A Few Things: Sofa Scheming, Something to Paint, and Much More!

This is my 100th post, so I tried to think of something really amazing to post about. Instead, I have a collection of small, random things for you. I did my best.

Random Thing #1: As I reflect upon my plans to redo every piece of furniture in Ari's room, make a new headboard for him, create some fabulousness for his wall, and make him curtains and curtain rods, I am reminded of what this whole plan started out as, back when I made a list of house-related goals for the year: Finish painting trim and hanging art in Ari's room.

Yep, that was it. Things have gotten a little more....grandiose since then. I'm surprised I didn't even mention painting the furniture. At some point, I was thinking I'd just give it all a quick coat of gray paint and be done with it, but now I have separate plans for each piece. Which brings me to.....

Random Thing #2:

Michelle at Decor and the Dog, Megan at The Remodeled Life, Sherry at Young House Love, and Katie at Bower Power are hosting a Pinterest Challenge. The idea is to take something you've pinned and....do it.

So it just so happens that the next project I have planned for Ari's room is based on something I've pinned. I was already going to try to get it done this weekend. Cheating? Naw. I think it was meant to be.

Random Thing #3: I bought a giant old dresser.

One of my favorite thrift stores is closed this week for remodeling. So when I went there last week, they had everything in the store half off, trying to clear things out. I've been looking for a dresser to re-do as a media console for the den, so this caught my eye. It quickly became clear that this thing is way too big for that space. But I also need a big piece for storage (for what? I don't know yet....extra dishes? board games? craft supplies?) for my sunroom. And at half off this ginormous old (1974--it says so on the back) dresser was only $45. Now it's sitting in the middle of my library, waiting for Dave and I to work up the ambition to move it out to the sunroom. And then it's getting painted right there, because we're not moving it again. It's REALLY heavy.

Plan is to paint it a fun color (turquoise? aqua? teal? something in the blue-green family most likely). I can't decide about the hardware. Replace it or just paint it oil rubbed bronze or something? What do you think?

The nice thing about bringing the behemoth home is that it has gotten us thinking about a master plan for the sunroom. The sunroom, pictured here before we moved, in, still with its giant leak (the leak that scared off other buyers and got us an amazing deal on this house, I'm convinced):

Other than the ceiling being fixed now, it doesn't look much different yet (and we pretty much never use it, except to lock up dogs when we need to, which is a shame because it's potentially a very nice room, not to mention one of the biggest in the house) . But we're working on a plan! More on that in another post.

Random Thing #4: I also bought this table at the same time:

It's a little campaign style end table....nothing super amazing, but it was only $12.50. I don't have anywhere in mind for it here, so I think I'm going to paint it and sell it to my mom for her shop. Because I need to make some money for the couch fund.....

Random Thing #5: Rationalizing my way to a new sofa.

When I was a kid, my grandparents had a huge, fabulous, velour (? something very soft, at any rate), leopard print sectional sofa. Yes, you read that right. It's hard to believe how amazing it was even for me, and I spent many hours sitting on it and building forts out of its approximately 34 gazillion cushions.

Perhaps nostalgia about that sofa is why I've always wanted a sectional sofa myself, even though I know it is highly unlikely I will find a leopard print one. And, really, with so many people around here who need somewhere to sit, a sectional is the most practical way to go, too. My grandparents had 8 kids and 11 grandkids, but there was always a place to sit on the sectional sofa. (okay, they couldn't really fit all 8 kids and 11 grandkids on there at the same time, but you get the idea).

We all know where you go for a stylish and relatively affordable sectional sofa, right?

Yes, I know....EVERYONE has a Karlstad sofa from Ikea. But you know what? Sometimes everyone is right. Because where else am I going to find an attractive sectional, with a cover that I can replace if/when the evil cats destroy the first one, for $900?

But I don't have $900 lying around (well, I DO, but I need it for Milo's palate expander (note to self: call dentist to make appointments for kids) and other practical things. Like our Disney trip in May). If I hadn't had Abe, with his expensive deductible, I could go out and buy myself TWO Karlstad sofas. But I don't have room for two of them anyway. And also I already did have Abe and he's not returnable (kidding! I don't even WANT to return him!)

So we need to start a sofa fund, I've decided. And live with the old sofas until then.

Oh, I forgot to explain the rationalization (this post about nothing much is getting very long. I can see how they kept Seinfeld going for so many seasons). Old plan was to move the leather sofa my mom handed down to us (that's STILL hanging out in the garage) into the den, sell the old sofas, and buy two armchairs to go in there for extra seating. But I got to thinking....if I'm going to spend a few hundred dollars on new armchairs, I really might as well spend a few MORE hundred dollars on the sectional, since that's what I really want anyway. The leather sofa + armchair plan was a temporary fix until we could afford the sectional. And this way, we still have a leather sofa to play with. And--spoiler alert!--it might just figure into the sunroom plan.

Random Thing #6: Remember how I've never been sold on my dining room chandelier?

Nice, but kind of....stuffy?

I took those little lampshade thingies off the bulbs the other day, and now I like it 254% more:

Here was my thought process after the shades came off: "duh. That was easy." pause "Maybe I should paint it purple." It's kind of cool and spidery looking now. And maybe I SHOULD paint it purple. What do you think?

Also, it looks like a totally different shape in those two pictures. I'm not sure what's up with that. I'm looking at it right now, and the second one is how it really looks. Long.