Revamped

Last week was a big week in our humble abode.  Ever since we moved in almost a full year ago, we have known the carpet absolutely needed to go.  For one thing, it was a dark ugly color.  But worse (and this is totally embarassing, so don't judge mmkay)...it had mystery stains on it from the previous owners.  With a crawling (and soon to be walking) baby boy, not only was it aesthetically unpleasing, it was downright gross and potentially dangerous.
I am usually a hardwood lover, but with hardwood covering all the other floors in our house, both Josh and I agreed that it was nice to have one plush room for baby boy to crawl and for the three of us to lay around and play for years to come.  I knew absolutely nothing about carpet going into this purchase, and honestly, I don't know that much more now.  We picked a frieze carpet, which has a shag kind of look.  On the technical side, it is a higher pile carpet (man, I'm impressing myself) which means it will be better at hiding stains and wear, both of which were critical with a dog, baby, and potentially others to grace its floors in years to come.  As for color, I wanted to go as light as my husband would allow to really open up the room.  I don't know how I managed it, but I somehow got him to agree to a VERY light carpet (I think he was so sick of looking by then that he just agreed). 
Here's what our room looked like with our dark, dirty carpet.  In fairness, these shots were taken when we first moved in so lots  of improvements have been made since.

And these don't even show the mystery stains...

 And now for our new living room look:

Oh wait!!! That's not all.  Awhile back, I also shared with you that I planned to use some of my holiday earnings to purchase some much-needed new end tables.  I knew all along that the IKEA version best matched our style and budget needs, but I didn't think I would have the patience to wait for my sister's end of March trip home to get my tables.  Well, luckily, the Steelers made it to the Super Bowl, which meant my sister made a trip home this past weekend to watch with the family.  Of course, I insisted requested that she stop by IKEA first, which she did because she's pretty awesome like that.  So, on top of our lovely new carpet, we have new end tables.  You can see them in the above shots, but here's a close up if you want it:

And to prove how desperately needed these things were, here's a sad shot of what we had been dealing with:

AAAHH, huh?  Major upgrades around this place.  I am so pleased with both I can hardly stand it.  I walk in and I just smile.  So, what do you all think?