Fall ORC: The Living Room Before

When I mentioned to a friend I was planning on doing the Fall ORC, they were immediately concerned- had it been a year already? Apparently, I'm so devoted to the Spring ORC that they assumed it was just an annual event. This year I'm jumping in during an already busy season because I want to get this space in shape for the upcoming holidays. We've spent so many years living in a home that has been so immersed in renovation that it feels like half a home/half a job that you never really clock out of. And while we have many more projects ahead to tackle, this is the last full room that needs our attention. Like most of the rooms in our home, it's starting as a cobbled-together jumble of furniture from our previous apartment, displaced pieces from other parts of the house, and, in this case, a very large, very beloved sofa that needs to go.

About that couch. As an adult, I have lived in a series of impossibly tiny city apartments and dreamed about that couch. The one you could crowd your friends and family around and comfortably seat everyone. The one I could stretch my 5'10" frame across and rest on instead of laying in the fetal position, trying not to fall off. But basing decisions on what your past self wanted over what your present self needs is seldom the recipe for sound decision-making. And as with many emotionally driven purchases I have made over the years- it was the wrong one.

One thing about our house is that it's old. 134 years old, to be exact. It's also a classic Victorian, with neatly symmetrical rooms that all share the same awkwardly narrow footprint. It is as cumbersome to place a king-size bed in (non-negotiable) as it is a sectional. And while I've sacrificed the ability to walk into my room without taking a very sharp left just inside the door (often sacrificing my shins in the process), a high-traffic space that we all inhabit has gone from simply a nuisance to a daily thorn in my side.

I've long known I wanted to do something with the living room, and while I've designed a few awkwardly laid out living rooms for friends and clients, I couldn't seem to make any headway on my own. There was no clear pathway through the room, it felt crowded, and it had become more of a destination for piles of laundry waiting to be folded than a place my family came together in, or even one I could unwind in at the end of the night. And it all came down to the sofa. So long as it was in the space, the floor plan was locked. So we decided to list it. Hopefully, sell it at not too much of a loss and put that money towards new furniture. It was time to put our present needs over my past dreams, knowing we would all be happier for it in the long run.