Living Room Rescue

I know I need to focus on completing the kitchen remodel, but now that the kitchen is open to our dining room and living room I can't help but think about decorating the living room. Because it needs it. The room was once somewhat decorated, but that furniture moved to the basement once the basement was remodeled (and then we sold most of the furniture for something more fitting of the basement).

Now it looks like this.

Obviously we had a kid between the first set of pictures and the second, but you might also ask 'is this where you keep all your spare furniture?". And I'd say "yes, it is".

The Couch: The current couch I bought many years ago and had at my last house (which I now rent out). It was a challenge getting into my previous house to begin with, but when we moved we just couldn't get it out. No matter how hard we tried it wouldn't budge. We couldn't figure out how we got it in there in the first place. So we had to cut off the bottom corner of the couch and then screw it back together once out of the house. Luckily it doesn't squeek and is just as comfy as before. However, it's green and doesn't match the blue walls (the blue color looks more accurate in the first two pictures). We got this couch cover to make it blend in. But it's a couch cover and no matter how nice you try to make it look it still looks like a couch cover. The cats love to sit on the back of the couch so we added a blanket (much easier to remove to wash than removing the entire cover), but it's a pretty ugly blanket. We tried to fancy it up with pillows, but I'm not feeling those either. As much as we love the comfort of this couch I think we one day envision replacing it with something a little less casual. In the meantime we need to make this couch work.

The Chair: The chair was a hand me down from a friend. Part of the wicker has worn away and the cushion design is pretty ugly. The cats will be a little disappointed if we get rid of this chair, but I am ready to let go. My husband has his heart set on a leather chair. I am a little skeptical of this because of the cats, but I do like the look of some leather chairs.

The Tables: The side table and the TV stand (aka dresser) are hand me downs from my family. The dresser has been in my family for some time so I am pretty attached to it. We are using it here, because we didn't have a stand for this TV, but I'm not sure where else I would put it. I think we might put it in the dining room under a large window, but that will depend on how it looks. I don't think the side table fits here at all, but maybe it will next to a leather chair. Otherwise I'm not sure where to put it or if I could part with it.

The Toys: As you can see Riley has taken over the space with her furniture and her toys. Until recently this didn't look so crowded with toys, but grandpa Frank brought over a bunch of toys that are all laid out in front of the TV. I would like to find a way to organize these so they don't always feel like they are taking over the room.

The Curtains: When we moved in this room had cheap, dirty white blinds. The great thing about them was that they let in so much light. The amount of light this room gets is one of my favorite things about our whole house. We were originally planning to get new curtains in the attached dining room so we figured we would do them all at the same time. One of the reasons we selected curtains was that the cats have a tendancy to ruin blinds. We picked the curtains above as we thought they would still let in a lot of light, soften up the room, and make the room feel a little more grown up. It just happens that my in law's have the same curtains in their living room, and I love them in their home, but not so much in mine. I've just never warmed up to them in this room and I think it's because they overpower the room. It pains me to think about replacing them, but I think that may have to happen one day.

The TV: The TV is on the list to replace just like the rest of the furniture. It will be larger and flatter one day. At one time we were going to remove the TV from this room, but I like the idea of cooking in the kitchen and being able to have the game on. Go Vikes!

Essentially, I need ideas. Bad. I have been searching the web looking for inspiration, but just haven't found what I am looking for. I also need to make sure it blends in with the dining room and the kitchen.

Please help us with any inspiration or ideas you may have.