Time to reveal more of the progress in the Blue Cottage!
When you enter our house, you step from the porch right into our living room — no mudroom, not even a hallway.
I have a no-shoes policy because shoes are contaminated with more germs and viruses than a toilet. So we’ve been keeping our shoes on the porch, but now that it’s getting colder and damp, that’s not an option anymore.
I had to come up with a solution. But how do I add shoe storage for 3 people in a little living room, and how do I do it without it looking hideous?
Since I happen to have a skilled finish carpenter as a husband, I had wanted to design and build a narrow sofa table after I couldn’t find anything that would fit.
But then I came across the IKEA HEMNES sofa table. It has 8 cubbies and was actually the right height and length. Bingo!
I couldn’t wait to take a drive with L and pick it up at IKEA.
The ball pit in the kids area wasn’t open, which was a bummer, but L still had fun at Smaland while I grabbed the sofa table.
After I paid for it and got it to the car, I picked up L to go through the Market Place together.
L got a new bunny and after we had some ice cream, I couldn’t wait to get home and assemble the table.
It took about 20 minutes to put it together.
Perfect fit, but Don didn’t like how white it was and wanted me to paint it. He isn’t feeling the white shabby chic, Scandinavian look I’m going for in the living room.
After adding a table runner on the top, I haven’t heard anything more about painting it. I think Don just had to get used to another big furniture piece in this room.
This is the reveal of the left side of our living room, yay!
That old-fashioned TV? I’m not a fan of flat-screen TVs and refuse to get one until our TV dies.
Wondering what’s going on with that large mirror I bought at the Stromville flea market? It’s still not tall enough to hide the ugly electric panel behind it, so it’s sitting on my red step stool and a bunch of books right now.
Can you see another thing that’s odd about the Blue Cottage that makes placing furniture really hard? We have a lot of windows, but they are all really low, and on top of that we have baseboard heaters. Ugh. But hey, I like a challenge.
What makes furnishing your home a challenge? The size, the layout, or something else?
