House tour: living room, part 5

The concluding living room post.


Our couch is the obligatory Ikea Klippan sofa (i.e. the cheapest couch you can buy). I had been using it without a slipcover, but since moving into this house that was no longer an option (as far as I was concerned) since the carpeting is the exact same color as the couch. So last year I tried sprucing it up with a homemade slipcover (why are the ready-made ones either really boring colors or ridiculously ugly patterns?), and while that helped a bit, I think it's high time I bought a new couch.

I made the giant pillows (well, covered them with fabric, that is). I was afraid they might clash with the sofa but I think the clashing patterns work well. The blanket was knitted by me, but it's falling apart (one of these days I will sew it all back together--right after I make the terarriums and all of the other projects I have lined up!).



Dave made the coffee table with the help of his dad and brother (not to mention his dad's many tools). We got the instructions from Todd Oldham's Handmade Modern. The project is actually supposed to be a bench, with a cushion added to the top, but I can't see sitting on it (it's not the sturdiest, although fine for coffee table purposes). The only (minor) problem is that because it's meant to have a cushion on top of it, the screws are showing. Othwise it's the ideal coffee table as far as I'm concerned--the little cubbyholes are perfect for stashing remote controls, speakers for the laptop, and a few awesome books.


Above the couch is a reproduction Blow Up movie poster, which I was inspired to buy after seeing an original hanging in the bathroom of Home Slice in Austin. (I'll admit that I stood there a few minutes contemplating how I might get that thing out of there without the proprietors noticing.) Dave took the black and white photos hanging around it.


I've had the table lamp for years (and it's slowly getting banged around a little more with every move). Pictured also are several felted balls of yarn that I made with the intention of turning into Christmas ornaments, but I thought they looked so cute grouped together on this tiny plate that I left them like that.


Another shot of the photographs, as well as a Guided by Voices poster.


These old Austin punk fliers are hanging on the opposite wall of the couch above our TV, stereo, and turntable. I didn't bother to photograph that part though, because a bunch of electronic equipment piled on top of a fiberboard TV stand isn't all that aesthetically pleasing. (There are also lots of records and boxes of records stacked in front of it at the moment.) In addition to a new couch, a goal of mine for summer thrifting/flea market trips is to find some kind of midcentury sideboard/credenza type thing to go here instead.