so it stays somewhat pliable on fabric and doesn't crack like a bad 1980s T-shirt.

I marked the center of the pillow and then measured 4.5 inches on either side for a 9-inch stripe. Later on I got smarter and put a piece of tape vertically down the center and drew the centerline on it to make it easier to get the lines straight all the way down.

After washing and air-drying the covers just to make sure they were clear of any kind of coating that might keep the paint from sticking, I used 3M high-adhesion painter's tape and after I figured out how to keep the line straight and centered (the hardest part of the project by far), I used a flat wooden spoon to run over the edge to make sure it was really stuck down. For the most part the line stayed pretty crisp, but there was a little creep under the lines where I couldn't push it down as well, such as where the box cushion covers curved. You can't really see it unless you look very closely.

I mixed together three different colors of blue Martha Stewart craft paint to get a navy I liked, then followed the instructions on the fabric medium and mixed it in 1-to-1 with the paint.

Although I've read about a lot of people rolling paint on fabric, I used a broad cheap artist's brush I picked up in a three-pack at Michael's.

I let everything dry overnight just to be extra safe, then I just followed the directions on the back of the fabric medium bottle and ironed everything at medium for 3 to 5 minutes. To be extra sure that the color was set, I also threw the cushion covers in a hot dryer for about 15 minutes.

When I pulled them out of the dryer they were soft and you couldn't even tell that there was paint on the fabric, but as they cooled they stiffened up a little. If you run your fingers across the pillows you can tell its paint, but it's not an unpleasant crunchiness like I was worried about. And you can't tell at all when you sit in them.

Before

After (P.S. When am I going to learn to pick up the house before I start taking pictures? Yes I iron in the middle of my living room.)

All in all I'm really happy with how they turned out and even more happy that I was able to transform those chair for about $15 in supplies and maybe 90 minutes of work. Everything is looking a little too neutral to me now so I really need to get on my pillow making projects and get some pillows sewn for on those chairs (as well as a few others).

Have you ever painted fabric?

Rug, meet chair. Chair, meet rug.

First off, I'm sorry for the radio silence this week after the big bang of two posts on Monday. I had posts all ready to go and then work got so busy I didn't even have time to hit send.

The other day a friend and blog reader sent me a message in the middle of our intense Words with Friends game asking me how the chair in the living room turned out. She was guessing it wasn't good since I hadn't posted anything about it.

The chair came back a couple weeks ago. First of all, I was thrilled with the reupholstery job. He did a great job matching patterns, which is a big deal to me and I was over the moon happy with my decision to go with the contrast welt. 

The chair at night with lots of lamps on for the icky yellow cast.

The fabric has great texture.

A couple weeks before that, the new living room rug arrived and although it was a little lighter in color than I expected (you never know what you're going to get when you order online), I also loved that. It was bigger than the old rug and that was good because I really felt like the other one was undersized. I picked the rug mostly because I wanted a striped rug but it had to be tufted. I have had nothing but great luck with tufted wool rugs in terms of cleaning and horrible luck with flat-weave rugs. This rug sees a lot of action and a ton of muddy paw prints so a dark color or a busy pattern was a requirement.

In most rooms that have the look I was going for I think a sisal or jute rug would be perfect, but I had two issues with those: 1.) They aren't as cozy as I would like. We lay around with the dogs on the rug and I often sit there and do projects that require a big work space. 2.) The light color of our floors makes it very difficult to work with natural material rugs and I wouldn't take the chance of buying one sight unseen online.

OK, so now we have a rug I love and a chair I love. But guess what? When they met I wasn't convinced it was love at first sight. I knew I was taking a chance by ordering the rug before I had the chair or vice versa, but my thinking on this room all along has been that all blues (except for those on the extreme ends of blue that are more like purple or teal) get along, so I wasn't worried if the blues didn't match. What I didn't expect was to have a problem with the pattern.

So I lived with the combo for a few days. After a little stewing, I realized I do like it. I think I was in a bit of shock because it was a pretty dramatic change from before and because I'm not a big pattern person. I tend to hide in the safety of solid colors with texture. 

Interestingly, when I showed her a picture, my WWF opponent/friend/blog reader said the same thing I had been thinking, "It's a lot of look." Thank you Tim Gunn for giving us that phrase. And it is a lot of look, but I think with a few small details it will be a lot of good look.

So that's why you haven't seen the room yet. Because I had to make sure I liked it before I'd show it to you. It still needs a little work. I need a little side table for the chair (I'd love to find a small marble-topped table with simple lines). I still need to make some more pillows—one or two more for the couch plus one for the chair, which I think needs to be simple in design and color palette and maybe incorporate some of the burnt orange color in the pillow on the couch and the painting in the corner. I also need to get some art on the wall in the corner by the white lamp to balance things out. As we know, though, art comes slowly to my house.

Putting the afghan on the ottoman also helped break things up too. I use that afghan every night so it's always handy so it works out to have it there anyway.

And lastly, the other rug in front of the fireplace is about to be replaced and find a new home. It is a lovely rug so I'm happy I have found it a good home, but it just doesn't work in the room anymore. So avert your eyes from that rug. 

One nice thing about having the story-and-a-half house is that it's nice to get the overall view from upstairs. I'm not sure what to tell you about the blues in these photos. The rug looks positively royal blue in them and that's really not the case. I'd say more cadet blue or lighter navy (more like you see in the shaded parts of the rug). 

So there it is. Do me favor and don't tell me if you hate it.

Have a great weekend everyone. I've got an itch to do a little painting so who knows what I'll have to show you next week!

List checker-offers unite!

Raise your hand if you've ever put something on a list that you've already done just to have the satisfaction of crossing it off. I see you all out there with your guilty hands in the air. 

Let's face it, it feels damn good to cross things off a list and I'm happy to say that I've done a pretty good job crossing things off a list I published (there's nothing like putting your list out in front of an audience to make you want to succeed) back in August but I've not done a great job telling you about it. 

So I thought I'd circle back and feel the collective satisfaction of checking a few things off the list.

First on that list from back in August was to paint the kitchen chairs. I did that in September and I've been really happy with the results. That chalk paint is some hard-wearing stuff. Although I mentioned that I might end up painting the table with it, I never did that. Repainting the table is a project that needs to happen (in spring) but I haven't decided yet if I'll do it in chalk paint or not. It wears wonderfully but it does have a pretty specific finish which varies from chalky (duh) to a slight luster after a couple coats of wax and some buffing.

Next on the list was to get some art on the kitchen wall. Well you know how that turned out: huge success. I still love the vintage botanical charts every time I look at them and I can't think of anything that would have worked better in that spot. I feel like I should get a checkmark and a plus sign for that one.

At the time, I think I meant to mention that I also needed to get some art for the master bedroom but I forgot in the middle of that big ol' list. Well I'm happy to say I checked that one off the list too. There is a big, empty wall in our bedroom that has been getting a little depressing lately because it's so gray. Don't get me wrong, I love the paint color (Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter, which is also in the kitchen), but it was just too much. I knew I needed something big for that spot and I knew I wanted something colorful but not completely crazy because it is, after all, a bedroom. Fortunately I just happened to come across a One King's Lane sale featuring canvas prints from Michelle Armas at a fraction of the price she usually sells them for and I picked up two. One of them, called "Laura," is a monster that just so happens to fit perfectly on our bedroom wall. I love it because it brings in the light blue of the bedding and the window seat cushion and also goes with some of the accessories we have on the open shelves of the built-in. I think, technically speaking, I've got it hung sideways because there are some drips that are now running across the canvas, but that's the beauty of abstract art: you can hang it whatever way you like.

I've never bought a print on canvas before and I have to say I'm really impressed with the quality. It's difficult to tell it's not an original.

Next on the list was reupholstering the Craigslist cane chairs I bought a long time ago. I'm really anxious to do this project and I've purchased all the fabric I need for it, save for the really expensive Chiang Mai Dragon print that I keep trying to find on sale somewhere. So it's on the radar but this one didn't really get anywhere yet.

Redoing the back room is also still on the to-do list. In order to work on that room we need to move the furniture out of it so Mr. Much More Patient has declared that I have to make some room in the basement to store the furniture. And making room in the basement for that means getting a few other projects finished first. Plus, we're hoping to pound this one out in a few weeks so we're waiting until we're both home with a little time in our schedules to get started.

I also mentioned making some changes in the living room and I'm happy to report things are moving on that front. So far, I've changed out the ugly lamp, reupholstered the two chairs that sit in the window by the game table in a fun ikat dot print, bought a new, neutral couch (which I still love by the way), sent the mustard-colored chair and ottoman out for reupholstery (it's been two weeks and he said three to four so I'm hoping it will turn up soon) and, I'm very happy to announce, we finally got the rug we've been waiting for since spring. I haven't showed it to you yet (other than a sneak peek on Instagram) because I wanted to wait for the chair to come back first. There are a few other details to be attended to in there, but it's finally coming together and it's a total relief.

Chair reupholstery 101

A new, neutral couch!

Next on the list was restaining the coffee table. I did that a few months ago but didn't show you because I forget to take pictures and I stained it a color that's not too different from what it was so it didn't make for a dramatic before and after. But the new stain completely rejuvenated it and even though the stain color is similar—it went from a dark cherry/mahogany color to a medium-toned stain similar to our media console—it now works much better in the room. 

I also mentioned a few things that needed to be done but weren't on the list for this winter. One of them—the downstairs bathroom—is still not being touched. That poor, ugly, forgotten bathroom is destined to be the last nail in the coffin in a renovation of our house that will span more than a decade. It still has the distinction of being the only room in the entire house that is completely untouched by us, even though it was declared to be the ugliest room in the house even before we had officially purchased it.

I also said the kitchen was not happening. Well, in fall we got a new walnut top for the island, so that's a minor improvement. And as it turns out, a few other improvements may be in the works, but we're waiting for a few quotes on some things before that one becomes official.

A new walnut butcher block top.

So that leaves the list looking like this:

• Paint the kitchen chairs
• Paint the kitchen table
• Get some art on the kitchen wall
• Art for the bedroom
• Reupholster the Craigslist chairs --coming soon
• Re-do the walls and ceiling in the back room
• Change the color scheme in the living room -- halfway there
• Restain the coffee table
• Gut reno the downstairs bathroom -- nope, not happening anytime soon
• Make some changes in the kitchen -- maybe?

How are your winter to-do lists progressing? And what's on the to-do list that you're planning to tackle this weekend?

NOT GOODBYE, JUST UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN

The mustard yellow chair and ottoman in the living room went away Monday morning. They are off to get a new look at a local upholsterer.

Yeah, I should probably vacuum before I take pictures.

The ottoman (and more dog fur). You can see the fabric swatch on the X-bench in the background.

I love that chair and, like our sofa, it pretty much has someone sitting in it every night. It is 12 years old and has held up really well and I still love the look of it. We're going an entirely different direction with the fabric for it, and I have to admit, I'm a little nervous. Honestly, I'm a lot nervous. What if it doesn't work with the rug (that is FINALLY coming this week; nothing like waiting since May)? What if I tire of the pattern? 

We're having it recovered in Calico Corners' Twist fabric, which looks a little bit like a chainlink fence in a swatch until you realize it's a very large pattern. It also has a great texture to it and I love textured fabrics. I'm also having contrasting welt put on it in an off-white to match the white in the main fabric. I tried to find a Sunbrella fabric that would work but believe it or not I had no success. So I ended up with a random off-white. I bought all the fabric during Calico Corners' big fall sale so I wouldn't say I got a great deal on it, but it at least brought it down to a realistic price.

Calico Corners Twist Indigo fabric

See how sharp contrast welting can look? (P.S. I should not have done a search for contrast welting ... I have yet to find an example of it on a print and now I'm worried it will be too busy.)

Crate & Barrel chair from a few years ago.

Casasugar photo

Unfortunately the reupholsterer said it will be three to four weeks to finish it. I hope he's the underpromise-and-overdeliver type and he'll be calling me in two weeks to tell me it's finished, but I sort of doubt it. One of the wicker chairs from in front of the fireplace will stand in for the time-being, which may not be a good thing. It was readily apparent last night that the dogs love the idea of having an entire area rug to themselves. They won't be happy when the furniture goes back to its normal locations.

It's nerve wracking to take a design risk, but I rarely do it so I figure it's about time. Committing to a pattern is hard thing to do on anything bigger than a throw pillow and I really don't know how it will turn out. I'm even more worried about the contrast welt, but I love it every time I see it in a photo so it's time to turn that into action. Right? Gosh I hope so.

My life in sofas

Sofas are sort of funny, aren't they? I mean, it's just a piece of furniture but they are a big deal. People agonize over sofa decisions, but rarely do they feel that same kind of angst when it comes to choosing a chair or side table.

I suppose that's because usually they are the most expensive piece of furniture in a room and no one likes to spend a lot of money on something they end up hating. Also, chairs and side tables come and go, but sofas tend to hang out for a long time.

It's interesting to look back at my life in sofas. I'm not counting the futon I had in college because futons should never, ever be considered furniture. They are actually torture devices. They are uncomfortable to sit on, hard to get up off of (even when you're young and in college), ridiculous to try to sleep on and impossible to move, given that they weigh a ton and constantly unfold. Plus, most futons are pretty gross, because let's be honest, you only really sleep on them when you are drunk.

So not counting the futon, I've had three sofas and the fourth recently arrived (I showed you a little sneak peek here).

The first sofa came to me when I was in my second "grown-up" apartment. I was probably a year and a  half out of college (the futon apparently followed me to my first apartment because I don't recall a real sofa there) and had just moved from a small daily newspaper to medium-large daily owned by the same company in a different city. As a young reporter I was making essentially nothing so the priority was to pay the rent and the electric bill and have enough left over to buy gas to visit my then-boyfriend (now Mr. Much More Patient). My mom found me a FREE COUCH! When you're in that position, free is a lovely idea, but is it just me or is the idea of used upholstery from random people just a tad bit creepy? If you said no to that question let me throw this out there: What if that couch was free because the person who owned it was dead (and may or may not, for all you know, have actually died on the couch)?

But I was poor and free is free, even if it comes in a very low orange and blue plaid fabric-covered, as what came to be known as the "Dead Guy Couch" was. I covered in an navy blue sheet and then pretty much never sat on it.

I kept the Dead Guy Couch for the two years or so that I lived in that apartment (apartment No. 2 if you're only counting apartments after college or apartment No. 4 if you count the ones in college, which you probably shouldn't because I'm not sure they were actually habitable, particularly the one where I actually slept in a room out the back door of the house that had been a porch that someone stuck walls around and a wall-mounted propane heater to the wall). After that I moved, briefly, to New Zealand, so I had to purge or store a lot of stuff and as I recall, the Dead Guy Couch did not make the move to the storage unit.

When I came home from New Zealand (I can't tell you what kind of couch we had in our cute downtown Auckland apartment but I recall it being uncomfortable), the now-Mr. Much More Patient and I got a not-terrible apartment together and although between the two of us we had five toasters, we had no couch. And that's how we bought our first couch (this is a big moment in a relationship, let me tell you). And how did we buy that? One Saturday afternoon we went to a big-box furniture store, sat on three couches, said "Oooooh, look at the pretty red one," and bought it. It was rather hideous. The fabric was a cheap cotton that stretched like crazy so it always looked frumpy, the loose back pillows were remarkably uncomfortable, it quickly turned pink with the smallest amount of sun exposure and it was HUGE. The arms were easily 15 inches wide, no lie.

It's funny, the only photos I can find of that couch have the dogs on them, which seems strange because I thought we always had a "no dogs on the couch" rule. Apparently not. This is probably why it's so darn hard to keep Rita off the couch now (Hudson can't get up there anymore so I find this picture of him all curled up with his head on a pillow extra sweet).

When that sofa had all of the life sucked out of it, we got our first "good" couch. I spent a lot of time looking for it and even longer looking for the right fabric for on it. All in all, it was a success. I loved the lines of it and the fabric wore remarkably well, save for a few pulls in it. It faded a little bit, but not badly for a red couch in front of a window. Two things went wrong though: 1. The cat learned to love sitting on the bad cushions, which pretty much turned them to mush so only vigorous fluffing would make them stand up again, and 2. I think part of the frame might have broken. There seemed to be a bottomless pit in the hole where our butts most frequently were. And both of those problems probably could have been fixed but it turns out, I got sick of red. After almost 15 years of red, I just was done. And I was really sick of the French country-ish color scheme I had going on. I think it still looked good, I just got sick of it.

It was time for a big change.

And that's how I ended up with my first neutral-colored couch. I'd call it a light greige, but it's a tweed-type fabric with a small fleck of silvery blue in it (undiscernable from anything beyond microscope distance), chosen for its durability (I would have loved linen or velvet, but I was worried about how they would wear with what we put a sofa through). With its English arm and scalloped back, t's far more traditional that I was originally looking for, but I absolutely love it. It's very comfortable (I'm so happy to be finished with back pillows) but I do worry that the cushion configuration only allows you to flip them over rather than rotate all of them. I like to flip and move cushions a lot to keep from getting "butt marks" where you sit most often.

A new rug should be on the way and I've started making some throw pillows to brighten it up. It was a big purchase, but I only had about two minutes of regret before I fell totally in love.

What's your history with couches? Do you change up the style and color or have you been lucky enough to find one you will always love and just reupholster it? I'm so hoping that's what this couch will be, but time will tell.

P.S. Don't worry, more Christmas stuff is coming to the blog. I've had this post sitting in the drafts folder for two weeks now so I thought it was time to share it. While a lot of blogs are powering down for the next several days, I'll be posting lots of Christmas stuff. I'm just late. Because I haven't done it yet. There, I said it. But it's coming ... honest!

What name is this?

As I've mentioned, a lot of stuff was left behind by the previous owner when we bought our house. One item was the Calder-esque mobile that hangs in the living room. Even though it's in a bit of a weird spot, I've always liked it there and we never moved it.

I'd like to know more about it though. It is signed by the artist, and although I can see that the date is 1957 and the first letter may be J, I can't for the life of me figure out the rest of the name. I've searched online for various names that it could be, but nothing comes up.

So I'm asking that you take a look at the signature and tell me what you see. And if you actually know anything about these kinds of mobiles, please share!

Thanks, gang.