We have a love-hate relationship with the couch and loveseat in the living room. They were perfect for our first place, but now, the beige fabric sticks out like a sore thumb against the gray walls and feels like a speed bump on the road to the style we’re hoping to accomplish one day. It’s also starting to look kinda saggy here and there – though that can probably be easily fixed with new cushion inserts. Hmm… I’m putting that on the to-do list as I type! On the love side of the love-hate relationship, the comfy, lounge-like, perfect-for-movie-nights depth is at the top of the list. We also like the height of the back – not too high, not too low – perfect for a sofa table.

Since the living room is open to the kitchen, we want to wait until the kitchen is done before we make any big living room furniture purchases. Btw, speaking of the kitchen… we are overdue for a kitchen update and we promise one will be coming your way asap, but heads up: you haven’t missed much. At this point, we don’t even know if having a loveseat will leave enough of a walk-space between the future kitchen peninsula and the loveseat.

With all of this in mind, we’ve been casually keeping our eyes open for “the one”. So think of this post as kind of like when you aren’t planning on having kids anytime soon, but you’re already thinking of baby names. Please don’t tell me I’m the only one that’s crazy like that… Anyone?

As for the criteria for “the one”, here’s what we’re looking for:

• A square-ish design (no rounded arms)
• Available in colors other than beige
• Pull-out sleeper sofa isn’t a necessity, but a plus
• Around 34″ to 36″ high
• Between 42″ and 47″ deep
• Comfy… yet tailored.
• Sturdy and will hold it’s shape

We currently have five favorites – which all, for the most part, fit the criteria. As for the fabric choice, we’ll cross the “fabric bridge” when we come to it. Here are the contenders…

First up, we have the Comfort Square Upholstered Sofa from Pottery Barn. It looks similar to what we have now (all of the contenders do, actually) but a little less contemporary and more classic – which we really like! Also, it comes in 80 (Eighty!!) fabric choices and is available in a sleeper sofa version as well. As far as the cons go, I’m slightly concerned about it holding its shape over time. I’ve heard that Pottery Barn sofas start to look “baggy” after some use. I’m not sure if this is actually the case, though. We’ve never purchased any upholstered furniture from PB; only “hard” pieces (which we’ve been more than happy with!). So, if we decide this is “the one”, we’ll definitely look into that before purchasing.

Next up, we have Ethan Allen’s Monterey Sofa. This has been a favorite of mine ever since they came out with it a few years ago (see the full photo here). In case we do have room for a loveseat, and want to go with a matching one, this style is also available in a loveseat version. Though it is an extra cost, I like the button tufting on the back cushions. I’m not sure if the skirt is a little too traditional for our house, but at Ethan Allen, everything is custom, so I’m sure that can be taken away if we didn’t like it.

Ahh, Pottery Barn’s Stewart Sofa. Ever since I noticed this new addition on the Pottery Barn website a few weeks ago, I’ve been kind of obsessed with it. It’s deep, the perfect height, looks comfy, comes in a bunch of fabric options, and has a distinct, tailored look to it. It also has coordinating (but not too matchy-matchy) chairs.

Then we have the Petrie Sofa from Crate and Barrel. Okay, so this one is a little more on the modern side of things but I’m pretty sure we can cozy it up with pillows, a rug, and such. As far as comfort, we’ve sat on it inside the store and surprisingly enough, it was a lot more comfortable than it looks. And it’s called “Petrie”… being huge Dick Van Dyke Show fans, it almost seems destined to be in our house! I’m sure Rob and Laura would approve.

Last, but certainly not least, is one that Greg and I both whole-heartily agree on: Restoration Hardware’s Easton Upholstered Sectional. Okay, so we might not have room for a sectional, but it comes in a sofa version too! It comes in two depths (“Classic” and “Luxe”) and a bazillion fabric choices. You can’t really tell in the photo, but it also has antiqued brass nail head trim. This sofa had us at “hello”.

So that’s where we are at when it comes to living room furniture. Do you “shop” for furniture way in advance? Please tell me I’m not crazy, ha ha…

PS We’re going to be doing a Facebook-only giveaway next week, so if you aren’t a fan already, go “like” us on Facebook!

Oh, and by the way… we just noticed that tomorrow is our 1-year blogiversary! How crazy is that?! Time has FLOWN by!

…dog toys, that is. If you’re a dog owner like us, you probably have dog toys strewn around the house. Bentley likes to scatter his toys around the house (most commonly up and down the hallway and hidden in the couch cushions), but he always seems to know where each one is – especially when it comes to his tennis ball, Kraft Ruff Parmesan toy, and Rufus (his BFF). If I say, “Go get Rufus!”, he scampers as fast as he can, slipping and sliding on the hardwood floors as he goes, and promptly returns proudly wagging his tail with Rufus in his mouth.

You may remember a few weeks ago I mentioned I was on the hunt for accessories at an antique mall in the area (read that post here). I was also looking out for a vintage crate to use as a toy box for our little ball of energetic, toy-loving fur. I found a lot of crates, but they were all much to large for our 10-pound dog.

Last week, a friend of mine was driving down from northern Virginia and stopped at an antique store on her way back into town. While she was there, she found a small, vintage crate that she thought would be perfect for Bentley. She gave me a call and asked if I wanted her to pick it up for me and I, without hesitation, said, “Yes!” After all, if it ended up being too big (or to small) for Bentley’s toys, I could always find another use for it. As far as I’m concerned, you can never have too many vintage crates around the house.

It was perfect! Exactly what I was looking for and the perfect size for his small toy collection. Dfusefinitely worth the $15.

The side of the crate has a partial label that says “…aum’s Horse and Stock Company”. Some of the label has come off over time, but the rest of it is pretty secure, despite what it looks like in the photos. After doing some investigative Googling, I found that it is actually a vintage advertising veterinary box from Baum’s Castorine Co. of Syracuse, New York and once held 10 pounds of food. What kind of food, I’m not really sure – though I assume it was for some sort of farm livestock. The company was founded in 1879, so there’s no telling how old this thing is!

I love the “rusticness” (Hey… dictionary.com says it’s a word!) of the wood. Even though the crate is small, it makes me even more anxious to find a piece of reclaimed wood for the mantle we have planned for over the fire place (read more about our thoughts on that here) and  that coffee table I wish we would have snapped up!

FYI For some reason the floors look more red than they actually are in person in the above and below photos. I think it’s the light bulbs in the living room. Ugh! Moving on… Bentley is a big fan of the new addition as well. It’s the perfect size for him at 6″ high, 11″ wide, and  7.5″ deep. He can get toys in and out (Yes, he actually puts toys “away” from time to time!) without choking himself in the process.

Speaking of “vintagesness” (That one’s not even on dictionary.com), the other day, I ended up going back to the antique mall to buy the brass bunny I stalked in this post. Our backyard seems to be the local hangout for the neighborhood rabbits, so it’s going to make a fun conversation piece.

Our new little buddy is solid brass and I was able to snatch him up for only $12. (Thanks for not running out and buying him before I got back to the antique mall!) Like all of the accessories in the house, he’ll probably end up a few places before finding the perfect final spot. But for now, he’s hanging out on the table behind the couch.

How about your house? Are the dog toys taking over? Does your dog have a particularly favorite toy like Bentley?

Oh yeah! Tonight’s the night… the season fanalie of HGTV’s Design Star. Have you been watching this season? Who do you think will walk away with their own show? Meg or Karl?

Way back in the day (technically, back in October), we removed the window panes from the two back doors (read the post here).

By the way, that’s my dad helping me with the windows back in October : )

Fast forward ten-ish months and the windows are still naked. No window treatments. No blinds. Naked. Until the kitchen is finished, we don’t want to do anything too permanent or expensive. So I guess you could say we’ve been in window-treatment-limbo. The back door in the living room faces our neighbors’ backyard. Even though their deck is a pretty good distance away, sometimes we felt like we’re giving them a front row seat to everything going in Casa de Brown. On top of that, at night, the window of dark nothingness kind of freaked me out…

To cover up the “scary dark nothingness”, we’ve resorted to covering the window with craft paper, wrapping paper, and even pages from magazines. A more attractive alternative was well overdue. We came up with several low-cost options, but ultimately decided to give the ‘ole contact paper method a try.

At first, we thought about trying out this technique (via Design*Sponge) using a paint pen on contact paper for a detailed, artsy look…

Even though it’s a very cool technique, we want to be able to see out the window a little bit, rather than covering the entire window. We also wanted something a little more graphic yet subtle. So we decided to design and cut our own contact paper pattern.

I played around with a few different patterns, keeping in mind I would have to cut each peace and place it on the window by hand. In other words, simplicity was key. I then came across this Moroccan-Vintage-esque tile on Pinterest (here). Not only would it make a dreamy backsplash for a kitchen, but I loved the overall shape. I imported the image over into Photoshop, traced it, then started to lay out my window. I drew everything to scale so I could see how big I wanted each piece to be. This also helped me know how many pieces I would have to cut.

I printed the pattern on a piece of card stock to make a stencil (Click here to download the stencil!). With my DIY stencil, contact paper, scissors, and fine-tip Sharpee, and the Doris Day & Rock Hudson box set in hand, I hunkered down for a long night of tracing, cutting, and movie-watching.

It was tedious, but I felt really proud of myself when I had all 76 perfectly-cut stickers – enough for both back doors.

From this point on, the process is pretty self-explanatory. The contact-paper-as-window-film concept isn’t rocket science and has been done a bajillion times, I’m sure. But here are a few things I wish I would have known before I got started:

• When tracing the stencil onto the contact paper, draw on the paper side, not contact paper itself. Yeah, I know. I had a total blonde-moment.
• Rather than making a lot of little, short cuts when cutting out your design, keep the scissors moving. This will give you a much cleaner line.
• Make sure you clean the window as well as humanly possible before starting to applying the pieces to the window. After you finish applying each row, wipe off any finger prints you left on the window with a dry cloth before you start on the next row.
• When peeling the contact paper backing, do it slowly. If the contact paper creases or wrinkles the slightest bit, it will show up on the window, no matter how much you try to smooth it out.
• If you have a bubble, don’t try to rub it out too hard. When I first started, I would get a bubble and freak out and try to rub it out really hard and quickly. That always ended up with a crease so I had to do it over. I later found that rubbing out the bubble lightly and slowly worked much better.

When it was all said and done, and my hands had a chance to rest, Greg and I were both really happy with the end result….

We were actually kind of surprised how non-DIY it looked. If we end up loving it after the kitchen is installed, we might look into a more permanent application of the same design, like etching.

We’re also digging how it adds a layer of unexpected pattern to the not-finished-yet living room…

In case you have a naked window, and you’re wanting to try this out for yourself, I put together a handy dandy PDF for you to download – complete with the pattern template and the tips listed above. Click here to download!