living room january style

 Ah, the starkness and wonder of a clean palette once all the Christmas

decorations are taken down. I think I finally have my living room back to the

way I want it. You might recall that I had a long, rectangular wooden coffee

table in front of the sofa before. I love it - it's a gorgeous table that belonged

to my grandma - but it's too bulky for this small living room. I replaced it

with two round leather ottomans. The oriental rug you see under the ottomans

is actually a long hallway runner. It belonged to my grandma, too. I am

going to use it in my hallway, but I need to buy a couple of those sticky

rug pads to put underneath the rug. In the meantime, I folded the rug in half

and placed it where you see it now.

I like aqua chair where I have it now because it brings more seating 

by the couch. This is such a small, awkward space that it's hard to

set up a conversation area. I would love to flank the outside corners of the

rug with two chairs, but the chairs would stick out into the main walkway

of the living room.

The little black chair by the fireplace took the place of the aqua chair, but this

 black chair is much too small for the space. That black table calls for a bulkier

 chair. Oh well, it's called making do with what you have, right? I think I've also

mentioned before that I do not like those pictures above my fireplace.

I wasn't the one who picked them out in the first place - it was my cousin.

Bless his heart, he is a fantastic designer and perhaps these pictures

would sit well with someone else, but they're just not my style. The fireplace

is stark enough as it is and I think these pictures only make the area

more so. I need more warmth and color. In the meantime, I am keeping

my eyes open for a good deal on a large, gold mirror. I think that will look

a lot better on the fireplace wall.

I used touches of blue, gold, and a little bit of green for the ladder

bookcase and side table. I'm really liking the gold flower bookends that

I got at Goodwill (originally from Target) last week.

I kept the top of the buffet area simple and neutral except for the 

splash of blue in the little picture and the blue-gray of the wooden

houses (marked The Countryside Collection, Bucks County, PA

 -found at Goodwill last year).

 I hope everyone is staying warm ~ the temperature here today in northern

Illinois has been unbelievably frigid. It got down to -47F with the wind chill factor.

Even with the heat in my house at its regular setting, I am sitting here in two

layers of clothes, there's a fire going in the fireplace, and I have a space

heater here in the living room, too! Tomorrow's high will be zero, so I guess 

you could call that a warm-up. ;-) I am off now to fix dinner. I'm warming up

some leftover split pea soup and a vegan carrot-fennel soup and am going

to put some garlic naan bread sprinkled with mozzarella cheese in the oven.