Let's Talk Pillows. And Couches.

Yup, pillows. And couches. And more importantly, pillows on couches. As in the decorative pillows that I buy, try on (our couch) for color and often return. What can I say? The employees at Winners have a 'we like her/wow she's annoying' feeling when I walk in the door. (have I ever mentioned that Hadassah just loves it when the girl with a full head of bright pink hair is on shift at Winners? True story. I admire her spunk.)

So. Our household has made two couch related observations. And I'm curious to know: Do you join us in thinking the following?:

1. People occupy only 2 of the 3 seats available on the couch. 

Another chair will be pulled in from another room (in our case, the adjoining dining room) before that middle seat is claimed. There are exceptions, of course:

Exception #1 - When every other chair in the house has already been dragged into the living room.
Exception #2 - The gathering in your room consists of young people. And in fact, if these young people are under the age of 17, they go to the opposite extreme and seat 4 on the couch in reasonable comfort.
Exception #3 - A couple sit down together and the female portion of this couple is seated in the middle of the couch already. A female friend of the female half of said couple will then feel comfortable enough to sit in the vacant spot.

Any exceptions I'm missing?

2. People don't generally use couch pillows. Let's talk about why. 

Sure, they look nice. They're cozy looking. They help color co-ordinate your room. But when it comes to sitting on the couch, most people grab the decorative pillow with a mad dash glance around the room to see if anyone is watching them gently place the pillow on the floor beside them. I usually do. See them, that is. And I morph into 'making-my-guests-feel-more-comfortable" mode by telling them "Oh, that's ok! Just chuck 'em wherever". In my effort to ease their discomfort, I cause everyone to focus on what they're doing and make them feel even more awkward. I realize that I did the complete reverse of my intentions. I've just made them self-conscious and feeling the need to grin sheepishly. Oops. Thankfully no one's chucked one at me yet!

Others use the decorative couch pillow as a lap guard. This is my personal favorite when I'm visiting. Grab that pillow, get comfy on the couch and hug that pillow like it's your safety net. Do.Not.Let.Go! Something about leftover baby tummy? Anyway...

Now you know. 

Now I want to know: do you find the above to be true as well?

And now I'm going to let you know something else. I had a solution. It was brilliant! Let's take a look, shall we?

Decorative pillows? Check.

Two open seats where no one has to move pillows to sit there? Check.

Available pillows for those who like to sit with them on your lap? Check, check.

(does my couch ever look dirty in these pictures! but I promise I just vacuumed it...please excuse life with a dog who sneaks on the couch every time we leave the house...)

Brilliant, right? For a few months I went with this and it worked like a charm.

But then something happened. Gus skidded around the corner in a mad attempt to get away from Tim and/or Hadassah in a game of chase...one too many times. Gus and a light colored, light weight rug just wasn't working for me. As much as I loved our West Elm chevron rug, I'd had enough. One impulsive stop at HomeSense resulted in the purchase of a new rug. Dark brown (no instant dirty-ness!) and thick (no more pulling the wrinkles out!). Slight modern detail. Loved it.

Except for this: One dark brown couch + one dark brown area rug + one dark brown coffee table top + dark brown blinds in the windows = TOO MUCH DARK BROWN!!!

First step in solving this problem?

You guessed it.

More pillows. Break up one of those brown solids with some color!!

:)

So, sorry folks! If you want to sit on our couch, you're simply going to have to move those pillows to the floor. Or on your lap. Whatever you prefer. But either way, these pillows are home sweet home and are most definitely not going back to Winners.

A little bit of this on the left...

A little bit of this on the right...

And I've got myself some comfy color to break things up.

My favorite part is that I was so unsure about all those patterns together, but I do like it so very much. The solid green pillow with the flower/circle design I might've stolen from my husband's chair. Unfortunately for him, he's not getting it back!

Next on the mission to de-overbrownify (new word!) my living room: coffee table! I can't decide whether to just paint this one again or try and sell it on kijiji once frequent trips to local thrift stores have paid off and I find a new one. Or maybe convince Tim that we can make one? Ana White has some very nice options. We shall see. I'll keep you posted.

Please excuse me while I run downstairs and dive onto a couch of pillows for a pre bedtime nap. Thanks for the talk!