2022 Living Room Refresh
I Refreshed My Apartment Living Room On a Budget
Well well well. Look what blog it is! I had a vision for the living room one day and wanted to immediately do everything and set it up and take the picture etc etc etc. Since I didn’t really have a budget to work with, I made a list of tweaks that I could make to the room without spending too much money. That list looks like this.
- Bring in a coffee table
- Cover the couch in a color that is less heavy than the dark brown that it is now.
- Add more lighting
- Update the pillows to contrast the lighter colored, covered couch.
My No-Sew Method to Covering a Sectional Couch
I have to admit I was stumped on this for a long time. I love my couch, I got a really good deal on it on Marketplace, maybe 4 years ago. I love the size, how deep it is, the comfy cushions. But the color is bad. There is faux leather in a very dark-almost-black-brown. The seats have a more chocolate-colored microfiber material situation going on.
Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against a dark couch. However, in my last apartment, the one with the white cabinets and bright natural light pouring through the windows, it felt natural to have a grounding couch as the focal point of the room.
In this new apartment, the kitchen cabinets and floors are walnut colored. The trim is painted a very dark brown. All of my dark furniture pieces make the room feel HEAVY. Even though it’s a million times bigger than my 420 sq ft one. I know literally nothing about reupholstery, so I didn’t want to take on that huge of a project. Plus, when we move to PA, this couch will probably become a basement couch anyways. *fingers crossed for a new couch*
So I grabbed what I had, in this case a twin sized white sheet and a big ole canvas I had in my workshop. Both had been most recently used to cover other things in the garage that I didn’t want to be covered in dust. I threw them over a few pieces of the sectional to get an idea of the look and feel. I loved it! And I decided that the canvas drop cloth was decently soft. Maybe even soft enough to use on the entire couch.
I rounded up all my clean enough (not covered in paint/polycrylic) canvas drop cloths from the workshop and washed them all again, hoping they would get a little softer in the wash. They did 🙂 From there I just started tucking it all into the couch as tight as I could. It’s definitely not a perfect tight fit, but it covers nice and they are really easy to pull off and toss in the wash if you need too.
So far, so good! The canvas has been good to us, it’s soft and comfortable. I discovered I can actually vacuum the couch now, whereas in the past the dog hair would merge and become one with the microfiber cushions.
The canvas drop cloth couch cover provided a fresh light color, a soft place to lay, and an easier place to clean. The VIBES are better guys!
You can also watch the video over here.
DIY Coffee Table Makeover
The most exciting part of this whole thing is having a coffee table that actually fits the space. We have been playing the balancing game with our drinks and books for far too long on the back ledge of the couch. Not for no reason though. In order to fit the coffee table we actually needed to adjust the couch so that it blocks the entrance to the patio. During the warmer months, this is out of the question for me. I NEED access to the outdoor space.
However, it makes a lot more sense inside to have the couch arranged this way.
It makes the room feel so much bigger not using 40% of it as a walking path to the patio. Plus, we have 3 people and 2 dogs trying to find a comfy spot to lay every night, we needed the extra couch space. Since Conner and I sit at opposite ends of the sectional, we can put our feet up. Brandon gets screwed with nowhere to put his legs without cuddling Conner (his cousin, our roommate). Alas, the coffee table solution for all.
I started with a $10 coffee table from Marketplace. The base was real wood but the top had a wooden veneer on it. I sanded the whole thing down. The base went relatively quick, but the top veneer would NOT budge. I had sanded a wood veneer in the past with no issue and assumed that would be the case for this too. I was wrong. It literally would not sand down. Here it is before sanding, an orangey wood.
What it looked like after 3 hours of sanding with an electric sander with 100 grit.
Since I wouldn’t have been able to stain it the way I hoped, paint was the best option. I cheated and spray painted it black because that’s what I had on hand. I ended up going back to Walmart for another can and they were out. I found another color called dark walnut, which seemed like fate since that was the color I wanted to stain the table originally if I could have sanded it down. So I grabbed a couple of cans and VOILA!
I love it. I went ahead and sealed it up with polycrylic since I assume we will have drinks and things sitting on it. Polycryclic is always a great idea in a high-traffic area. If you are working on a furniture project and want step-by-step instructions, start here.
To add additional lighting, I attached another string of lights to the ones around the window so that it would lay across the back of the couch. Since the tan of the canvas and the wall are really close in color, I wanted something to break up the space so it didn’t look like a tan blog. I like how the base of the couch, the trim, and the coffee table are cohesive now, so much better!
Next up, I’d like to get some better pillows. I have these pillows from Walmart which are great, but I liked them better with a dark couch. I need more contrasting pillows with color. I’m officially keeping my eyes peeled.