Out with the old, in with the new

[OBIO]

After nearly three months of not liking the living room in my new "bachelor pad", I decided it was time to do something about it. Up until now, the room was equipped with a Chair And A Half and an end table from the marriage. Neither piece of furniture I really cared for or had much say in when we got them. The Chair And A Half....at nearly 4 1/2 feet wide....was a superbly crafted piece of furniture and super comfy...but not to my liking at all.

So....out I went this past Sunday about bought a nice arm chair from the local thrift store. Great classic lines, right size for my living room, very comfortable....just kind of ugly due to the fabric on it....but for $40, the chair was a great buy and can be easily reupholstered (not by me, will take it to a shop and have it done) in a nice mid-tone leather with antiqued bronze hob nails.

Monday evening I went out and bought a 9-hole cubby storage/display system and a few vintage themed decor pieces. Tuesday and Wednesday I went back to the same store and bought some vintage themed framed artwork. This morning I went out and blew almost my entire paycheck on a super comfy, dark chocolate brown sofa that has an ottoman and one really long cushion that work like a chaise lounge. Will be picking up the couch in the next few hours....bud from work is swinging by with his nice shiny Chevy 4X4 and helping me get it home.

The Chair And A Half now has a new home with a young gal from work and the end table with either be given to another co-worker or put out in the front yard with a FREE sign taped to it.

Yeah...my bank account took a beating this week...to the tune of about 560 dollars...but that's cheap for a total living room make over (and part of that money bought 10 polished stainless steel drawer pulls that will go into the make over of my western oak bedroom dresser and two pedestal fans).

Once I get my new living room set up, I will take some pics and get them posted to my Photobucket account so you can all check out my MAN CAVE....along with some pics of my Vintage Tractor/Truck themed kitchen. It rocks!

Tim

Oh...the theme of the living room.....Vintage English Pub meets Vintage Cigar Room meets Vintage Pilot/Explorer lounge. The room will simply ooze with testosterone.....and will be complete with a genuine hand-made red felt fez...from the city of Marrikech, Marocco....and a tin bi-plane that I will repaint into something nicer than the red, white and blue Americana theme it came in..shooting for a more realistic color scheme.

[Dangerousdave26]

If you put the free sign on it no one will take it.

Put a sign on it for $10 and someone will steal it.

[Naismith]

If you put the free sign on it no one will take it.

Put a sign on it for $10 and someone will steal it.

That is so true. Happened to us last summer, stuck a CRT TV in the front yard. We had it given us from a Box Store when we bought bedroom furniture some few years back and had never used it. I figured some parent might want it for their kids X Box or similar. I sat for near on a week with no takers. I tried again the following month with "$15.00 unused & works" sign on it - It vanished overnight.
I will never understand humans.

[OBIO]

My new living room is simply AWESOME! Manly, yet comfortable and inviting. Cozy, with just a hint of testosterone. Now 100% done yet...still need a bit more "filler" artwork to complete the room. Have selected a number of good images off the internet to fill this need. One photo is from WWI...showing three US service men sitting on the ground....and in the back ground....a baby cow. Another photo is of a USCG Grumman Goose flying over some mountains. Third photo, most likely from the late 40s or 50s, was taken inside a plane and shows two men decked out in hunting clothing in the passenger area and up ahead you can see the pilot in the cockpit. Two photos I selected are Vaudeville/Burlesque type photos....not nudes, but very elegantly posed women.....a co-worker and her husband just moved in across the alley from me and I showed her the images and she liked them....I have always loved black and white photos and photos from the 20s and 30s Vaudeville/Burlesque genre stuff.

The two final images are my favorites. I came across two large format digital images (14.44 inches by 22.22 inches) of very early Rainer Beer advertisements. I downloaded them, did a bit of colorization to them...not the entire image...just the some of the key elements....layered them onto a blank 16 by 20 inch background. Will have them printed as 16 by 20 inch posters, cut the main ad area out, float it onto raw burlap (old burlap sacks from the surplus store close to my house) and frame them in rich Cherry frames....the burlap backgrounds of these beer ads will tie into the cloth storage totes in the cubby/display shelf and with the arm chair once I have it redone in leather (going for a color close to Manilla rope...a rich mid-tone/lighter brown).

I need to raise my entertainment stand up about 4 inches or so...it's a small cheap unit from Family Dollar....I like the length and depth of it and the simplicity of the design....it just sits too low....look under scaled. Will grab some scrap 4 by 4 pieces at work this week, paint them black, and use them to make legs to raise the unit up a bit. I know I could buy a taller unit...but why replace an item you are 95% happy with when all you need to do is expend a little effort to make yourself 100% happy with it?

After I got the furniture arranged until I did that "THIS IS IT" thing....I sat on my new couch/laid on my new couch/sprawed on my new couch for about 2 hours smiling like I had just inhaled a full tube of the orange model glue...model builders will know what I am talking about. I freaking love it!

Tim

[Odie]

OBIO, it's great when everything just clicks and you realize that you're "there"!