3.30.2011

Around the House

Over the last three months, we've made a few changes around the apartment. {Please excuse the bad lighting in these pictures! I had to take them at night.}

I found this cute little vase at Anthro in DC. It was on clearance and in my two favorite colors {coral and turquoise} so I just had to bring it home.

Bedroom Mantel

Close up of Vase

Remember how we took family pictures over Christmas break? Well, I got my two favorite shots printed on canvas. I searched the web high and low for a steal, because canvases can cost quite the pretty penny. I ended up purchasing them from Arts Cow for $17 a piece, with free shipping!

{P.S. You can check out the rest of the family photos over on Flickr.}

Television Nook

Close up of Canvases

The biggest addition to the apartment is a new coffee table from Ballard Designs! We had been wanting somewhere to prop up our feet, hold our drinks & snacks, and store our board games for a while. So when I stumbled upon a steal of a deal from Ballard, I discussed it at length with Adam and then added the little guy to my shopping cart! My absolute favorite thing about it is that our board games are no longer stored underneath our couch. Organization makes me happy.

Coffee Table and Rug

See that cute gray area rug underneath the coffee table? I've heard all over the place that rugs are really essential to having a polished room. But they are just so dang expensive! Enter this pretty and neutral 4x6 rug for a mere $20. You may be wondering where we stumbled upon this gem. Why IKEA, of course! I convinced Adam to make a super quick stop there on our way to pick up Allie and Kailin from the airport a couple weeks ago.

While at IKEA, we also picked up a $5 frame so that we could finally hang our third bird print in the kitchen. The pretty turquoise prints were a wedding gift from Allie, but one of our frames broke during the long move from Houston to Pittsburgh. The frames were all originally white, but I spray-painted them yellow to add some more color to the kitchen.

Pantry

Close up of Bird Prints

Finally, we have some treasures from my Goodwill expedition with Allie and Kailin. This $1 glass jar is perfect for storing our favorite dark chocolate cocoa.

Kitchen Counter

Glass Jar

And this $2 table runner {from Pottery Barn!} will be perfect for fall decorating.

Table Runner

Speaking of our table, we're just not digging that shade of wood and are thinking about painting it as a summer project. But we can't decide whether to go black or white. Here's what I'm thinking.

Black: Well, all our other furniture items are black. And we probably won't have an eat-in kitchen in our next apartment, so maybe black would be best for a more cohesive look?

White: It would look better with our wood cabinets. And cabinets in a future apartment would probably be either white or wood. Maybe white would be a good choice just to break out from the black theme we've got going?

What do you think? Would you go black or white?

7 comments:

  1. I would go black, since in my experience, white paint never dries as nicely as you think it would.
    Plus, it matches other things. Matching is important.

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  2. I love all of the additions! Hmmm, Mrs. Bland has a black kitchen table and it looks good but I think they just spray painted it because you can see bubbles and bumps on the top. You could try staining the wood or something.

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  3. So cute!!! What a happy little home!

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  4. Nice additions! You're home is super cozy. I'd go white on the table. I, personally, LOVE white -- especially in the kitchen!

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  5. Those prints are so, so cute!!

    Initially I was thinking black (in fact, I painted my own kitchen table black, so obviously I like that look), but then I went and looked at your kitchen photos, and I totally changed my mind! I think it would look so, so cute painted white with some colorful chair cushions!!! You don't want the space to end up looking dark!

    Love the new coffee table!

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  6. I like the prints in the newly painted frames. That bright blue color and yellow are exactly my two "kitchen colors". It's surprisingly hard to find many things in those shades, though. Maybe I should follow your example, and start painting things myself!

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  7. I'm going to have to vote white. I think it will be much lighter and since y'all have a tiny (but adorable!) kitchen you don't want to have something big and dark. Good luck in your painting adventure with whichever you choose!

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You are awesome.