console table

the family room.  ugh.  the decorating and arrangement of this room constantly plagues me.  i finally just came to the conclusion that this room will not look like how i want it to look until any and all of our children are older.  my goal has been to make the house look nice, reflect our style but also be functional and not just a place that looks good but you can't touch anything or go into any room.  but this is hard to do with a toddler.  and since we spend most of our time in the family room, it must be multifunctional, comfortable, and safe.  we have moved things around a bunch of times to accomodate z's toys, to make an activity corner for him, to ensure that he won't pull the tv down or be able to mess with the receiver and game console, to avoid fireplace related injuries and cord from the blinds danger, to remove the ability of z to pull the table lamp down and shake the life out of the floor lamps and to be able to have a place to set down mugs/glasses and store random stuff that usually accumulates in a family room all while trying to maintain some sort of sense of style and coziness. it has been difficult.  after z was walking around, we removed the glass pointy edged coffee table and replaced it with a cushy storage ottoman which turned out to be a good choice.  but when we have guests over, there is nowhere for people to set their tea cups or plates of cake, etc.  i have been thinking about putting a console table behind the couch for sometime.  and because i am trying to do all this without spending a fortune, i decided that we hubby should build it.  so he did. after some cajoling.  and then i stained it, and we placed it behind the couch.  at first i didn't like it because it made the couch stick out an extra 12 inches or so, which made everything else around it look weird.  the way that the blue chairs were positioned didn't fit right anymore so after some rearranging, it got to a place that looks ok.  the  blue chairs are now angled and i moved the end table with the lamp to the other side of the couch, swapping it with the floor lamp which now stands behind a blue chair.  at first i thought it looked strange, but it works better functionally, and as an added bonus, it prevents z from getting to the table lamp and the floor lamp, so it stays.  in fact, as soon as he came back into the room after i rearranged it, he walked over to the blue chair where the end table used to be and said, "nooooo!"  hahaha.  gotcha!  so, rearranging solved a few issues and now we have a functional table to put things on if we need, and z doesn't mess with it too much.  the thing that i am focused on now, though, is the other floor lamp in the corner next to the tv because z can still get to it and try to pull it down.  and the entertainment center.  i had covered the front with mesh/screen door material, but he is now able to pull that off, so i just want to replace the whole thing with a piece of furniture that works out better.  so anyway, here is the progress:

here is the console table peeking out behind the couch

i can put my stuffs on it

new living room layout---for now

this is my new obsession---replacing the entertainment center thingy

this is what the living room looked like previously:

i like the look of it better arranged like this, but the area is more open now, which is nice.  so, it is what it is for now, i'm sure it'll be switched up again.