We’ve been working on our living room almost nonstop since we moved in. It’s the room we spend the most time in so we wanted to make it really great. We also wanted this room to reflect the coziness of our home but also be functional and spacious. We spent a lot of time finding the perfect dining room table, picking pretty and functional storage for the room, and massively redoing the TV area. It’s taken a while to get it set up exactly as we wanted but I am proud to say it’s finally done!
The final step was a new couch! We had two couches that didn’t match (despite our efforts with matching slipcovers) and weren’t utilizing the space of the room very well. We really wanted a sectional couch but weren’t sure we could fit one in the space we had. We looked all over the place for a few months and couldn’t find anything we loved in our price range that would fit. A month or so ago I saw this entry about the sectional over at Young House Love and suggested we check out IKEA. We headed to the store, saw their Karlstad, and knew it would be perfect!
The couch was delivered the day we left for our road trip (blogs coming soon, I promise!) so we couldn’t put it together until we got back. Thankfully this weekend was a long one with the Memorial Day holiday so we had some time to redo the whole room.
We put the new couch together on Friday night. It wasn’t too bad and only took an hour and a half.
It fits in the space in the space perfectly. As you can see here we now need to get a new coffee table because with the chaise and the ottoman we bought, it doesn’t really work anymore.
With the new couch in place, the next step was obviously to get rid of the two old couches. I’m the type of person who recycles everything, especially furniture. I have such fond memories of the mismatched, well loved, recycled furniture I was given to furnish my first few apartments. So it really made me sad that we wouldn’t be able to recycle our old couches. Our house was built 100 years ago and the stairwells just do not permit couch moving. When we moved in the movers had to winch them up over the balcony, a process we did not want to repeat.
Our only option was to hack the couches apart and take them out piece by piece. It made us both sad but it had to be done.
Well, it made John less sad because he got to use the reciprocating saw he got for Christmas to saw the couches apart. Men and their power tools.
John was feeling quite proud of himself for getting the arm clean off the couch.
The second couch was smaller but better made, this one took some more sawing to break down.
Sadly all the sawing burned up both batteries we had for the reciprocating saw so by the end John had to resort to his hand saw for the final cuts (and maybe one painful karate chop, but let’s not talk about that).
After 30 minutes of sawing the couches apart, and another 30 minutes of trips up and downstairs to get it all out of the house, we swept up, and enjoyed our new living room. (As you can see below the coffee table still works if we move the ottoman over but we’re not sure how often that will be the case.)
It feels a lot more spacious and open now. Plus we gained space but didn’t lose any seating. It’s a win-win situation. And it feels awesome to have the room complete!
Domestocrat 
The room looks awesome! Have you ever tried Freecycle? http://www.freecycle.org/ – it’s like Craigslist, without the shady undertones.
I have, I love Freecycle. We just couldn’t get the couches out through the doorways or down the stairs and didn’t want to hire anyone to come do it. Maybe next time!
Your living room looks so good. I love the new sofa. I am very familiar with small doorways, staircases and halls. When we sold our last house, we hoped the people wanted our refrigerator. It was fairly new and so nice but we had to take all the door trim and casing to get it in. I did not feel like doing it again to get it out. It all worked out but I do still miss the fridge. Enjoy the new living room set up. Warm and inviting.
Thanks so much!!!