Living Room Is Killing Me

We're having Joe's 31st birthday party/our annual Halloween party in a few weeks and I want to have the living room done before everyone is over. Not because I need to impress everyone with my awesome decor skills, but because I need to have a place for people to actually sit. Twenty people to be exact.

The couch will be in the week before the party and the mirror I bought should arrive this week. I also purchased these wing chair slipcovers after seeing a comment on one of Holly's (Life in the Fun Lane) blog posts. The gallery wall will need to wait. And I still need to purchase a rug, a desk and two bookcases.

I think we're going with Ikea's Billy Bookcases in black and, using Freckles Chic's kitchen as inspiration, I'm dressing them up with some crown moulding. I'm also replacing the cardboardish backs with beadboard from Home Depot. After seeing what Jenny did with a Billy Bookcase I'm almost convinced I can make them look good.

I really want the Porter Collectors Desk from PB, but at 60" wide it's too big. I've thought about heading to our favorite unfinished furniture store and just purchasing a 48" turned leg dining table and staining it. But then I remember how much I hate DIY'ing anything. I guarantee you that as soon as I buy a desk for this space, PB will make a "small spaces" version of the Porter.

I've picked this rug which actually looks much chunkier in pictures than it is in real life. It's super soft on the feet so I get the look of a natural area rug and Joe and the dog can roll all over it together.

On Monday I purchased 2 new curtain panels, I'm going to let them hang for a few days each and decide which I like better. Although I'm already leaning toward the ones on the right:

Hopefully we're done with this room by Halloween. Please God, let us be done with this room by Halloween.