Game Nights

I hope everyone had a relaxing Mother's Day weekend! We took my mom out to breakfast yesterday and spent the afternoon with our adorable nieces at the mall and Ikea. Considering the girls look a lot like Dan, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that I was wished a Happy Mother's Day a few times while we had them :). After some more family time and grocery shopping we headed home for the evening and Dan's least favorite thing in the world happened - I spotted something in the alley, gasped, made him stop to look at it, and after a bit of contemplating back at home convinced him to drive back down the block with me to get it.

I am now the proud owner of a deep brown tufted leather couch. It's extremely similar to the one in this photo, and I am in love -



Since there is literally nowhere else in the house for it to go and I have dreams of having drinks and game nights out on our enclosed front porch this summer with friends, that's where it's living for now. Considering Buddy Louie's latest favorite thing to do is lay out on the porch in the sun I think I may let him on there if he's interested since he's been awesome about staying off of the new couch in the living room (minus a few mornings we've found him up there when it's chilly). And, the "new" couch is easily cleaned since it's leather, and, um, I didn't pay a dime for it so if it gets scratched up no tears will be shed.

I measured last night and was thrilled to find out that I can actually put the couch in TWO places on the porch, so I'm excited to do some rearranging to figure out the best layout for the space and the hopes I have for it.

The photo below that I found on Pinterest is probably the closest representation of our porch - long and skinny with loads of windows at the front of the house. The new couch can go right where this homeowner has theirs, or on the left wall (where the white chair is in the photo). I think I like it best with this type of layout -

I love how a seating area is created without the space feeling over crowded, and since I have a bunch of random chairs around all I'm really missing is a low round table for game playing and setting down glasses. I also love the little entry table that would be a great place for a couple bowls of snacks on my fantasy game nights :).

Here's another similar layout - couch on the narrow wall, random chairs, round table. One of our porch chairs is the same shape and style as the amazing ikat printed one in this photo, which gives me further hope that this layout is promising for our space -

Another similar layout -

I don't necessarily love the styles in the photos above, but the layouts and basic ideas from them will no doubt make for a useful space. I plan on adding in lots of color (shocking) to balance out the dark couch and keep the room cheery and fun - just like our friends that will be joining me for game nights soon!