Finito.

It's official.  The living room bay window curtain saga is over.  We're finally done and things are looking much better.  But before the big reveal, let's take a trip down memory lane...shall we?

When we first moved in, I took less than 10 pictures of the house in its current state.  I was overwhelmed with boxes, unpacking, never-ending snow, and everything else that comes with moving into your first place...eight days before Christmas.

Here is a picture from January 2, 2011.  It took us longer than I am willing to admit on the World Wide Web for us to get rid of that tree.  But as you can see, this was the former layout of the living room.  When the tree finally got the boot, we simply swiveled the loveseat so it was perpendicular to the sofa and that is where it stayed until six days ago.

As I mentioned here, when I moved the loveseat away from the windows to paint the window area, I noticed how much bigger the room seemed, and I started to get used to how spacious it felt (I hate cramped furniture - more than I hate cords!).  I also love the hardwood floors that were more-or-less covered by the bulky loveseat.

As I started to think about how I wanted to use the space, I realized that what I really wanted was a little eating/reading nook since at least 80% of our waking hours at home are spent in this room.  For a long time I thought I would forgo having a formal dining room and wanted to turn the room into a sitting room/library.  Although I love the idea in theory, I think we'd regret not having a larger dining area for company and our family one day.  Once I started rethinking the living room furniture arrangement, I realized that I could use the dining room sitting room/library idea in the empty living room window space, thus leaving the dining room available for, well, dining.  So here is the new arrangement:

I was able to move my two rarely used, but beloved, nailhead chairs along with the antique marble table that my mom gave me that belonged to my grandparents, to create the perfect space for eating dinner, reading a book, or just having a cup of coffee in the morning.  I'll admit, I was a little worried that my perfect plan would go unused, as was the case for the table and chairs in their former residence in the dining room.  However, I am beyond happy to report that the chairs and table are getting a lot of use in their new spot and even survived a Gaby-and-Joanna+sushi-and-wine night on Saturday night!  Although Ryan still prefers the couch to sitting at the table,  eating dinner has never been a more enjoyable experience for me now that I don't have to hunch over the coffee table or balance a plate on my lap - hooray for win-win situations! 

I think I'll always be tweaking this little spot as the seasons change and I get bored, but I'm happy to have the basic furniture layout worked out, the walls finally painted, and the curtains in place.  We still need to figure out what to do with the loveseat (move it? ditch it?) and how to create more seating in the living room when we have a lot of people over, but I'm sure those things will work themselves out in time.  And if you were thinking that the wall space next to the table and chairs is looking a little sparse, don't you worry, we've already enacted a plan for that which we started over the weekend.  Oh, the foreshadowing!