Spring cleaning = Major rug shake up!

I think I've been feeling a little over orange-d.

Or more specifically, I'm feeling pretty pro-yellow. I've been dating a couple of gorgeous yellow-incorporating fabrics recently (I'm using both of them in projects for clients!) and was pining for a way to use them in my apartment too.

Sadly, they really didn't make sense in my orange-linen-blue living room, so I resigned myself to a life without them. Cue: Gorgeous free Room & Board rug from a client. She went rogue on me and bought this incredible silk oriental rug, and found herself with a surplus Room & Board "Beads" rug which is a pretty grey-ish blue, with yellow and green elements woven through it.

No kidding. Free rug = No better reason to totally shake up my living room and dining room aesthetic! I started by figuring out the actual orientation of the rug-- our living room is a slightly peculiar shape, so I ended up having to lay the rug left-to-right instead of front-to-back, which was my initial instinct. This turned out to be a happy accident though, because it allowed me to lay the sisal rug in the dining room area (formerly in our bedroom) front-to-back instead of left-to-right; which looks much nicer with the dining room table, particularly when the table is extended for guests, because the table expands front-to-back, not left-to-right, because of the shape of the dining area. I'm sure all of that sounds a little confusing, but the end result was basically: 

1.) New rug is free.

2.) New rug is great. 

3.) Sisal rug fits better in dining room because of the direction of the new rug. 

4.) Dining room table and chairs look better on sisal rug because of the direction of the sisal rug. 

5.) Yay. 

Testing out fabrics and color combinations, and getting the rugs in position.
Looking good already and we've only just begun!! 

Once we figured out the rug situation, we tackled the fabric situation. I was committed to un-oranging the living room, and had high hopes about bringing in some of the beautiful surplus fabrics I had left from those professional projects. There was a lot of "What if we do this with this?" and "How about this as a pillow, this as the ottoman, this as the chair?" "Or this as an ottoman, this as the pillows, this as the chair?" Keep in mind that I've only got weird shaped remnants of these fabrics, so it wasn't exactly a "the world's your oyster" kind of day. It was more like playing interior design tetris, trying to find the right combination that worked nicely with the rug and the things that weren't changing (sofa color, Eames lounge chair upholstery, and dining chair upholstery because reupholstering those dining chairs is the STUFF OF NIGHTMARES.) 

Emily and I caught sewing. Note the consternation on my face. I can't convey to you exactly how much I hate sewing, but it is a deep and fiercesome hatred. If you look behind me, you can also see our work in progress. Two down, two more pillows to go! No tears shed yet. 

Taking our existing navy ottoman and giving it a face-lift with this gorgeous chevron fabric. Remember that once upon a time, that ottoman was a coffee table, until the day I'd had enough and decided to upholster it. To date, still one of my favorite pieces of furniture and such an easy D-I-Y project! 

Check back in this week to see how things are progressing with the living room and dining room shake up, and to catch the step-by-step tutorial of reupholstering an ottoman!

This is one helluva spring cleaning and I'm already IN LOVE with the transformation!