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10 ways to upgrade your living room with picks from Amazon, West Elm and more
West Elm
Spring is a time for cleaning for many, but for others, it’s also a time to rearrange and redecorate in the home. If refreshing your living room is on your to-do list this season, let one or more of our ten living room upgrade suggestions serve as inspiration for your home project.
We selected highly rated furniture and decor from some of our favorite home retailers, including Amazon, Wayfair, Anthropologie and more. These home items would work in living spaces big and small, and suit a variety of decor styles.
10 ways to upgrade your living room
Best console table in 2024: West Elm Profile console (48″)
West Elm
One of the best ways to enhance the look of your living room is by getting a console table. A console table allows for plenty of storage to display decorative items or mementos, such as candles, vases, picture frames, plants, books and more.
This West Elm console table has space for all of that and more, with its three open storage shelves. The design elements, including the staggered vertical lines and fun color options, add greater impact than your average metal console table.
You can get this in green-gold, a deep teal, white or black.
And if you live in a smaller home, know that the 22-inch version of this console table is also available.
Best couch in 2024: Burrow Range 4-piece sectional sofa
Burrow
This sectional modular couch from Burrow allows for multiple configurations, making it a great addition if you’re looking to shake up your living space.
The Range sofa comes with three seats that are deep and extra stuffed to ensure the greatest comfort. It also comes with an ottoman, giving you the opportunity to really stretch out and get cozy on this couch.
The couch is lined with a stain-resistant fabric, while the cushioning is made of materials that are CertiPUR-US certified, meaning they’re made without harmful substances such as formaldehyde and lead.
You can get this one of six colors, and have the option to choose the finish of the legs too. Just know that some color combinations are sold out.
Best coffee table in 2024: Convenience Concepts Soho coffee table
Amazon
This coffee table from Amazon stands out for its dedicated book storage shelf. Most coffee tables with storage come with flat shelves or drawers, but the shelf on this Convenience Concepts model is uniquely slanted. This not only makes grabbing books easier, but also makes the coffee table more eye-catching.
The coffee table comes in several neutral colors, including white, black, wood grain patterns and even marble options. Price varies by color.
The Convenience Concepts Soho coffee table has a 4.5-star rating on Amazon.
One reviewer wrote, “I’ve never loved a living room table the way I love this one. It’s so sleek and modern & the shelf underneath is perfect for so many things—books, dog toys, video games, vinyls, etc. It’s truly such a versatile furniture item you can use anywhere!”
Best bookcase in 2024: Ebern Designs Nyajiah corner bookcase
Wayfair
Give your books a new home with the Ebern Designs Nyajiah Corner bookcase. We really like this bookcase for its ability to make use of corner space, which can be hard to fill in the home.
The bookcase includes six tiers, offering 10 dedicated places to store books, or a mixture of books and display items.
It’s also designed to be anti-fall, so you can rest easy knowing this can be anchored to the wall. You can get this bookcase in one of three colors, including white, wood grain and dark gray.
The Ebern Designs Nyajiah corner bookcase has a 4.5-star rating on Wayfair. One reviewer wrote, “Great corner bookshelf. Heavier and more well-built than I was expecting. Love the natural wood finish. Easy to assemble.”
Best plant stand in 2024: Mudeela five-tier plant stand
Amazon
If you are looking to upgrade your living room, but don’t necessarily need (or want) a new piece of furniture, the next best thing is a plant stand.
Plants add lots of life to living spaces. We like this Mudeela plant stand for its multiple tiers, and the fact that it’s tall and thin enough to live in a corner, a space in the home that is hard to style.
The brand says that the surfaces of the shelves are water-resistant and non-slip, making them a safe place for your plants to call home. This plant stand is available in three colors, including black, coffee and natural.
Price varies by color. Make sure to add the available 10% discount to get the greatest deal.
Best sconces in 2024: Battery-operated wall sconces, set of two
Amazon
Switch up the lighting in your living room by getting battery-operated wall sconces. This set of two from Amazon went viral on TikTok again and again for good reason: They give people the opportunity to add elegant wall lighting without needing additional wiring.
All you have to do is install the included wall bracket, hang it and — that’s it. Assembly is complete.
From there, you can use the remote control to adjust the brightness and color temperature, in addition to turning on and off. You can keep these lights on continuously for 12 hours until they need a recharge. Price varies by color.
The Jengush battery operated wall sconces have a 4.4-star rating on Amazon. One reviewer wrote, “I love these lights! The battery lasts forever and the remote makes it so much easier to turn on and off. The power recently went out from a big storm and these two lights saved the day! I also love the adjustable brightness.”
Best window treatment: HPD faux linen room darkening curtains
Amazon
More sun for spring means you’ll need thicker window treatments to block out the light. These HPD curtains are perfect for that, with the brand saying their faux linen curtains can block out 80 to 85% of light.
They also come in a whopping 30 colors and eight sizes, so these could suit a wide variety of decor tastes and window sizes.
The HPD faux linen room darkening curtains have a 4.6-star rating on Amazon.
One reviewer wrote, “I wanted some thicker, linen-looking curtains for our room, but could not find any in the right color, look, or length. This hit all three and went well beyond my expectations. They hang wonderfully, look fantastic, and block out all light when closed. I’ve gotten several compliments on them and the color.
“I highly recommend these curtains.”
Best mirror in 2024: Anthropologie Primrose mirror
Anthropologie
Anthropologie’s Primrose mirror has been one of the brand’s best-selling home items for years, boasting 852 reviews from customers.
And it’s easy to see why. The vintage-inspired design will add elegance as well as the illusion of extra space (a common reason why people add mirrors to rooms) to any space it occupies. It’s also hand-crafted, making this mirror feel even more like a piece of art.
The Primrose mirror comes in two colors, cold and black, and four sizes, including two floor-length options.
This is certainly a pricey mirror, but one that will last a lifetime. Several reviewers believe it is worth the splurge. One customer wrote, “After eyeing this mirror for almost a decade, I decided to take the plunge and splurge on it for my living room. The mirror is huge and heavy and adds so much glamour to my space. While pricey, it’s one of the biggest statement pieces in my condo and I still love it every time I walk by. You wont regret investing in it!”
Best digital picture frame in 2024: Aura Carver digital picture frame
Aura
Like a plant stand, another small way to upgrade your living room is by adding framed photos of loved ones or cherished memories. But instead of going through the trouble of getting smartphone photos developed, upgrade to a digital picture frame, which allows you to upload them instead.
The picture frame is pricey, but considering its unlimited storage capacity, and the fact that you can display videos (with sound) too, it’s worth it. Plus, you can invite friends and family to upload photos (via the Aura app) to your frame. This device works with Apple and Android and comes in five frame styles and colors.
The Aura Carver digital picture frame has a 4.8-star rating on Amazon.
One reviewer wrote, “Bought as a gift. This frame is pretty, blends in with decor, is well made, works beautifully. The photos show up nice and crisp. This is really worth every penny to make someone happy viewing their memories. Thank you!”
Best rug in 2024: Safavieh handmade Venice shag Djenka 3-inch-thick rug
Bed Bath & Beyond
One of the best ways to add an extra level of coziness to your living room is by getting a thick, fuzzy rug.
This Safavieh rug fits the bill with its long piles and polyester material that the brand describes as “silky” in feel. Sinking your feet into this after a long day will no doubt yield instant relaxation.
The rug comes in four colors and 20 sizes, including squares, rounds and runners. What’s more, it’s pretty affordable as far as rugs go, even if it wasn’t currently 44% off.
This Safavieh rug has a 4.7-star rating on Bed Bath & Beyond. One reviewer wrote, “Really nice shag rug! Fits perfect in my guest room. My guests have wanted to sleep on the rug! LOL! Very full, soft and no smell. Looks very expensive. I would recommend!!”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday vetoed a landmark bill aimed at establishing first-in-the-nation safety measures for large artificial intelligence models.
The decision is a major blow to efforts attempting to rein in the homegrown industry that is rapidly evolving with little oversight. The bill would have established some of the first regulations on large-scale AI models in the nation and paved the way for AI safety regulations across the country, supporters said.
Earlier this month, the Democratic governor told an audience at Dreamforce, an annual conference hosted by software giant Salesforce, that California must lead in regulating AI in the face of federal inaction but that the proposal “can have a chilling effect on the industry.”
The proposal, which drew fierce opposition from startups, tech giants and several Democratic House members, could have hurt the homegrown industry by establishing rigid requirements, Newsom said.
“While well-intentioned, SB 1047 does not take into account whether an AI system is deployed in high-risk environments, involves critical decision-making or the use of sensitive data,” Newsom said in a statement. “Instead, the bill applies stringent standards to even the most basic functions — so long as a large system deploys it. I do not believe this is the best approach to protecting the public from real threats posed by the technology.”
Newsom on Sunday instead announced that the state will partner with several industry experts, including AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li, to develop guardrails around powerful AI models. Li opposed the AI safety proposal.
The measure, aimed at reducing potential risks created by AI, would have required companies to test their models and publicly disclose their safety protocols to prevent the models from being manipulated to, for example, wipe out the state’s electric grid or help build chemical weapons. Experts say those scenarios could be possible in the future as the industry continues to rapidly advance. It also would have provided whistleblower protections to workers.
The legislation is among a host of bills passed by the Legislature this year to regulate AI, fight deepfakes and protect workers. State lawmakers said California must take actions this year, citing hard lessons they learned from failing to rein in social media companies when they might have had a chance.
Proponents of the measure, including Elon Musk and Anthropic, said the proposal could have injected some levels of transparency and accountability around large-scale AI models, as developers and experts say they still don’t have a full understanding of how AI models behave and why.
The bill targeted systems that require more than $100 million to build. No current AI models have hit that threshold, but some experts said that could change within the next year.
“This is because of the massive investment scale-up within the industry,” said Daniel Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI researcher who resigned in April over what he saw as the company’s disregard for AI risks. “This is a crazy amount of power to have any private company control unaccountably, and it’s also incredibly risky.”
The United States is already behind Europe in regulating AI to limit risks. The California proposal wasn’t as comprehensive as regulations in Europe, but it would have been a good first step to set guardrails around the rapidly growing technology that is raising concerns about job loss, misinformation, invasions of privacy and automation bias, supporters said.
A number of leading AI companies last year voluntarily agreed to follow safeguards set by the White House, such as testing and sharing information about their models. The California bill would have mandated AI developers to follow requirements similar to those commitments, said the measure’s supporters.
But critics, including former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, argued that the bill would “kill California tech” and stifle innovation. It would have discouraged AI developers from investing in large models or sharing open-source software, they said.
Newsom’s decision to veto the bill marks another win in California for big tech companies and AI developers, many of whom spent the past year lobbying alongside the California Chamber of Commerce to sway the governor and lawmakers from advancing AI regulations.
Two other sweeping AI proposals, which also faced mounting opposition from the tech industry and others, died ahead of a legislative deadline last month. The bills would have required AI developers to label AI-generated content and ban discrimination from AI tools used to make employment decisions.
Some residents east of Atlanta were evacuated while others were told to shelter in place to avoid contact with a chemical plume after a fire at a chemical plant.
Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel told reporters that a sprinkler head malfunctioned around 5 a.m. Sunday at the BioLab plant in Conyers. That caused water to mix with a water-reactive chemical, which produced a plume of chemicals. The chief said she wasn’t sure what chemicals were included.
A small roof fire was initially contained, but reignited Sunday afternoon, Sheriff Eric Levett said in a video posted on Facebook as gray smoke billowed into the sky behind him. He said authorities were trying to get the fire under control and urged people to stay away from the area.
People in the northern part of Rockdale County were ordered to evacuate and others were told to shelter in place with windows and doors closed. Sheriff’s office spokesperson Christine Nesbitt did not know the number of people evacuated.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Georgia Environmental Protection Division were both on site, county Emergency Management Director Sharon Webb said. The agencies are monitoring the air “to give us more of an idea of what the plume consists of.”
McDaniel said crews were working on removing the chemical from the building, away from the water source. Once the product is contained, the situation will be assessed and officials will let residents know whether it is safe to return to their homes, she said.
An evacuation center was opened at Wolverine Gym in Covington.
Washington — Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz will face off on Tuesday in the first and only vice presidential debate of the cycle, as the two candidates look to prop up the Republican and Democratic tickets with fewer than 40 days until Election Day.
The debate, hosted by CBS News at the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City, will be moderated by “CBS Evening News” anchor and managing editor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Margaret Brennan.
Here’s what to know about how the candidates are preparing for the debate:
How JD Vance is preparing for the VP debate
The Ohio Republican has been preparing for the debate for more than a month, a source directly involved told CBS News, including with “murder board” sessions with a small team that includes Vance’s wife and his advisers, along with senior Trump adviser Jason Miller.
Among Vance’s main focuses during the preparation has been studying Walz’ debate style and policy record, the source said, noting that Vance will attempt to highlight what he sees as the Minnesota governor’s left-wing views during the debate.
Vance told reporters last week that his plan is to break down what the Trump-Vance administration would do to make “life better” and connect that to policy.
“So, we’re studying up as much as we can on the issues that matter to the American people, and I’m looking forward to it,” Vance said.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, a Minnesota Republican, is standing in for Walz during Vance’s debate prep, four sources familiar with the preparations told CBS News. Emmer and Walz have deep roots in Minnesota and are close in age.
Emmer told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he’s known Walz for decades and has spent the last month working to “get his phrases down, his mannerisms.”
“My job was to be able to play Tim Walz so JD Vance knows what he’s going to see,” Emmer said.
Getty Images
How Tim Walz is preparing for the VP debate
Walz has been preparing for the debate with a close team of advisers, a source familiar with the preparations told CBS News. Some of the people involved also helped Vice President Kamala Harris take on former President Donald Trump, among others, like a long-time aid to Walz who worked with him during his bids for governor.
For Walz, whose name recognition was until recently limited outside of Minnesota, the focus is on continuing to introduce himself to the American people, according to the source. He’ll also work to highlight Harris’ vision for the nation’s path forward.
“You’ll hear me talk like I have about things that impact Americans, making sure they have the opportunity to thrive, making sure that we’re being factual in how we talk about that,” Walz told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow of the debate earlier this month. “And so I’m looking forward to it. I’ll work hard, that’s what I do.”
During debate prep, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is standing in for Vance, a campaign official familiar with the preparation told CBS News. The former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, also assisted Harris during her debate prep in 2020, and is close in age to Vance.
When and how to watch the presidential debate
Debate coverage on CBS News 24/7 begins at 4 p.m. ET, with the debate getting underway at 9 p.m. ET on Oct. 1.
The 90-minute debate will be streamed on CBS News 24/7 and Paramount+ across all available platforms and CBSNews.com. The debate will also be simulcast across other broadcast and cable networks.
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California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes first-in-nation AI safety bill
Residents in Georgia ordered to evacuate or shelter in place after fire at chemical plant
Israeli airstrikes kill dozens across Lebanon as Hezbollah confirms a 7th top commander was killed
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoes first-in-nation AI safety bill