The Search For The Perfect Sofa

We have one tricky room in our new/old house - the living room. It's kind of small and it's kind of a thoroughfare. At one end there's sliding doors through to the light filled front room which will become our library (soon, I hope, maybe) with floor to ceiling bookcases, cosy seating and our LP player. At the other end it opens out into the airy dining/kitchen area. There's a TV on a stand in one corner and a fireplace along one wall. It's pretty narrow, so if we don't get the sofa right it's going to look a bit like a hallway with random bits of furniture thrown in it. Tricky. 

We've moved out the old sofa already, it was too big for the space. (Pssst - it's currently listed on ebay if you're looking for a super high quality Italian leather lounge suite, all reasonable offers considered…) So for now watching TV involves sitting on the floor whilst balancing two needy dachshunds on your lap. 

And I have a feeling it's going to be like that for some time yet, because I'm searching for the perfect sofa. There's lots of sofas I love, but it's about finding the one that fits perfectly into this tricky little space of ours. 

Here's what's currently on the short list:

1. Softscape Modular Lounge | Stylecraft   2. Milo Sofa | Jardan 

3. Studio Couch | Ercol   4. Coast Modular Sofa | Jardan 

5. Finn Juhl Poeten Sofa | Great Dane 

(And that's the Jardan Ned sofa right at the top. And yes, I am slightly obsessed with Jardan at the moment. Although the current 'Perfect Sofa' front runner is actually the Softscape modular lounge - it's pretty amazing!) 

Oh the possibilities! So many lovely places to sit! Do you have any sofas you adore? Have you fitted out any tricky spaces in your home? I'd love to hear about it if so...

The Big Project : We Moved In!

A few weeks ago we finally moved in to the house we've been renovating for…well, a very long time. It's our first house - both in terms of it not being an apartment and in terms of it being something we actually own. Exciting, and overwhelming. 

Being in the house is great but it's also really, really messy and a little frustrating. There is still so much that needs to be done. There's still little unfinished bits everywhere. And there's still big unfinished bits everywhere - nowhere to put our clothes (so we're still living out of suitcases), nowhere to put our books (hence all the boxes patiently waiting to be unpacked in that photo up there); no garage, no garden. 

Some of our furniture doesn't fit the space, at all. (Which is kind of secretly awesome because yay! furniture shopping, and I never really liked our couch anyway…). 

So clearly things aren't perfect, and they won't be for a long time.

But, it's still ace being home. No more nomadic life, no more paying riduclous amounts for serviced apartments, no dogs at the boarding kennel. 

And as annoying as the dust and the early mornings are, I'm actually enjoying seeing the tradies come and go, seeing things getting fixed and finished, each day. Seeing progress being made.

And getting to know the house and the neighbourhood is pretty ace too. A few years ago we bought a dark, dank terrace with potential - now we have a beautiful house with light in every corner (thanks Alex!). 

I love watching the light change throughout the day, moving across the space. I love the kitchen, which was basically designed around the Coco Flip pendant light which stole my heart some time ago. 

I love the family of currawongs that live on our street (I don't love it so much when they get trapped in the house though). I love the parrots and kookaburras and cockatoos, and the bats that fly overhead en masse at night. 

I love that we have so many tasty options for when we can't be bothered to cook and want to walk somewhere for dinner (we've barely scratched the surface but my favourites so far are the fancy Italian here, the burger here, and the pizza here). I love that there's a dog on (almost) every porch, and people that smile and say hi when you pass them in the street. 

We're still getting to know each other, this home and I, but I think we're going to get along just fine…