Lavender and Brown Living Room Furniture Shopping

First things first, HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to my mom, step-mom, mother-in-law, and all my friends who are moms, moms to be, moms of pets, or moms to their husbands (doesn't that count???). I love you and hope you had a beautiful day! You truly make our world go round.

On to the design! Sticking with the lavender, brown and cream living room color scheme that we have been mooning over, Jonathon and I went out shopping last week to see what the stores have to offer and if these colors truly work in real life or only in pretty magazine pictures.

Our only successful stop (by successful I mean furniture that we can afford AND also happen to like) was at World Market. I am in love with this place. Three years ago we bought our first bedroom furniture set there during one of their half-yearly clearance event thingers... Sigh. We had the most gorgeous four-poster bed and matching black-brown wood dresser, etc. I drool... Anyhow, we moved and lightened our load and thus our bed is currently bed-frame-less and of course they discontinued our set and we will never have it again. FOCUS, I know we're doing living room not bedroom. Sorry.

So, we did find a couple of couches that we liked a lot. This first chocolate brown one pretty much fits the bill. It is not too mushy but not too hard, it is a nice soft fabric and it is a neutral color. The only real issue is the color though, I'm thinking the chocolate is too dark. I really think the lavender works best if everything is muted and romantically soft, therefore a cream colored couch would be the best option. But then you have a cream couch. That's just a disaster waiting to happen... especially with yours truly, the clumsiest person you've ever met. I do think this couch comes in a "sand" version so maybe that is our best bet.

Then there's couch #2 which is more of a true neutral in an oat-mealy beige color. Only problem here, I absolutely hate microfiber. Sorry to everyone who has it, don't hate me. I think it looks beautiful and is durable and I know it seems to be everywhere you look right now, BUT I have a mild case of OCD and the way the pattern mushes like soap residue just does not work in my world. Por ejemplo:

SO who knows what to do with the couch thing. Maybe we will go with the chocolate for durability's sake. What do you think? If we DON'T get a chocolate couch (mmm chocolate couch, now I'm hungry) and we go with the softer "sand" color, then we could get this AWESOME velvet brown wing back chair from World Market. Apparently, I have this animal thing for wing backs. Doesn't it look like Pee-Wee Herman's Chairy the Chair that is just dying to be your best friend, read to you at night and tell you the word of the day? We should probably own it.

And then there's chaise lounges. Jeez shopping for furniture really makes you wish you were filthy rich money bags so you could just go for it and buy the eggplant velvet chaise for your second home because really, its only you who will be summering in your Lake Como villa anyhow so who cares if its a loud color.

We are thinking of rounding out the more contemporary World Market furniture with some antique pieces. We have been scouring the local shops and one of the pieces I really fell in love with is this dusty-rose velvet and wood wing back chair. I almost made Jonathon pack it in the car the second I saw it. I know with antiques it may not be there the next day, but seeing as how we are still trying to decide on this color scheme in the first place, I figured it may be a tad hasty to have an empty living room save for this one pink chair...

But the pink would really add something wouldn't it? The amethysty pink-lavender is so romantic. Then I could decorate around the room with accents like this amazing bowl.

In addition to that awesome pinkurple chair, I also fell madly in love with this antique record player console. I want it. Am I crazy or do the speakers have a mellow lavender glow to them? I think it is calling to me, and I think it would look perfect with...

The pièce de résistance, this purple and cream rug from Target. In person, it's actually a lot more lavender and a lot less purple. But I am still a little scared of it. It's so aggressively purple. And purple is REALLY not my color of choice. This decorating thing is seriously not as comfortable for me as personal style... Shouldn't it be the same? Maybe it is and I am just second-guessing myself. Maybe we will buy it and see how it actually looks.

PURPLE! I know that is an awfully purple room I have shopped out for you, and I know it is in dire need of brown and cream, but so far these were the exciting pieces that I fell in love with. More on our antiquing tomorrow...