The Evolution of a room...

Now that we had a couch - what to do next? I tried it in various positions, but the darned thing was so long that it really only looked decent sitting parallel to the fireplace.

We tried it in this position, but it was too close to the planter and just looked awkward:

So, we decided to stick with position "A" - and added an inexpensive floor rug I'd picked up at Tuesday Morning just to give it some grounding, along with a few throw pillows. This pic also shows what the slipcover would look like on one of the cushions, had we opted to go that route.  

While out antiquing one day, I discovered an awesome painting of Dean Martin that I simply fell in love with. If it were mine, I knew exactly where I would like to put it - my entryway wall was just begging for something like this. Maybe it would help give the room some more direction - perhaps I could go with a retro 60's "Rat Pack" type theme? Unfortunately, the price on it was out of my (cheap!) budget. However, luckily for me, the store owner just happened to also be the artist. I think she eventually took pity upon me after my showing up there several times admiring it, as she eventually offered to sell it to me for half the tag price - YES! Half! I didn't think twice and quickly whipped out my wallet.  Unfortunately, poor Dino had to hang out there at the shop for another week until hubby came back in town to pick it up with his trailer, as  - at 5'x4.5' - it was way too big to fit into my little car. 

Ok, so now I was starting to make some headway.  Even with the addition of Dino, everything was still unfinished and too "blah". I needed chairs. And some kind of "pop".  Hmm.... why don't I throw a zebra patterned rug down just to see what it does? And how about a chair or two? But what kind? And perhaps I should consider a room divider/partition type thing? So I decided I should throw together an idea board of sorts to help get my brain juices flowing:

Then I found the perfect chair - at a thrift store for $20! A very retro, mad men looking gold colored reclining chair. Somehow I squeezed that baby into the back of my car and with half of it hanging out the hatchback, I zoomed back home - praying over every bump I hit that it wouldn't bounce out onto the highway - or God Forbid - the long bridge I had to cross! Finally I made it back to the house, where  the chair now sits in all it's mid century glory!

The chair in "recline" mode - only problem is the reclining mechanism is broken - yet another project for hubby to fix!

Anyone know who made this chair?
I can't find a darned thing about it online - but who cares? I love it!

Eventually, with the addition of a temporary side chair (I would have preferred two of the same style next to each other there), the rug, and a couple of end tables/coffee tables I picked up for a song at the consignment shop, and a few accessories, the room started to look like this:

Still not exactly the look I want, though. The rug... hmmm? You can't see in this pic, but it does go great with the Dean Martin painting on the wall to the right... However, I'm really just not really feelin' it. Oh well... maybe when my Mom's furniture gets here and I can change things around a bit ....?

 While waiting for the moving van with my Mom's dining room set, brass coffee table and other knick knacks to get here,  I decided to check out an estate sale one weekend. TONS of mid century stuff there - but most of it was out of my budget, unfortunately. HOWEVER...Serendipity struck unexpectedly while I was there - and more than once, too! 

I managed to find a great mid century style chair in the perfect color to match my other gold chair... AND.... drum roll, please. Another rug!! Yes. An original, authentic, mid century shag-type throw rug was on the floor in one of the bedrooms, looking all abused and forlorn. I don't think it had seen a vacuum in years. BUT.... I loved it! The colors  and pattern of it just made me smile. So I asked the lady in charge how much it was. She looked at it, then me, and said she'd give it to me for...... FREE!! Hello?!! Did I hear you correctly, lady? FREE? Yeppers!  So, once again, I didn't skip a beat, and quickly had the guy working there roll it up and shove it into my little car next to the gold chair I'd bought. And the t.v. And the vintage atomic boomerang floor to ceiling drapes (those drapes are gonna' deserve a separate post at some point)! 

Oh, did I forget to mention??! They had a small portable t.v. made in 1970 (I know, because I looked it up when I got home) with the price of $1.50 on it. What they heck, I'm sure it doesn't work at that price, but why not pick it up for nostalgia's sake, anyway? I'm sure I can find something to do with it. And amazingly, the darned thing DOES work - well, at least as well as a t.v. not hooked up to cable and without an antenna can. It picks up UHF signals like nobody's business, too. Ya just gotta love the old tube technology!

BTW - when I got the rug home and unrolled it, I found original tags on the bottom. The rug pattern is called "Inca" and it cost $149 when it was originally purchased. Score!

Sorry to leave you with a cliffhanger, but it's time for me to start dinner, so you'll have to "stay tuned" for tomorrow's episode of "As the Room Unfolds" for the great rug and chair unveil, and to see how it all looks with Mom's furniture ;-) Ciao! (Or should I say "Chow"?!)