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One End Table Solved

Our guest room is thisclose to completion, but while we wait for the final pieces to fall together, let’s switch gears to the living room – a room that, for the most part, could be considered complete, but let’s be honest, this is us.

Maybe it’s because we started by selecting pieces and color schemes that were outside of our comfort zone, but every purchase for the room (and that includes the dining area, too) feels so difficult! To be honest, I’ve been feeling a little meh on the paint color (is it too blue?! I ask Scott way, way too much), and I’ve already started some tweaks to the gallery wall. We love our desk-turned-media center, but since Day 1, we’ve been itching to add a stone top (we think?) to provide a bit of weight and contrast. And although we’ve enjoyed the process of pushing our limits, choosing bold colors and wholeheartedly giving in to our crush on brass, I’d be amiss not to admit that there’s something missing. Something we just can’t quite put our finger on.

One of our biggest challenges has been finding appropriate end tables for our big, hunky couch. We do have this cute guy, but coming in at around 18″ tall, it quickly turned into a placeholder. The arms of our sofa are a good 30″ off the floor, and everything we’ve found at flea markets, yard sales or in store has been too shrimpy. And then one day, I was reading this post by The Hunted Interior, and it hit me! We’ve been going about it all wrong!

In said post, Kristin picked up a large round table to offset the tall arms of her furniture. Not only would the same idea fill the corner of our living room perfectly, it would bring in a bit of height to an otherwise empty, awkward space! I showed Scott, and he agreed. We pulled up Craigslist and searched “bistro table,” which brought up a newly listed 30″ (wide and tall) marble top. A beauty! Look!

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A few emails back and forth between the seller had us picking up our new end table shortly thereafter, and we love, love, love it.

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The veining in the marble is spot on, and it mimics our marble tiled entryway beautifully. The heavy iron base was a bit chipped, and although we considered keeping it that way, it ended up feeling a bit too shabby (chic?) in our space. Two quick coats of Clark+Kensington’s Nein! Nein! Nein! OK Fine! (you know we dig it) polished it right up.

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We laid an acrylic tray on top to corral a freshly potted ZZ plant, soon-to-be coasters (we re-ordered these guys, as our original Watsons served as CC’s lunch) and a framed photo. Remember when we said it’d be fun to have a demolition photo in every room?

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The other side of the sofa is still sporting the mini table, as well as our subwoofer (we ran the cables along our baseboards using these), but we’re thinking it’ll get nixed for something similar – and preferably something with four legs, so the subwoofer can tuck beneath it.

In the meantime, we’ve been waffling on a few dining room rugs, feeling stunted on which direction we want to go. Do we want to bring in color to balance out the living room? Or less color to keep things from feeling too wild? I’m strangely leaning towards an overdyed pink (because my goodness, pink + navy, you guys!), but is that just crazy? Go big or go… home?

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  • Krista10.28.14 - 7:00 AM

    I love watching your progress and am always jealous of your amazing finds (especially the prices! )
    But…from photos the wall colour doesn’t appear to really complement the couch. It looks too green. Photos and computer screens aren’t all that accurate however…
    From reading your blog I get that white or super faint grey is not your style, but I think you need to find something that plays better with your couch rug combo.
    You either have to go more neutral or more punchy. Pink could be amazing…ReplyCancel

  • Laura @ Rather Square10.28.14 - 7:06 AM

    That’s a really nice table – and the roundness keeps it from feeling like it takes up a lot of space. Great find!ReplyCancel

  • Loryn10.28.14 - 8:45 AM

    On my ipad, the wall color looks great. I think maybe part of the problem is that you’ve got such a strong couch color contrasted with such a bold rug color. It drowns out the more subtle details of the rest of the room. It sounds like you might be wavering between going all the way (bold art, patterned curtains, bright pillows) and wanting to keep it more subtle. Since your style seems to lean towards more minimal, maybe one really one bold piece per room? What about moving the living room rug to the dining room, and going with a more subtle rug in there?ReplyCancel

    • Kim10.28.14 - 9:55 AM

      That’s something we’ve thrown around too! The only problem is that our living room rug may be a bit too large in the dining room, but we could always try and see… RUGS ARE HARD.ReplyCancel

      • Loryn10.29.14 - 8:36 AM

        Yes! I’ve only purchased one out of the four I need!ReplyCancel

  • Sara10.28.14 - 9:15 AM

    I love that little table and I am SO with you on the hot pink rug. This is my heart rug for my bedroom….

    http://www.overstock.com/Home-Garden/Updated-Traditional-Pink-Blue-Polypropylene-Rug-710-x-11/8297804/product.html

    It is so much money though that I can’t let myself pull the trigger and order it. Or I am waiting for a mega-sale. Or I have seen it on a bunch of blogs lately, so now I am all ‘is it OVERDONE’? Ahhhhrrrrrggggghhhhh, the over-thinking of it all!ReplyCancel

  • Joelle10.28.14 - 9:40 AM

    I think the walls could be a bit warmer. the rug is warm with the reds, and then from there (the couch, chairs, artwork, walls) it continues to get cooler and cooler. we just painted our room worldly grey SW. Wanted a cooler gray, with just a hint of warmth…it’s perfect. some lights it looks almost white and other times of the day it looks kind of taupey. at one point i though i detected a hint of purple…really warm and inviting. can’t wait to see the guestroom…it’s always my favorite room in the house to decorate!ReplyCancel

    • Kim10.28.14 - 9:47 AM

      Thanks for the suggestion! I agree, originally we were on board with the super cool gray, but now it just feels… off. I want to warm it up just a bit, without ever feeling beige. I’ll check out Worldly Grey, thank you!ReplyCancel

  • alexis10.28.14 - 1:15 PM

    Careful with the over-dyed rugs, I was rug shopping with my mom and was told the dye can be toxic. Make sure is safe for the furry babes!
    I agree, I think the paint color could use some warming up.
    Every thing is still gorgeous and envy inducing :)ReplyCancel

  • What about bringing the navy from the couch to the floor in the dining room? Ties the space together and give you the ability to decorate with smaller pops of color in art/ something for the table?ReplyCancel

    • Kim10.28.14 - 3:54 PM

      Scott threw around that idea too (or something blue). But I worry about navy overload. Is that a thing?!ReplyCancel

      • Cait10.29.14 - 8:15 AM

        I think ‘navy overload’ could be a thing, especially in a space without much natural light. Your living/dining room seems to get good light, and the navy helps ground the room – especially since the walls are so light. I think carrying the navy into the dining room with a navy rug would coordinate nicely with the sofa like Justynn said. I’m a big fan of keeping a house cohesive by repeating a lot of the same colors in different ways, and I worry that an over-dyed pink rug might not play nicely with the red in the living room rug. Maybe an over-dyed navy rug? (Do those exist?) Or maybe there is another room where you could try an over-dyed pink rug?ReplyCancel

        • Kim10.29.14 - 9:16 AM

          There are teeny tiny pink touches in the rug, which is what makes us think that the overdyed pink could help bring that out… worst case, we were thinking the rug could live in the studio if it’s a bust! We’re just so stumped. I think we’ll try Loryn’s suggestion about rug swapping JUST TO SEE, and then maybe go from there. Or maybe we’re just being big, fat scaredy cats, and we should just dive in!ReplyCancel

          • Cait10.29.14 - 11:30 AM

            That makes sense about the pink touches (I thought I saw some pink in it, but I wasn’t sure) and the possibility of it living in the studio if it doesn’t work. I was actually going to suggest the studio, but I couldn’t remember whether you had a rug in there already. I know you have the floral rug in the work room.

            Rug swapping is always fun! Definitely a great way to freshen things up without spending a hunk of change on a new rug. I planned out sort of a musical chairs of rugs (musical rugs?) for our house a while back and we may try that after Thanksgiving…

            I also totally get the being nervous to jump in! I am tempted to try the West Elm Honeycomb Textured Wool Rug (in Horseradish) in our library (after the musical rugs), but maybe that is too much yellow after we just painted the walls from yellow to blue?

            Wrapping up the world’s longest comment… whatever you land on will be awesome! I’m sure the pink rug would work well in several places in your house if the living room ends up not feeling quite right.

          • Kim10.29.14 - 12:02 PM

            Thanks, Cait! No rugs in the studio yet, so that’s definitely a big plus to go with pink – because WORST CASE (I mean, right?), it’ll have to live in the studio somewhere. Ha!

          • Cait10.29.14 - 1:52 PM

            Exactly! Such a terrible worst case!! ;)

  • erica10.28.14 - 9:33 PM

    Love the new little table. Everything is coming together so nicely. And YES YES YES to the overdyed pink rug for the dining room! Great idea. I think the current wall color is nice, but perhaps a grey with a tiny bit more taupe in it would work well with your furniture choices. I love your blog!ReplyCancel

  • caitlin10.30.14 - 10:46 PM

    Please oh please add a stone top to the credenza! I’m dying to do it and cannot get my husband on board. If you do it, it may give me ammo!ReplyCancel

  • Sarah10.31.14 - 7:58 PM

    Just a random question about your windows. I see you have curtains, and I can’t really tell, but do you also have blinds? I love your house! My husband is doing a similar trim around our windows, but he doesn’t want to put all of that work into it just to have them covered by curtains, even though I love the look of curtains :)ReplyCancel

    • Kim11.1.14 - 12:42 AM

      Thanks, Sarah! Yes, we have blinds and curtains, but we’re suckers for layers :)ReplyCancel

  • Jessie10.31.14 - 11:02 PM

    I love the demo photos! We have one in our living room too :)ReplyCancel

  • Michael11.2.14 - 8:59 PM

    About rugs, I’ve seen kilim rug designs and they beautiful. I think they could fit perfectly with your finish and balance out your living room. I love your marble table. It looks stylish and modern. Can’t wait to see the complete transformation.ReplyCancel

  • Charlotte11.3.14 - 11:03 AM

    Go for the overdyed pink! I have one in my living room (one bedroom apartment with a dark green couch) and I LOVE it!

    It brings so much warmth to the room, and it doesn’t scream “PINK RUG!” My boyfriend doesn’t mind it at all, but of course I didn’t tell him it was pink until it was already en route ;)

    Plus, the subtle overydyed pattern really hides dust and dirt, so vacuuming isn’t critical 24/7.

    I waited for one of those crazy RugsUSA holiday sales and got a $500+ rug for 70% off!ReplyCancel

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