We rearranged our living room this week. Not my favorite activity but it had to be done. The old arrangement was NOT working.

We have a small living room and it is set up in a very challenging way. It has 4 doorways, 2 walls of picture windows, 1 wall of built in bookcases and a wall of woodstove . It makes for LOTS and LOTS of thought on what to put where. We had a pretty good handle on it before. Nice "flow", looked good, fairly symmetrical and room to move around. Then we got the THE PIANO.

Now, the piano is a fabulous thing but we really have no room for it. So when we first got it we put it in front of the window where the couch had been. That so did not work. No flow, no room to move around, felt very cramped and since the couch was in front of the bookshelves, you couldn't get to anything. And everyone kept stubbing their toes on the bricks around the woodstove. Something had to change. So we bit the bullet and moved everything.

The one thing we knew was that we wanted the couch back where it was. We did that first. Then we shoved everything else around until it "stuck". We (and by we I mean he) moved the piano twice . It is one heavy piano. We moved it under the other window which meant we had to move the TV, all my houseplants and the homeschool supplies. The homeschool supply bureau went in the corner by the door which is where the gun cabinet was. That went into our bedroom. My husband says he feels better having his guns closer anyway . All the plants went on the bureau. The TV went on the small plant table in front of the book shelves. The chairs got shoved in the available spaces.

It is soooo much better. Good flow, nice symmetry, room to move around. And nobody has stubbed a single toe since we did it. The one thing I really don't like is where the TV is. The room would be so much nicer without it. I wish we had the guts to get rid of it altogether. We don't have actual 'television' we just watch videos and DVDs but it would be so nice not have it at all. But, alas, we are just not quite 'there' yet. I'm not sure if we ever will be.

In the mean time though, our living room is much more livable.

Blessings.