A Lived-In Living Room

I want to share with you a couple of updates we've made to our apartment over the past three months. For some before-before pictures, check out this old post.

This week, I accomplished something I'd been thinking about since before we even moved. Residing in our living room is my couch from college. It's actually a couch I inherited from an older roommate, and I'm pretty sure she had inherited it as well. I'm really not sure of this couch's origins, but let's just say that it is showing it's scars. As a matter of fact, I just looked through all of my pictures, and could not find a single picture of this couch in its original state. This means that never once did I find it at all suitable, even for a post-AYCD night picture in college.

However, it's a couch. And we need a couch. And would prefer not to buy one (yet). So, I gave it a makeover.

The first thing I did was buy this super-cute slipcover from Target's Simply Shabby Chic line. However, when I tried to stuff the back cushions under the slip cover, it looked like... well, I can't think of a PC description, so we'll just say I was not a fan. I knew I needed new cushions, and decided I could easily make them myself. You see, back in the day, I had a business. Yes, the year was 1995, and I spent the summer selling homemade Beanie Baby beds on the corner. Every afternoon, I would wheel my red wagon filled with little pillows and sleeping bags down the neighborhood street, and do business with the community Beanie Baby fans. And, because I know you were wondering, yes, they did come in sizes (regular and teenie).

Due to all of this pillow-stitching and -stuffing experience, I felt confident in my ability to make new couch cushions. All summer I've been planning this in my mind--looking at fabric, pricing European pillows, and playing with color combinations. Through the planning, it seemed as though the pillows themselves would run about $20 a piece (and I needed five of them), then it would take about 2 yards of fabric per pillow, not to mention the fact that I'd need to coerce my mom into helping me set up and thread her serger (which is a pain in the *&@). Plus, in all honesty, I had to admit that the likelihood of my actually creating five pillow shams successfully was slim-to-none, meaning I'd need to splurge on at least four extra yards of back-up fabric.

However, I was determined. Until I went to Bed Bath & Beyond, found the pillows on sale for $10, and shams on clearance for $5. I bought three of those, and splurged on two fancier accent pillows, thereby transforming our couch.

P.S. In the 1.5 months that I was out of the blogging world, Blogger changed their picture-uploader and i do not like it. I apologize for the super-blurry pictures that I worked really hard to create in Photoshop. I need to figure out this new system.

I am so excited about our "new couch" because it has really transformed our living room. Check out the difference between our living room in April, and our current room.


You will also notice the addition of the shelves and picture frame above the couch, and the new curtains. This isn't the greatest picture of the curtains, but I love that they tie the green and creamy-white of the couch with the blue of the arm chair. Oh, and then there are the candles in the fireplace, which I love. They're just there for the summertime; with these 100+ degree heat indices, we really have not been wanting any fires.

I need some advice on another aspect of this room, and this is where you come in.

We have this huge empty space above the fireplace. And while I fully intend to paint soon, which will diminish slightly the glaring-white effect, I need to put something there. I originally pictured a big, round, ornate mirror. Maybe with some rustic-looking swirly-ness around the outside. But, at the same time, that seems a little overdone. Anyone have a more creative idea?

A Peek at What's to Come

 "Decorate your home. It gives the illusion that your life is more interesting than it really is."

~ Charles M. Schulz

Recently, as I dreamt about the rooms of our new apartment, I began to worry that we had never really pinned down a specific decor style. Now, I'm not really one to have a "themed" space, or to stick to just one color, or to choose something so in mode that we'll have to redecorate within the month. But I do realize the importance of tying things together just enough that the space feels connected. As I reviewed our online registries (which are, by the way, extremely addicting), I started to wonder if our choices were going to feel more disjointed than eclectic. So, I decided to take a hint from one of my fave daily reads and create a mood board for each of our rooms.

What is a mood board, you may ask? Well, a month ago, before I started reading up on home decorating blogs, I would have asked the same thing. A mood board is simply a collection of images (usually created in Photoshop or the like) that portray the mood of a space. If you've never seen a mood board before, please click here or here and look at a few created by more-experienced decorators. In other words, please don't let my amateur try below steal your mood board virginity.

Here's my first try at a mood board. (Please don't laugh.) I have mentioned that my graduate degree is in education, right? And certainly not home ec.

Living Room Mood Board

I pulled this together using photos of items we've registered for and ones we already own. The background color is an approximate version of what I'd like to paint that room--through it will probably be a shade or two lighter (I'm really not all the adventurous.) Some of the objects are just similar to what we own. But, all in all, it gives a pretty good idea of the feel of our future living room.

What do you think? 


 

In the Mood

If bad decorating was a hanging offense, there'd be bodies hanging from every tree!

~ Sylvester Stalone

My apologies for the rather graphic quote. It was the best fit I could find!

Decorating was never a priority for my parents. I grew up in a nice house, with nice things, but with no real decor. Plans were always in the making; the basement room was "in progress" and we spent seven years picking a paint color for the master bathroom--it never did end up painted. We did have matching furniture, a few pieces of framed art, and place mats on our table--but the style ended there. 

I was always a little envious of friends whose moms spent afternoons antiquing, who arranged fake fruit in vases on the kitchen island, or whose dining room table resembled a picture in a catalog, no matter what time of day/year. In my surly teenage years, I even became ashamed when I'd have friends over. I'd find reasons to explain, like "Oh, we're re-doing that room right now" or "We're in the process of painting." But those who knew us well knew these were excuses and that if they came back in six weeks--or even six months--nothing would have changed.

Nowadays, I've come to love my house the way it is. My parents are wonderful people, dutifullly involved in church activities, family relationships, and friendships. Staging a scene from House Beautiful is just not in the mix. I appreciate that now. The hours when I was younger that my mom could have spent arranging furniture or on DIY decorating projects, she instead spent taking me to the library, a movie, or on a walk. Currently, she spends those moments baking cookies for church members' birthdays, pursuing her dream of being a writer, planning Bible Study lessons, and lending a hand to family and friends whenever they call. I absolutely cherish her for these qualities, and would not wish for anything different.

However, I've got a decorating itch to cure. For the past two years, I've drooled over Trading Spaces, Martha Stewart Living, Good Housekeeping, and more recently, now Young House Love, Bower Power, and iHeart Organizing. I pride myself in being an independent, educated young woman... but I'll admit that I can't wait to be a housewife. Visualizing the unexplored frontier of my future home, a space for me to decorate, organize, and care for, provides a rush of excitement.

As we near our April 25 move-in date, the ideas are pouring in. And some decorating anxiety has started a-rumblin' in the pit of my stomach, as I realize that these painting, lighting, and sewing projects are actually mine for the doing--no longer a far-off dream, but a present-day reality. Buying new lamps last weekend was only the beginning--our (okay, my) list of to-dos to make our apartment a home is growing steadily by the day. I won't go into all the details--the list is quite extensive--but here's a run-down on two projects I hope to get done before we move in.


1) The Bookshelves.


Once upon a time, when I was just a young girl, in a rush of decorating genius, I decided to Scotch-tape photographs all over the sides of my wood-composite bookshelves in a haphazard manner. Here's the end result:

Pretty, huh? Well, now I'm kicking my thirteen-year-old self, because we just don't have the extra $$$ to buy new bookshelves, so we're going to try to make these work. I've done some reading, and my plan is to gently sand the contact-paper-layered-wood-composite sides, and use a couple thin coats of primer before re-painting. I'm also planning to wall-paper the back board. Oh, and lose the ceramic dolls, Coca-Cola tin, and fishy lamp.

2) The Entertainment Center


My parents have decided (just in time!) to replace the entertainment center that currently stands in their hearth room, and they're passing this old one down to us. It's really in pretty good shape; I just want to tweak it a little bit.

The main beef I have with this piece of furniture is the doors. For starters, we have a wooden coffee table, wooden pantry unit, wooden desk, wooden end tables, and wooden bookshelves that we're going to be cramming into a small apartment. They all match fairly well, but I'm trying my darnedest to avoid the rustic cabin look. In addition, as you can see in the picture that I've so nicely labeled for you, one of the doors cracked clean in two about ten years ago (thanks to yours truly leaning on the open door while trying to pick a movie one evening). I know it's not very noticeable, but it bugs me (probably because I did it). So, I'm hoping to find some replacement doors that have some glass panes or something. I don't know. We'll see how that goes.

I know that decorating is a gradual process, and that if I try to dive into all of these projects at once, I'll either 1) burn out or 2) go flat broke. We're planning to take it in steps. Eventually, of course we'll also need to buy a couch, a kitchen table, replace our mattress... Oh man, I can't even think about it right now.

The reason for my excitement is obvious. It really doesn't have as much to do with decorating, but with creating a comfortable space that B and I can call our own. I know we can be happy in a place with mismatched furniture, unpainted walls, and Scotch-tape marked bookshelves (okay, maybe not that last one...). But I so want our first home to be a reflection of who we are as a couple, and a product of our own inspiration and hard work. 

Our decorating process will be much like our relationship, I'm sure. We'll be excited, we'll work hard, we'll sometimes be in over our heads, we'll occasionally not have any idea what we're doing. But, hopefully, with some dedication, both our decor and our marriage will become as inspired, coordinated, and comfortable as I picture them to be.

Shedding New Light on our Living Situation

May the roof above us never fall in
And may we good companions beneath it never fall out.

~Irish Blessing

Our strain of good luck continued yesterday, when we met with the leasing agent at our apartment complex of choice.

Remember our indecision over Floor Plan #1 and Floor Plan #2? Well, we've mulled over the options and come to an answer! 

And the winner is...


Drrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumrollllll, pleeeeeeease...

Floor Plan #2!!!

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, we opted for the separate laundry room, fireplace, and extra square-footage over the first-floor walkout with the cute little linen closet. 

So, after making this decision in light of the fabulous news about my job (my job! my job! my job! golly, I could say that all day), we made an appointment for Saturday--yesterday--to officially be put on the waiting list.

Good things come in threes, right? Well, if we had to number the past week, it would look something like this:

1. Katie gets a job.

2. B's apartment complex lets him move out early.


3. We sign a contract on our first choice apartment!

That's right. It just so happens that a guy living in our favorite floor plan on the upper level is moving out in April. AND the leasing agent worked a dealio with the manager to hold the space for us until our official move-in date of April 25.

We're so excited to have a clearer picture of our life together. I spent part of yesterday afternoon making a to-scale model of the floor plan and cut-outs of our furniture (thanks Young House Love for the help!). I tagged along with my mom and aunt to Nebraska Furniture Mart, where I came to the conclusion that we'll be retired by the time we can actually afford to furnish an entire house--no, actually, I was surprised/impressed with their reasonable prices! 

Last night after dinner, I talked B into going to Target where we hemmed and hawed in the lamp aisle before finally choosing two lamp shades and posts (that's right, we know how to live it up on a Saturday night!). If you haven't seen their mix-and-match lamp collection, it's marvelous. Although, for someone who deliberates far too long over every little decision, it can get a little dangerous.

WARNING: I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures. My 6-year-old digital camera has begun to show it's age (we're registered for a new one, so I'm trying my darnedest to restrain myself from buying a new one), and these are taken with my iPod touch.

Last night I was haunted by dreams of furniture-arrangement dilemmas (thank goodness we don't actually have 10 armchairs to fit in our living room). But during my waking hours, I've been daydreaming of paint colors (muted green), giant mirrors (on the wall of our dining area), and bookshelves (how to cover the tape marks on my childhood furniture??).

We have a lot to do between now and April 25. But I can't complain, as the end result will be waking up next to, cooking dinner with, and grocery shopping with my one-and-only.