Posts Tagged "Furniture"

A coffee-worthy surface indeed (the tale of a $15 coffeetable)

Posted by Joy on Apr 16, 2012 in Living Room | 0 comments

Permission to indulge in a “look what I did!” moment?  Thank you!  :)

The living room in our last house was a lot larger than our living room now.  And so our living room furniture has never really seemed to fit in our new space here.  The culprit?  Our ginormous Ikea Lack coffetable.  While amazingly functional, it was just far too large for our room.

And so began the search for a new place to rest my coffee. :)

Then, one day, while scouring the local Kijiji-pages (er, website) I found a listing for a rather beat-up looking glass-topped coffeetable.  Price?  $15.  My reaction?  Sold!

Here’s what the beast looked like when I picked ‘er up.

She was scratched.  She was dented.  She had random patches of forest green peeking out from under her white exterior.  She was a sad looking coffeetable indeed.

So I pulled out my primer (BullsEye in the blue can is my go-to primer for everything – it rocks) and my Snowfall White paint (all the trim in my house is painted BM Snowfall White, so I seem to always have some on hand) and one weekend later (following the accepted furniture painting rules: sand, prime, paint, admire), I now have a much prettier place to rest my coffee.  :)

I switched out the old pull (it was wood, it was icky) on the (fake) drawer for an inexpensive ORB pull I picked up at Rona.  Much better.  :)

Some of the drips from the previous owner’s (rather abysmal) painting job still show through (even though I sanded the dickens out of the table before priming it) but I’ve decided that they add character.  And, really, unless you’re taking a ridiculously closeup picture of my pretty new pull, you don’t really notice the drips in person. :)

Sadly, in all honesty, I’m not 100% sure (after alllllll that) that this is the right coffee table for our space.  While our Ikea table was too long, this one is too… square.  And also too big.  Again.  Sigh.  It too seems to take over the entire living room.

And I’m already missing the handy-dandy storage shelf that was under my large Lack Ikea table – it always came to the rescue whenever I needed to quickly move things (remotes, my laptop, random bills, my copy of Blogging for Dummies) out of sight.

And, well, I’m also sort of wishing I would have jumped (just a wee bit) outside of my paint-it-white-and-it’ll-be-alright comfort zone and painted the table dark (since EVERYTHING in our living room is white now.  I’m all for uniformity, but this might be a little much.)

BUT, it’s BETTER.  For now.  At least until I decide if it’ll become a permanent fixture in our room, or if it’s hitting the selling-block once again, or getting another (sigh) coat of paint, this time in deep charcoal or something snazzy like that.  Or maybe I’ll just give in and get a larger living room (unlikely, but it could happen!)  I’ll letcha know what I decide.  :)

Giving credit where credit’s due (Dear Ikea people: thank you for the Ektorp sofa)

Posted by Joy on Apr 12, 2012 in Living Room | 0 comments

Have I ever mentioned how much I love having slip covered furniture?  I love having slip covered furniture.  With two cats, a Sweetie who works in construction, and my bad habit of “working from couch”, our furniture gets a lot of abuse love.

So, about once a month, I wash our furniture.  And furniture washing day is an exciting day indeed!  I usually reserve furniture washing for bonus days off (holidays, snow days, birthdays…  that sort of thing.)  (Yes, I’m JUST that much fun!)  Often I’ll just wash the cushion covers (since that’s where most of the wear-and-tear takes place.)  And then, about twice a year, I’ll really roll up my sleeves and tackle it all (getting the base slipcover back on the sofa is quite the ordeal, let me tell you, so I save washing the whole kit-and-caboodle for days when I’m feeling particularly spunky.)

Here’s what furniture washing day looks like chez Sweetie and Joy…

Loki is a huge help, of course.

And our bar stools become cushion-cover drying stools.  (I’m a wee bit terrified to put the covers in the dryer.  Did that once.  Things have been a little snug ever since.  Never again!)

Yup.  That’s right.  Furniture washing day creates cushion chaos in our living room. But it’s so worth it when everything dries.  Ah, hello, clean sofa.  :)

And hello clean chairs.  Yes, don’t worry, I love you too.  :)

So yes.  Ikea people?  Thank you for giving me the option of a) having white furniture and b) washing said furniture.  I emphatically give Ektrop a hearty two thumbs up!  White furniture is the scariest kind, but, because of you, I’m no longer afraid.  (Although spaghetti sauce near the sofa still makes me a bit twitchy…  I may no longer be terrified of white furniture, but I’m not that crazy.)