New Furniture Surprise

In May I decided to get new living room furniture as a result of reading a book called Staging Your Home to Sell (we may move to a bigger house in 2010, and this book suggests a more modern, "together" look, especially in the first room people enter, can really help sell a home). Since I've never purchased new furniture, I was happy to give it a try!

Looking ahead on the calendar I noticed Father's Day and our 10th Anniversary were happening on the same day. The stars were aligned, so to speak, so I decided to make this a surprise gift for Mystery Man.

Week 1: I shopped for furniture, largely via the main furniture stores' websites, then checked out the real furniture in the store (sans kids), and then made the purchase (all the money came from my business). I had the challenge of finding furniture to go with our yellow walls. Not easy!

Week 2: I decided on curtains & accessories.

Week 3: purchased cool lamps from Home Depot.

Weeks 4-5: Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Week 6, Delivery Day (today): Here is the "before" photo.

Mystery Man left for work at 7:08 a.m. and the 3 boys and I were able to carry the green chair to the garage. The couch was another story. Luckily an older guy from Italy, whose granddaughter was in Azael's class, walked by and offered to help. He seemed to be a "master mover" and the couch was quickly in the garage. [Note: the neighbors were supposed to help me, but they didn't show up and I didn't want to bother them so early].

I removed all the pictures from the walls, removed the pictures from their frames, then spray painted the frames black. They dried in about an hour and I re-assembled them and hung them back on the walls.

Lorelai dumped a box of cereal on the floor as I was polishing the furniture pieces I planned to keep (piano, shelf, and chair). Then the delivery people called and said they'd be here in 7 minutes, so Azael and I scrambled to get the room cleaned up and cereal vacuumed. They unloaded everything in a jiffy, and then we all stared in shock at the furniture.

Mystery Man arrived this evening, walked in and simply looked confused. His responses, in a dazed fashion, included:

It's nice.

It's very fancy and modern.

It's nice.

It seems like we need to have a meeting here.

This seems like a room where people should chat.

Are our kids capable of sitting in chairs? [Yes, of course, I replied].

Anyway, without further adieu...The "after" photos.

A side-by-side comparison:

That's that. I'd love advice on anything you think we should add or change. In the meantime, we'll have some meetings and teach our kids to sit in chairs.

note1: I decided I couldn't hang the curtain rods without help, so the new curtains aren't in the picture. They are "Pottery Barn-esque."

note 2: I wish the woodwork wasn't 1970s brown, but painting it would be a crazy amount of work.

note 3: Special thanks to Jen Lee for sewing that fantastically cute chocolate brown cushion on the wooden chair. She rocks!

note 4: Special thanks to my advisors, Amber, Erika, Stacy, Emily, & Ann. You rock, too!