Here she is. Man does this make me happy. Okay, where to start?? Well…I guess let’s begin where I began…the sofa. I mentioned this in the intro yesterday, but I wanted this sofa for three years (and a blue velvet sofa in general for twice that). When I started at Apartment Therapy as Design Editor in 2016, I had recently purchased my Crate & Barrel Lounge II (in the before photo above), and then Maxwell Ryan, AT’s CEO and founder, released this sofa that he designed for Interior Define. WHAT?!? It was basically a dream, except I had a brand new couch at home that my then-fiance Charles (now husband) and I picked out together. I moved on, assuming this would likely never happen. BUT THEN I got the chance to do a Makeover Takeover, and it was the first thing I picked out.

I didn’t move here with the intention of selling off my previous sofa, but honestly, it felt so wrong in this space. It wasn’t that cool combo of modern + antique in my 100-year-old apartment. It just felt out of place. Convincing Charles to let me get my dream sofa was an uphill battle, however. He LOVED that C&B sofa (still mourns it to this day, actually), but after many a desperate soliloquy on the subject, he caved and said he trusted me to do what I thought we needed to in here aesthetically. You see, he’s in architecture, so it’s not like he doesn’t understand design, but I couldn’t download my brain into his so he could see “the vision.” Anyway, like I said, he resolved to trust me, and after seeing the finished product, he sees the light. He proudly says to anyone who steps foot in our home “this is all her” and I’ve found out through the grapevine that he’s been peddling photos of this room and the dining room to anyone who will listen/look (so cute).