Greetings from The Big Apple. You know it’s crunch time when you spend the morning in your hotel room, surfing the Web for furniture and giving your Visa card a workout. Josh’s parents arrive on October 16 for their first visit since our September 2005 wedding (happy anniversary to us – tomorrow!!) and I am trying to get at least the major bits in place before they show up.
Morgan came through with a most excellent design for the media room:
You may notice we finally decided to move the A/V equipment under the TV (instead of along the side wall). And after a lot of thought and sourcing and surfing, Morgan and I agree the Room and Board Grove credenza is the way to go. I decided to go with this version:
And thanks to the convenience of online shopping: purchased!
She also found this adorable vintage magazine table on Etsy:
One magazine table: check.
As for the sofa, at first I was down with her recommendation of the BluDot Paramount sectional sofa, which is so sharp:
But then had a good chat with the hubby on the phone, during which we started leaning towards the IKEA Karlstad:
Granted, it lacks the slick styling of the Paramount, but we think it is a better match for our lifestyle and how much abuse this piece will get from our crazy pets. It comes with removable, washable covers; good for the inevitable ice cream spill or the day when the cat-scratching gets out of hand. Presto change-o. And if we become bored with the options IKEA offers, we can alwasy order a wild and crazy cover from the folks at Bemz. I know, I know – it’s “cheap,” and more likely than not made in a Chinese factory; we are well aware of the ethical trade-off we would be making.
This is a purchase we’ll make closer to — if not right after — move-in day.
The final purchase of the day is the living room rug. I have been obsessing about this on-and-off for MONTHS (May – oy vey that’s forever ago). After a lot of exploring and consideration of wild, colorful rugs vs. neutral sophisticated rugs I decided to go with a classic:
An ivory felted wool shag rug. This one has a nice thick knobby pile on it:
It’s a safe choice, but maybe that’s what I need right now. Classic, understated, chic. While surfing around the amazing area collection at Burke Decor I stumbled upon this beauty:
It’s over top but I love it. It comes in more muted colors, too. I have no idea if there’s a way to work this into our project — maybe it could be a blast of color in our totally window-less master closet…? Would be such a shame to hide it in there.
The Isunda Grey is so nice in person on the Karlstad. It’s a new color and awesome.
Love the wool shag. Shag is never bad.