New Living Room, Part I

A not-so-long-ago time I decided to be all grownup and get my first set of custom upholstered furniture items. I loved every second of it. Meetings with the upholstery folks over welts, trims and pillow corners were a dream. A sofa in a light aqua linen? Side chair in a fun Kravet print? Deep green velvet pillows? YES. And in the end, it looked something like this:

It was all fun and games until this guy got his little paws on the place:

What was once a light aqua dream sofa is now a never ending nightmare of cat “issues” let’s just call them. I won’t put all the blame on the cat (a.k.a. Austin), I’ve learned light fabrics are just high maintenance. Spills, dark jeans, it all takes its toll.

Enter indoor/outdoor fabrics. In the past decade miracles have been performed in the indoor outdoor arena. I’ve decided that for my next (and last for awhile?) upholstering fore, I’ll be heavily relying on these truly amazing textiles. I look forward to all the abuse they can take, the ability to BLEACH stains out without touching the fabric’s color or pattern, and their general everyday durability.

I’ve put together these three different options to help me get the ball rolling on the great redo of (what likely will be) 2011. Each features a fabric option for my simple clean lined sofa, Mid Century arm chair, and throw pillows. In addition, I’ve been using my greatest find of all time as my inspiration- my 1940′s map of Europe. The map’s dreamy blues, buttery yellows, and burnt oranges are the perfect trio of colors and I like to keep the map top of mind when selecting new living room items.

Without further ado:

Which scheme do you like best, or would you prefer to see a mix and match of different schemes? Leave your comments and let the decorating begin!