Moving into the Dexter Living Room
THE DEXTER HOUSE Renovations are a lot like pregnancies - unpredictable, messy, usually past-due, and totally worth it when they're done. As I mentioned on Tuesday, the Dexter House renovation has been Garrett and my favorite project to date and considering we got 'er done and moved-into before the baby arrives (yes, still future tense) has me counting our lucky stars. I'm really excited to show you everything we've been up to in the last few crazy weeks, so let's get to it! Today, we'll focus on the living room.
Last we left off, the living room looked like this. Remember that the photo below was taken only 4 days before we spent our first night at Dexter.
Yikes! Crazy what a giant mess the house was. And it's crazy how much work we can get done in 4 days when we're motivated ;)
So. The living room. This space gets tons of natural light, especially in the afternoon. I love how big this room is too (at least by my little-old-house standards - it's 160sf). I'm purposely only showing you about half the room, since we still haven't finished the fireplace to the right of that archway.
Here's the earliest photo I can find of this room. It's from way back in May when we found out the roof was leaking and had to tear open the plaster ceiling.
Sometime in-between tearing open the plaster ceiling and painting the room, I ordered a brand new couch and rug for the the living room. We've been living with a college relic futon, hand-me-down couches, and questionable Ikea rugs for far too long. So I made the decision to budget these bigger furniture purchases into our renovation estimate up front. And come June, I was pretty giddy to plunk down our credit card. Buying a new couch and rug actually felt like a right of passage - kinda like Garrett and I officially made it to adulthood!
So why did I order the couch 2+ months before I wanted it? Well turns out that couches are often considered custom orders and require months to assemble and deliver. So to have the couch by the time we moved in, I had to order it two months early. And even though the rug wasn't a custom order, I decided to order it early too because it was just such an amazing rug that I worried it would sell out (I just checked and it's no longer available). Plus, I knew that if we waited until the end of the renovation, we'd be at the end of our budget, and it'd be all too easy to forgo the new furniture. So I pulled the trigger early and haven't looked back since.
Last Friday the couch was finally delivered. We had just finished painting the interior of the Dexter House a couple of days before, so showed up on Friday morning to remove masking and clean, clean, clean. Here's what the furniture install looked like after we got the room ready.
That lovely cobalt-blue rug had actually been sitting in a closet at the Dexter House for over a month. I couldn't totally remember what it looked like when I pulled it out on Friday afternoon. Luckily, when Wilder rolled it out (yes, in his underwear), I was just as in love with it as when I ordered it! The blue is so vivid and beautiful that I just can't imagine having a blue day with it in my house (sorry, I couldn't resist!). It warms my world ;)
Now I know rug pads seem kind of boring and totally unglamorous but I was thrilled about the pad we used under this rug because it's a really nice one. RugPadUSA reached out to me back in July and offered me a free rug pad in exchange for a full report (aren't they nice?!) and I was happy to oblige. I picked out the mac-daddy of rug pads, which is actually called the Eco-Cushion, Non-Slip Rug Pad and costs about $75 for a 5'x7'. I opted for a bigger size and trimmed it down to the dimensions of my rug since the rug was a nonstandard size (plus I wanted to keep some extra pad to put down below entry mats, etc...I'm sneaky like that).
I've never owned a nice rug pad before - I think we've always picked them up at Ikea - and let me tell you, it is amazing! Seriously, the rug hasn't rolled up or moved an inch since we laid down the pad. Plus the pad adds a nice amount of cushion, making this space way more fun for Wilder to play on. So thanks for making my life better RugPadUSA!
Okay, enough about rug pads. Let's get to how this living room is looking now. Back when I ordered the couch and rug, I really didn't know if they would go together. But thankfully they look great! Take a look.
Obviously we still need curtains, cushions, a coffee table, and more stuff like that, but that will all come later. For now, we have a new couch and a new rug and we're tickled pink about it. After all the hard work we've put into this house over the past few weeks (heck, past five months!), I think we're just happy to have a spot to sit down. I've said it before and I'll say it again, we are CRAZY to be finishing a renovation and moving while I'm this pregnant. But I really do like our kind of crazy ;)
In case you guys are interested in upgrading to an awesome rug pad, RugPadUSA is offering the Grit and Polish readers 15% off. Just use the code "PR15OFF" when you check out!
Resources: Rug Pad, RugPadUSA | Rug (Mirabelle in Cobalt), Lulu and Georgia | Couch (Rose in Narwahl velvet), Interior Define
xoxo
-Cathy
p.s. this would have been good to read before we got pregnant! The article blew me away. Thank goodness I was into those kale seaweed salads the first trimester!
p.p.s. I'm pretty sure that this is the coolest house boat in the history of house boats. Wow!
p.p.p.s. Breaking up with stuff...in a good way. It's amazing how much stuff Garrett and I have accumulated over the past three years (during which we've moved four times...!!!). This move, we're focusing on paring down.