I have slowly been replacing my old college hand me down furniture with newer pieces that are more my style.  For instance my couch:

I purchased this beaut in January right after Christmas, on sale!! *Insert Happy Dance Here* I will have to do some sleuthing to find pics of the old couch for comparisons sake.  Let’s just say the old couch was holey and I don’t mean Holy in the God sense, but holey. The previous owners had dogs that enjoyed chewing on furniture. But at the time it was a great deal for a poor college kid, and they delivered!!

The new couch is leather with red undertones. I used to hate leather couches, until I got my Annie dog, then I realized why people buy leather couches. Muddy paw prints are so much easier to get off of a leather couch than say a twill one.

With the purchase of my new couch, it dawned on me how dingy the rest of my furniture looked. Which made me want to get out my bargain hunting gear and take off for the great wilds, of JCpenney Home store, American Home, and countless other hunting grounds. Then in the next second I realized that I would have to save to buy more furniture since I had just spent most of 2010’s furniture budget (yes, I have a furniture a budget) on my pretty new couch and gorgeous dining room set (even though, technically, I don’t have a dining room). Oh, I forgot to tell you about the dining room set. Well let me show you a picture:

I love it! In fact, the day after it’s arrival I invited my mom over to Chez April, so that we could use more than two chairs! That was very exciting, I even took pictures of everyone eating. I won’t share those, I think I’d be in trouble with both the momma and the sweetie then!

Yes, I have a red accent wall. Some would say they are cliche, and expected, but I love it. Especially since I see that wall when I am  sitting on my sweet new couch. It’s another element in my casa that makes me happy so it’s staying, trends or not.  Or until I get the painting bug again.

But the point of this post was to talk about living room chairs. The chair we have in our living room now, was generously given to us by a friend of a friend, whose grandma passed away. Very sad, but I was happy to help them out by taking some of the furniture they didn’t know what to do with.

In the picture at the beginning of this post,  I have it covered up with a drop cloth, because the upholstery is less than modern. But the chair itself is so snuggle worthy. Between myself, the sweetie and Annie dog, there is a constant battle over who gets to sit in it. This has me a little undecided if I should buy a completely new chair, or have this one re-upholstered.

Here are some new chairs I am considering:

The above chair is a recliner, but doesn’t look like those giant “man” recliners one would think of when recliner comes to mind.  I love that there are 20 different colors you can order it in. Choices so many choices!!!

This one I like too, you can order it in copper, coral, or merlot. I’m liking the merlot, because it’s got more texture than the others. Here it is in coral:

This chair I have been looking at for a long time. But I’m not sure how it would look in a yellow living room. I kind of wanted to go a little lighter in color with the chair, since the couch and curtains are so dark. This chair is also a recliner, I love chairs with pleasant surprises like that!

It’s hard to think about purchasing a chair that costs as much if not more than my couch. So, for now I will be on the hunt until some unsuspecting bargain catches my eye.

All images courtesy of JCPenney.com

Actually, I’m not talking about red wine, or any wine for that matter. I’m talking about red doors.

Odd how the above door, doesn’t have a handle, but it works for a visual aide. My current front door is an old wood door, that should probably be replaced, since sometimes it brings light into my living room, even when it’s closed.

But I digress, I’m loving red doors right now, and I’d like to paint my front door red. I figure since our front door will probably be replaced soon, it would a be a good test subject. I’ve also thought about painting the security door red as well, but that might be too much of a commitment for me right now.

So on to colors, this first one is from Valspar National Trust for Historic Preservation. It’s called La Fonda Fireberry:

Valspar.com

Isn’t it just so cheery! I love brights! That might be why I didn’t hesitate to buy my yellow shoebox.

Here is another color I’m considering, it’s called Fairmont Sweet Clay. This one is slightly more muted than the first:

Valspar.com

For now I will leave it at two colors. This evening the sweetie and I plan on taking our Friday night pilgrimage to Lowes, so I’ll pick up some samples while I’m there, and of course drool over the fancy tubs and pretty kitchens.

I’ll leave you with some images of pretty red doors, and some links to some pretty cool sites.

OK, maybe we don’t have an entire yard full of grass but we do have a small experimental patch. Last night the sweetie and I went to Home Depot hoping to get a garden hose reel, sod, and grass seed. Well, we couldn’t find the grass seed, and didn’t want to spend too much time in the garden center with Annie in the car waiting on us (no worries all the windows were down and we were in there less than 10 minutes).  So, we just settled for two of three items on our list: a hose reel (because a certain little Aussie Shepard mix enjoys eating hoses), and 10 sq ft of sod. So here’s what the test subject looked like before the experiment:

Here’s the test subject all dressed up in green:

And here’s the test subject wearing Annie dog:

Hey Mikey, she likes it! She was a happy little pooch laying on her new grass bed. We placed brick around the edges to keep Annie dog from eating the cow poo that was poking out from the sides. I never knew a dog to eat cow poo before, I guess she takes the whole Reduce, Reuse, Recycle thing to a whole new level.

Stay tuned for more grass updates!