Hodgepodge

Our living room is a hodgepodge of 35 year old furniture that came with us when we moved here.

The mix of pieces fit, and I've been happy enough with how it looks, but the living room was always going to be "done over". It was temporary until we could furnish this room with real furniture. It's been five years now.

It's time.

I always get compliments on how richly colored and oddly western looking this room is. I put our old porch furniture here -- it's bark covered log furniture, a very rustic look. 

There's a square table and a little round accent table, made from untrimmed bark covered logs too.

This stuff spent 20+ years in our prior basement rec room and 12+ years on our screened porch before being paired with a rich patterned rug and elevated to main room status. The fabric on the sofas is faded and ripped (I flipped the split cushions over) and although it's an interesting look in this boldly colored room, it isn't really living room furniture, and the couches aren't all that comfortable. They're not even very sturdy.

I'd like a real sofa, upholstered and solid. In a nice neutral. And a larger, usable coffee table. I'll keep the red rug.

The chairs by the fireplace aren't made of logs, but they don't do anything. Nobody sits in them. I'd like a couple club chairs facing the new couch, comfy, upholstered and inviting to sit in. These are not inviting.

Using stick porch furniture, an old black TV armoire, and miscellaneous wood chairs I had on hand was always supposed to be temporary. But we got going with major house projects, and then we kept going, and five years later the living room is still untouched.

Besides, I find furniture shopping daunting and I don't want to do it.

So I've been in no hurry. The style suited the house. The dimensions of the spare wood pieces fit this small room. The furniture is rustic and unusual. The colors are rich. 

But here I am, ready to shop. 

It's hard. Colors, fabrics, style, cost, dimensions. I've completely lost the thread on finding the right size coffee table I like. There are dizzying options for neutral fabrics and textures. I want furniture that is tailored, not overstuffed, and the pieces have to be narrow to fit an 11 foot wide space, but comfy and welcoming. 

It's going to take quite a while to decide and then a long time to get the stuff. I'm doing this myself, online. 

Interior decorators in Santa Fe are either wildly west coast expensive (so many multi-million dollar vacation homes here), or heavily Mexican themed (equipale leather chairs, serape wall hangings, you get the idea). The big decor chain stores are all in Albuquerque, not here. So I'm winging it.

I'm no decorator, but here's what I'm thinking so far . . . 

All pretty simple, unexciting stuff, but such an upgrade. The lamps are existing but they get new shades. The rug and the pillows stay. The jury's still out deliberating on the red leather recliner . . . maybe keep it? Or not? Yes? No?

Come back in several months when it's all finished and see what you think.