If you read my previous post, you know that I am doing a no buy challenge through an Instagram group. As such, I am not buying any new clothes for the next 3 months.

This reduced focus on my wardrobe means that I will have more time to focus on our home and getting the spaces to feel “right”. This has been/will be done by better utilizing the spaces through minor upgrades and by rearranging the items that we already have.

When I started minimizing our belongings about 4 years ago, I went on a massive purge. Since then, I’ve gotten rid of some things here and there, but I haven’t done a major overhaul in some time. So, over the past month, we’ve done a few things that have made the spaces feel fresh again.

How It Started

The catalyst came when my husband decided that he wanted to move his record setup back into our bedroom and out of the spare room in our basement.

Prior to this declaration, the spare room had been his music room and it was outfitted with an antique Adrian Pearsall sofa that we had bought at an antique store and refinished.

I have loved this sofa from the day we brought it home. His new declaration made it possible for me to suggest moving it to our living room. I had been secretly hoping that would eventually happen!

The Vision, Part I

I had always envisioned our living room being a calm and cozy place to sit and chat. The large leather sectional and huge tv that previously occupied the space never accomplished that feeling for me.

My solution to get the living room to feel the way that I wanted was to move the sectional to the family room in the basement and to move the Adrian Pearsall sofa up to the living room.

The only hiccup with this plan was the old sofa and chair that were already in the family room. These were pieces that we had brought to this house from our previous apartment-dwelling life.

So, one Saturday morning, my husband removed these pieces from the house and brought them to our local Goodwill store. We also got rid of one of the two toy storage units that was in the basement as well. We have slowly gotten rid of the kid’s toys over the past few years (with their help) and everything that they have kept can be housed in one unit.

After moving a few remaining things around in the basement, we were able to move the sectional sofa set down and place it in a way that didn’t close off the space.

This left the living room void of furniture, save for an antique credenza and the large tv that sat on it.

So we moved the Pearsall sofa up and placed it across from our fireplace. It stayed like that for a few weeks before we decided to remove the tv from the living room and allocate it to storage. This allowed us to move the credenza and freed up the perfect space for the sofa, along the only whole wall in the room.

We cleaned up 2 antique Eames aluminum group chairs that we had purchased in an auction and added them to the living room. The space was finally starting to come together.

Then we relocated some album record ledges, which my husband had made, from the spare room to the wall behind the sofa and added albums for a fun decorative touch.

The only furniture that we identified a need for was a coffee table.

On a whim, we took a trip to our favorite antique store, the one in which we had bought our sofa and credenza. Low and behold, we spotted a 1950s Lane square table in great condition.

And it was the final piece that brought it all together.

And the living room stayed that way all through Christmas and gave us a great place to place the Christmas tree.

The Vision, Part II

But after Christmas, my husband decided that he wanted his record player to be in the living room, on top of the credenza, which could also be used to house his record collection. I really liked the idea of being able to put a record on while I made dinner or just hung out, so I thought it was a great idea.

But the placement of the credenza and sofa were not ideal for the best possible sound quality, so we did a little more re-arranging. The credenza went back to its original location along the full wall and the sofa was moved so that it was directly across from the record player

We’ve sat in here quite a few times now and just chatted, played board games on the coffee table or I’ve listened while my husband played his guitar. It’s also a nice space to sit with friends and chat after a tasty dinner! The previous furniture and arrangement did not allow for this as easily.

I am most proud of the fact that all of our living room furniture has been thrifted over the past few years. The credenza was one of the first pieces that we bought 8+ years ago, the sofa was added to our home back in January and the antique Eames chairs and coffee table are more recent additions. These are pieces that we love and will continue to love for many years to come.

And do you know what? It’s exactly the space that I imagined. The only thing we purchased was an antique coffee table. Everything else was taken care of with a little rearranging, a little imagination and a lot of heavy lifting.

If your space is feeling a little stale, I hope you can find the inspiration to reconfigure your space, without spending a lot of money or time doing so.