Our House: The Living Room, Change of Plans

Our plan when we bought, renovated and moved into this house was that the living room would be the 'pretty' living room and that we'd finish the basement for our TV watching and lounging.

Of course not being able to wait, I started buying a few things for the actual living room.  We were practically starting from scratch with it so why waste any time right? RIGHT?

The first was this Williams and Sonoma Home mirror I was obsessed with:

Followed by a Room & Board sofa:

And then this Surya rug:

I'd picked up this coffee table (via Craigslist) while we were still living in the hotel just because I was in love with it and had to have it, so it was planned for the living room as well:

So the short term plan was to use the 1st floor living room as our comfortable TV room until we finished the basement.  The massive overstuffed sectional with reclining sections in it (belonged to my husband before we got married and he LOVED it) took up the majority of the room and we used the random tables we had already.

After a few months of living here I realized that I really loved the first floor space and being able to see my kitchen I love so much.  Not only that, but our 2nd floor space never gets used and I hated the idea of more unused space in our house.  So the plan for finishing the basement went out the window.

So the real fun starts.

I had this clear idea of what I wanted for the living room and my husband has his ideas about comfortable furniture.  He didn't want me to have to give up the things I wanted in the living room but I didn't want him to feel like he was sacrificing his comfort for my 'vision'.  (Not to mention I still feel slightly guilty for selling just about all of his furniture on Craigslist since we've been together).

We sold the sectional on Craigslist and moved the Room & Board sofa into the living room (had been up in my office since it's delivery).  I love the lines of the R&B sofa, but it's not very deep and after a few weeks of using it we were hating it for our new purposes.  Something had to be done.

So after 9 months of living here I still don't have a furnished and functional living room.  I'm keeping the Surya Rug and hopefully the metal antler table (I still love it).

So on the list are:

• A comfortable but still attractive sofa
• Window treatments
• Something to replace the WS sunburst mirror that is clearly too small for that space (lesson learned for me regarding living in a space a bit before buying items, same goes for the R&B sofa)
• A proper fireplace mantel
• Decide if I'm keeping the antler table in the room, if so what color to paint the base and to replace the glass top (scratched and chipped)
• Side tables
• Loveseat or a set of chairs
• 'Entertainment' unit, I need something for the TV other than the random console table it's been sitting on since we moved in
• Pillows, throw, and accessories 

I'd love to have the room done by Christmas as my in-laws are coming.  My father-in-law hasn't been to the house yet and my mother-in-law saw it last Thanksgiving (I think she actually took the picture of the room above).  Not to mention I'd just really love to have it done!