Decor Dilemma

So the eggplant sofa is officially on Craigslist... Now just keep your fingers crossed that it sells!  Hubs & I made a deal that if it sells, I can get something else for the sunroom (if it doesn't, it obvs stays) 

I decided that even if we did cut the skirt off, it would still be too formal (and purple!) for how I envision the final space.  And it goes along with my new 'if you don't love it, get rid of it' motto.

I need some help sorting out my vision from here though...

Plan A:
The Inspiration:

{via Ashley Goforth}

Possible Furnishings:

{Ikea Karlstad}

Plan B:

The Inspiration:

{via Lonny}

Possible Furnishings:

{Craigslist}

So the question is: How 'sunroom-themed' should the room be decorated? Or should we decorate it just like an extra living space?

I'm kind of in love with the Craigslist (vintage!) bamboo couch, and for the cost-savings I could easily try sewing some off-white pillow covers for it... But I just don't know if I'll eventually wish it was decorated like a 'regular' room... Thoughts?

Take a vote in our poll on the right side of the blog... Help me decide, before another couch is purchased & then listed on Craigslist (just kidding, Jeff!)

Weeknight Demo

If I haven't mentioned it before, my husband really plans before we start a project... He considers the budget, timing, return on investment, placement of potential furniture... You name it, we discuss it.

But once Jeff gets started, we are off... Exhibit A:

{view from sunroom looking into kitchen}

{laundry room window removal}

Just a typical weeknight... Coming home from work and ripping out windows & walls in the Whittaker house...

{view from dining area into sunroom}

{view from kitchen}

Now that its nice and open, we're reconsidering the pocket doors.  This weekend will be the test, since no pocket doors & a doggie door means that Ellie has the run-of-the-house all the time! 

I tried to very nicely explain to her this morning that she should be good, so that I can keep the rooms open to each other... Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow we'll be priming, finalizing our choice for flooring & maybe even taking down a little more of that wall.  Happy Weekend!

Uncluttered Living

I recently stumbled upon The Nesting Place and a post on how to cure thrift shopping disease.

This is pretty timely stuff for me... When Sarah came over last week, she pointed out that I have four lamps in my living room.  Four.  I also have three end tables, a coffee table, a TV console, and a sofa table.

{evidence of how much I love tables}

Which would be fine... If the room wasn't roughly 18x11.  Let's not even get into the china cabinet (that yes, holds china) in the bedroom.

Moral of the story:  We have too much stuff. 

The first step is admission, right?  So my resolution for the spring is to unpack this house... And send everything I don't love (or need) right out the door.  Can't wait to share along the way!

Psst... A certain eggplant couch is currently listed on Craigslist...  baby steps.

Painted Floors?

I've always loved this skirted console table.  And I just noticed that the floors beneath it are painted {cue wheels turning in my mind}

{source unknown}

Camila at Effortless Style (my new blog obsession) successfully painted her kitchen floor.  And I wonder if it could help us with our multiple flooring-types dilemma...

Thoughts?  Anyone out there tried it? 

Four Walls

Jeff has finished so much work on the sunroom recently!  Last weekend, he finished the molding around the windows...

And finished hanging all of the drywall...

And while I was out of town, he finished off the drywall with joint compound (mud).  It's hard to believe that this week we'll be removing the wall between the kitchen & sunroom, and then priming the room for paint over the weekend!

Making the Cut

Hope that ya'll had a great weekend!  I headed to Raleigh to see some of my oldest friends (we calculated that we've known each other since middle school... so an average of 15 years!) and to celebrate the first one of us to be expecting a baby!  I was so lucky to also spend Sunday afternoon with my college roommate, Lindsey (who is less than two weeks from her due date!)

We all talked babies. A lot. 

But... Our current project is the sunroom, and before I left to talk babies for the weekend, Sarah came over to talk decorating.

We pondered removing the skirt from the eggplant sofa when it moves into the sunroom... To give it a less formal look.  As a quick recap, this couch started in our living room, then moved to the office & was slipcovered... And will make it's final move into the sunroom.

I'm in the mood to start cutting away, especially once I found this amazing 'after' on Centsational Girl.  My only hesitation is whether or not the sofa needs the skirt to balance out the heaviness of the arms and pillows...

You have to use your imagination a little here (and ignore the burlap sample)... I really keep going back & forth on this one.  Any thoughts?

In Place

Happy Friday!  We finally found a location for our new-to-us chairs... And so I thought I'd share a quick living room update.

As a reminder, we've had this horrible older dual-recliner since we've been married (a souvenir from the hubby's bachelor days):

And we literally just swapped it out for the leather chairs...

Turns out that the only way to make them work in our smaller living area is to place them right next to each other.  Ideally, I'd like to have enough room to put a little table between them, but I'm definitely loving the improvement from the recliner!

Happy Weekend!