I'm back with the second-to-last installment of our little apartment tour! Here are the yard, kitchen and bathroom tours in case you feel like checking them out.
We'll start with a shot of the whole room. Ignore the mess in the kitchen - I had cupcakes in the oven as I was taking these.
As you can see, the living room is kind of a hodge podge of stuff, but it's my favorite room by far.
Being tv junkies, we spend a lot of time parked on our Ikea Ektorp sofa. Adam's siblings chipped in and gave us a very generous Ikea gift card as a wedding gift. We used it to purchase this sofa, our dining set and a dresser. And amazingly only had to pay about $150 out of pocket.
We chose white because it was our favorite color out of the available options. It didn't hurt that it was also the cheapest! But, seriously, we have a snack in front of the tv every night {as well as the occasional breakfast} so we do spill quite often. Every once in a while we just throw the cushion covers in the washer with a little bleach. After air drying and some ironing, they are as good as new. And additional slipcovers are only $49 so it's totally affordable to grab an extra set. We've been meaning to do that...
Our coffee table was an ultra clearance find from Ballard Designs. It's the only new item of furniture we've actually purchased. We keep our favorite board games on the bottom shelf for easy access. I found that little tray for $2 at Micheal's and just gave it a few coats of yellow craft paint. It holds our coasters and remotes. Also, the pillows on the couch are from World Market. They have an awesome selection of colorful and affordable throw pillows.
Our tv was a wedding gift from Adam's parents. It has a built-in dvd player, which we love. The tv stand is a hand-me-down from my parents. We spray painted it black. The back is missing and we've been meaning to get a piece of plywood cut to fit for almost a year now. The cabinet holds more board games. And the little shelf {that's meant to hold a dvd player and such} is home to our Wii and a basket filled with Wii remotes. I found the basket for fifty cents at Goodwill, spray painted it blue and added a yellow fabric liner.
Above the tv, we have two canvas prints of family pictures and some anniversary date art. {Sorry about the glare!} The basket between the tv and the mantel holds some quilts Adam's mom has made for us.
On the other side of the room, you see...two doors. The door on the left is a small closet. It holds our coats and my dresses, as well as our vacuum and ironing board. My purses hang from over the door hooks and our sleeping bags reside on a little shelf up top. The other door leads to the front hallway/bike storage area and the basement laundry room. The handy coat hooks were here when we moved in. The cute rug is from Urban Outfitters. My sweet dad found it on clearance for $3.
The rest of that wall is devoted to an office space. Our tiny desk is a hand-me-down from Adam's parents. We spray painted it black. It's not perfect and we definitely can't wait to upgrade to something bigger, but that probably won't happen till we move. The parson chair was purchased with a wedding gift card to Home Goods.
And you finally get to see a shot of our beloved new bookcases! The bookshelf on the left is home to our yarn-wrapped letters. The other bookshelf has an iPod dock and three pretty frames with botanical greeting cards inside.
Above the desk, we created a photo wall with some bias tape, tiny 3M hooks and clothespins mod podged with pretty scrapbook paper. I love how easy {and cheap!} it is to change it up. The desk accessories are from the Container Store, the lamp is from Target and the computer was built by Adam thanks to a scholarship I won from the business school.
The top shelf of this bookcase holds some color-coordinated titles. The next shelf is home to Adam's textbooks. The middle shelf continues the color-coordinated titles. The fourth shelf has cookbooks and a box of office supplies {tape, envelopes, extra pens, etc}. The bottom shelf has two fabric storage bins holding even more board games. How did we collect so many of those?
We'll start with a shot of the whole room. Ignore the mess in the kitchen - I had cupcakes in the oven as I was taking these.
As you can see, the living room is kind of a hodge podge of stuff, but it's my favorite room by far.
Being tv junkies, we spend a lot of time parked on our Ikea Ektorp sofa. Adam's siblings chipped in and gave us a very generous Ikea gift card as a wedding gift. We used it to purchase this sofa, our dining set and a dresser. And amazingly only had to pay about $150 out of pocket.
We chose white because it was our favorite color out of the available options. It didn't hurt that it was also the cheapest! But, seriously, we have a snack in front of the tv every night {as well as the occasional breakfast} so we do spill quite often. Every once in a while we just throw the cushion covers in the washer with a little bleach. After air drying and some ironing, they are as good as new. And additional slipcovers are only $49 so it's totally affordable to grab an extra set. We've been meaning to do that...
Our coffee table was an ultra clearance find from Ballard Designs. It's the only new item of furniture we've actually purchased. We keep our favorite board games on the bottom shelf for easy access. I found that little tray for $2 at Micheal's and just gave it a few coats of yellow craft paint. It holds our coasters and remotes. Also, the pillows on the couch are from World Market. They have an awesome selection of colorful and affordable throw pillows.
Our tv was a wedding gift from Adam's parents. It has a built-in dvd player, which we love. The tv stand is a hand-me-down from my parents. We spray painted it black. The back is missing and we've been meaning to get a piece of plywood cut to fit for almost a year now. The cabinet holds more board games. And the little shelf {that's meant to hold a dvd player and such} is home to our Wii and a basket filled with Wii remotes. I found the basket for fifty cents at Goodwill, spray painted it blue and added a yellow fabric liner.
Above the tv, we have two canvas prints of family pictures and some anniversary date art. {Sorry about the glare!} The basket between the tv and the mantel holds some quilts Adam's mom has made for us.
On the other side of the room, you see...two doors. The door on the left is a small closet. It holds our coats and my dresses, as well as our vacuum and ironing board. My purses hang from over the door hooks and our sleeping bags reside on a little shelf up top. The other door leads to the front hallway/bike storage area and the basement laundry room. The handy coat hooks were here when we moved in. The cute rug is from Urban Outfitters. My sweet dad found it on clearance for $3.
The rest of that wall is devoted to an office space. Our tiny desk is a hand-me-down from Adam's parents. We spray painted it black. It's not perfect and we definitely can't wait to upgrade to something bigger, but that probably won't happen till we move. The parson chair was purchased with a wedding gift card to Home Goods.
And you finally get to see a shot of our beloved new bookcases! The bookshelf on the left is home to our yarn-wrapped letters. The other bookshelf has an iPod dock and three pretty frames with botanical greeting cards inside.
Above the desk, we created a photo wall with some bias tape, tiny 3M hooks and clothespins mod podged with pretty scrapbook paper. I love how easy {and cheap!} it is to change it up. The desk accessories are from the Container Store, the lamp is from Target and the computer was built by Adam thanks to a scholarship I won from the business school.
The top shelf of this bookcase holds some color-coordinated titles. The next shelf is home to Adam's textbooks. The middle shelf continues the color-coordinated titles. The fourth shelf has cookbooks and a box of office supplies {tape, envelopes, extra pens, etc}. The bottom shelf has two fabric storage bins holding even more board games. How did we collect so many of those?
The top shelf of the other bookcase holds a decoupaged box full of stationary. I have a mild addiction. There's also a budding collection of children's books. I love to scoop them up for cheap at Goodwill. The next shelf has a stack of yearbooks, scrapbooks and photo albums, as well as a file box. The middle shelf has box of computer cables and some larger books. The fourth shelf holds my sewing machine and sewing box. And the last shelf has two more storage boxes, filled with fabric and craft supplies.
The last corner of the room {behind the couch} serves as a little reading nook. We found the arm chair on Craig's List and reupholstered it. Probably the most trying moment of our marriage so far, but we somehow managed to pull it off. The side table was also found super cheap on Craig's List. We spray painted it black, of course. The lamp {from Target} was a Christmas present and I made the throw pillow myself.
The last corner of the room {behind the couch} serves as a little reading nook. We found the arm chair on Craig's List and reupholstered it. Probably the most trying moment of our marriage so far, but we somehow managed to pull it off. The side table was also found super cheap on Craig's List. We spray painted it black, of course. The lamp {from Target} was a Christmas present and I made the throw pillow myself.
I used some birthday money to stock up on frames at Ikea and created this gallery wall. Clockwise from the top left, we framed an vintage Orangina ad found at a French flea market, two photo strips backed with scrapbook paper, another Katie Daisy print, a Jackie O. portrait from the Andy Warhol museum, a poster from Adam's dorm days, art from old Scrabble tiles and a map of the British Isles found at an Edinburgh antique store.
We'll wrap it up with a shot of that whole wall. The white curtains are the cheapest available at Ikea and the silver curtain rods are from Lowes. Hanging above the mantel are the signature frame from our wedding and some Mr. and Mrs. letters that previously adorned the sweetheart table at our wedding reception. The focal point of the mantel is a shadow box with wedding memorabilia. The rest of the mantel is decorated with knick-knacks like an over sized hourglass and planters {with fake flowers} from the Target clearance rack.
Living Room To-Do List:
- Swap the Mr. and Mrs. letters for something new. {They are too lovey-dovey for Adam's taste and I am ready for a change.}
- Change the fabric flowers to something less...pink.
- Finally add a back to our tv stand, so all the messy cords are hidden.
- Add more frames to the gallery wall.
- Make a slipcover for our desk chair.
- Save our pennies to purchase this desk when we move somewhere new.
We'll wrap it up with a shot of that whole wall. The white curtains are the cheapest available at Ikea and the silver curtain rods are from Lowes. Hanging above the mantel are the signature frame from our wedding and some Mr. and Mrs. letters that previously adorned the sweetheart table at our wedding reception. The focal point of the mantel is a shadow box with wedding memorabilia. The rest of the mantel is decorated with knick-knacks like an over sized hourglass and planters {with fake flowers} from the Target clearance rack.
Living Room To-Do List:
- Swap the Mr. and Mrs. letters for something new. {They are too lovey-dovey for Adam's taste and I am ready for a change.}
- Change the fabric flowers to something less...pink.
- Finally add a back to our tv stand, so all the messy cords are hidden.
- Add more frames to the gallery wall.
- Make a slipcover for our desk chair.
- Save our pennies to purchase this desk when we move somewhere new.
Did you guys do the reupholstering yourselves? It looks great. We have a few chairs we want to re-do, but have no clue where to start...
ReplyDeleteWow! First of all, so organized and extremely well put together. You put us to shame girl! Second of all, I'm so impressed. You're a great decorator stylist.
ReplyDelete