Oh boy, am I ever excited to share this with you guys today. This is an update that Corey and I have been talking about and planning for several months now, and we just hadn’t gotten around to pulling the trigger on it until recently.
You see, there’s this ottoman in our living room…
It has served us well over the last year and a half-ish, and it was one of our earliest furniture makeovers. We were so proud of it when we first completed it, but now that it’s been living in our house for a good while, we were slowly becoming more and more disenchanted with it. The padded part ended up much thinner than we would have liked, and quite frankly I was getting sick of staring at all of that orange every day. It was a great idea in theory, but I don’t think I’m one that can handle large pops of color in a piece of furniture that is such a staple in the room. Over time, it started to become just too much for me.
We originally had the idea to find a camel-colored leather ottoman with a ton of tufting. Basically, like a Winchester sofa in ottoman form.
Mmmm. Only problem? That basically doesn’t exist. Or at least, not exactly what we wanted, and typically not for less than $1,000. That’s the problem with being both incredibly picky and incredibly cheap.
So, we finally gave up and started searching for other options. We knew we wanted tufting, and we knew we wanted something big and cushy. Beyond that, we weren’t very specific. We looked at about a million and two options before finally falling in love with this guy from Amazon:
Tufted, cushy, sexy legs – it’s got the whole package! Now the only problem was choosing a color. There are almost a dozen different color options for this ottoman, so we definitely weren’t going to be limited. Our first instinct was (of course) gray, but after some thought we realized that it would just be too much gray in our room – we have a gray couch and gray walls, so we definitely need some contrast in the ottoman. After a lot (a LOT) of debate, we settled on two different color options. teal and beige. We loved them both, and we couldn’t really figure out which one would look better. So, we turned to our trusty photo-editing software to see what they would look like in the room. It’s a (very) rough idea, but it was better than nothing.
We loved the teal and thought it would look fantastic in the room, but, of course, we also loved the beige. We were thisclose to ordering the teal…and then we thought about the orange ottoman we currently have. We loved the color when we first brought it in, but as the room has evolved we decided it wasn’t really working anymore. We were tired of it. With a color like the teal, it would be easy to fall into that same trap down the road – it’s much easier to get sick of a color like teal than a neutral like the beige. We also had to consider the possibility of changing up the room at some point in the future. The beige will go with anything – even if we completely change everything in the room, it’ll blend right in. The teal? Not so much. We decided that we’d rather have neutrals in the main, big pieces in our room and stick to bringing in colors through the accessories that can be changed a little more easily.
So, we decided to order the beige. It’s not quite as much fun as the teal would have been, but we’re confident that we’ll love it for years to come, and it’ll go with the room no matter how we decide to change it in the future. Amazon told us it wouldn’t be here until the end of November at the earliest, but we were in for a happy surprise when it showed up at our house one day last week.
And once we set it up? It was love at first sight for me – it feels so much more polished and it layers right into the room beautifully. Corey likes it too, but is insistent that we find some ways to bring more color in now that the ottoman is gone. I agree – we could definitely use some bolder (and bigger!) pillows to add some more fun, but I think it’s definitely getting there.
It’s going to take us some time to layer in some more accessories to make the room feel more complete, but I think this new ottoman is definitely a step in the right direction. I love it!
Anyone else get a surprise delivery last week? How about changing up major pieces in your house – are you doing it too?
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Comments on this post
I think you made a good decision on the color! The beige looks great and you can always add more color in your accessories.
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19. November - 8:23 amSuper cute!! I love how puffy it is. Perfect! I also still really like the orange too! It was so cute!
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19. November - 8:31 amI think it looks great. The beige was the right choice. Maybe pull in a colorful rug?
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19. November - 9:37 amI love it! I think the color works perfectly. It’s not too much of a drab beige. Still adds plenty of character to the room.
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19. November - 9:47 amI’m sad to see the orange go, but I totally understand. Bold color is tough to live with every day. I think it was a wise choice to choose the beige. Like you said, you can always brighten it up with accessories that you can switch out when you want to! One way to start would be a fun tray for the ottoman. That way you can still use it like a coffee table and set down some drinks and candles and stuff.
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19. November - 12:47 pmIt’s glamorous! I had been eyeing that beauty too! Can I ask how long it took to arrive? It’s a bit large for our space but I recall that they had a bench version as well.
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Amanda Reply:
November 20th, 2012 at 9:31 am
It said it would take 6-8 weeks but it only took about 2!
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love it!! Tufting is my favorite
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20. November - 9:59 amI love the tufted ottoman- the beige was a good choice. Very mature.
And I have those yellow pillows from Target too!
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20. November - 1:21 pmWe are having the same issue-not with color, but with the wrong-size coffee table. I love the tufted look and have considered this type of piece for in front of our sectional, but wonder if you can actually use the ottoman to put, say, a glass on it? We frequently eat in front of the tv (I know, bad habit), so wonder whether or not this type of table would work for us. What do you think now that you have it? Thanks!
p.s. I agree about losing the orange-having a neutral for such a big piece is totally the way to go. Accent pillows are a great way to add color that can be changed up later!
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Amanda Reply:
November 26th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Haha, we’re bad too – we eat in our living room more than I’d like to admit. We have a big tray that we usually just set on the ottoman and we use that. We also have a side table next to the couch and a window seat behind us, so it’s easy to find spots to place our drinks, even if we don’t have the tray on the ottoman. Probably not super helpful to you, but that’s what we do!
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