a dreamy bedroom

Decorating my bedroom has been my last priority, but I might be getting a new bed this week (!) so I'm hoping that I will finally be able to make it beautiful. I'm torn in a thousand directions about what to do, but am forever in love with a soothing palette of white, gray and blue:

monday morning flowers

Beautiful flowers totally make my day.

my living room

entryway update

Remember my recent love affair with hot pink?

It was the inspiration for my entry shelves, which now look like this:

I had originally wanted to include a white border on the back of each shelf, but my painter's tape failed me miserably. I actually ended up making a huge mess, but somehow managed to pull it together with a few touch ups. Next up: white flowers, accessories and a bunch of new art for the entry and hall. And hopefully soon a beautiful new runner to replace our "temporary" one from Ikea.

office board

I finished spray painting our office chairs white over the weekend (upper left - I'm obsessed with the bamboo detailing) and I hope to make the pillows for them this week. I've gone back and forth about whether our office should have some sort of sleeping space for guests and I think the West Elm daybed shown here could work (a sleeper won't fit through the door and the room is too small for a full). This board is about half pieces we have and half pieces we don't have (yet). I've known all along that I wanted grassy green and I'm loving pops of pink (and yellow?) in the artwork and accessories. The question is, where does my boyfriend's prized, signed hockey stick that he insists should be hung up somewhere fit into all this???? :)

click to view larger

hot pink

Just a preview of a little something I'm working on...

apartment updates {dining room}

Our dining room continues to be a work in progress... it feels like every day I move something around to see if it will work. This week I decided to try the ladder shelving that was in our office as a place to hold dishes, linens, wine, etc. in place of the small side table I bought for bar space (I decided it was too small on top and moved our 'bar' to the sideboard instead). I like that the ladder is a little unexpected (it needs to be 'styled up' a bit) while adding some height. Instead of dressing up my white linen drapes I've decided to leave them as is for now - they're very light and airy, which I love. I painted the front panels on the sideboard a shade darker than the walls (the entire thing WILL get painted eventually) and now I'm on the lookout for some sexy hardware to dress it up. Our craigslist table is serving it's purpose, but I'd love to buy something more modern down the road like the parsons dining table (in polished white, of course) from West Elm. Overall the space still lacks a little color, but I know some flowers, new accessories and maybe a fun new lamp will help with that.

upcoming projects:

• paint our sad little office chairs (bottom image)
• make office pillows with the green + white fretwork fabric I ordered
• paint the back of the shelving in our entryway
• paint the raised panel between the windows in our kitchen with chalkboard paint
• hang more artwork (we finally ordered more pictures this week yay!)

Hoping to accomplish at least some of this over the weekend...

new in the apartment {bar + gallery wall}

side table/bar: on sale at Pier 1

photo ledges: Ribba series from Ikea

{thinking about doing a bunch of different sized black and white photos and drawings... the Martha's Vineyard polaroids are just temporary}

dressing up plain white drapes

I blogged yesterday about how I reeeeally want to dress up the plain white linen drapes in my dining room ($15/pair at Ikea... ridiculous). So what to do? Add trim?

Or attempt stenciling a pattern?

I'm tempted to try the latter... even though I'll probably drive myself crazy trying to perfectly paint two sets of drapes. I found a little tutorial here. Either way I'm making my DR a priority for the weekend - wish me luck! Happy Friday :)

new apartment {phase 2}

We've been living in our new apartment now for 4 months. We have probably quadrupled the square footage from our last apartment so it has taken us a while to find some basic pieces that we liked and could afford (nearly everything is a flea market, craigslist, Target, Homegoods or Ikea find). Room layouts have been established (except our office/guest bedroom, which I can't decide what to do with - beautiful office just for us, or a nice place for guests??? Or a combination of both??? More on that in another post...) and now it's a matter of starting what I'm calling "phase 2" of our first level living space. My boyfriend thinks I'm C-R-A-Z-Y... he looks around and is happy with everything the way it is. For me phase 2 is all about the details - art, accessories, introducing more color through paint, fabric, etc. and adding the finishing touches that will make each room beautiful. I'm a little obsessed, but I can't help it since this is what I LOVE to do. Here is our living room now:

I like the palette but want to punch up the color a little with some fabric and accessories. Also, we're dying for art in this room - the walls are long and bare for the most part. I'd love to do gallery shelving so that I can switch up the images often.

Now our dining room. Originally I had a few yellow pieces in this room (check it out here) but I've back tracked a bit to a more neutral starting point. We painted BM's Edgecomb Gray on the walls (nothing too crazy for color since this is a rental) as a backdrop for our black dining set (redone from craigslist) and antique white sideboard from Brimfield. What this room needs is some serious color. I'd love to find an old piece to paint and use as a bar, add a few throw pillows in a fun fabric, and frame some colorful prints. Another idea is to add a print or stripes to the white linen drapes (or the rug - eek!) with a little paint... not sure if that will happen or not - the possibilities are really endless!

Hope you enjoyed another mini apartment tour! Aren't these two paintings Pat's grandfather did years ago so pretty? Will share details and pics as things progress...

new art for the apartment

Matisse

diy lampshades

Cool looking lampshades can be expensive so I love the idea of dressing up plain ones with ribbon, fabric, etc. I love this X pattern for the white lampshades in my office (minus the cute envelopes)...

via Pink Wallpaper

bar cart inspiration

Restoration Hardware

apartment peeks

Our new apartment is looking a little more finished these days. I painted one wall in our living room last weekend (below) and finally ordered bamboo roman shades for the windows in that room (the furniture/tv placement isn't going to allow for the beautiful drapery panels I wanted to do). I'm still searching for another piece for our dining room (bar cart/table) and have art laying around everywhere - but that's the way I like to decorate.. everything moves around and evolves over time. The upstairs (our bedroom and second bathroom) is a completely different story - so empty and boring! - but hopefully that can be a fun project for the fall. Here are a couple pictures of the progress in our living room and dining room:

ikea stripes

I think today was my fourth or fifth trip to Ikea in the past couple of months - between moving to a new apartment and helping my parents update a couple of rooms it's been the go to place for the basics. Love these striped fabrics I picked up today. The prices per yard are so affordable and they're going to be fabulous on throw pillows.

brimfield recap + new additions

Our trip out to the Brimfield Antique Show was a lot of fun. I have to say I was a little disappointed with the prices - I thought they were high and not everyone was willing to negotiate. And I didn't see a lot of the little items that I was looking for to update my shop - so I'll need to plan another trip to Maine in the next few of weeks for that. Nonetheless, there was a lot of cool stuff and we did buy a few things - including the side board below which was much needed piece for our dining room!

When I have the time I'm going to give it a fresh coat of paint (maybe a fun color?) and update the hardware.

Pat - so overwhelmed by everything, but trying to stay supportive!!

Herbie.

Cool bentwood chairs that could be awesome with an update.

New (old) side board in our dining room with the yellow lamp I picked up at Homegoods this weekend 50% off! I'm still organizing art etc. so this pic is a work in progress.

Lastly, a zebra rug that I bought at Homegoods (not sure where it's going yet... although I'm kind of enjoying the life it brings to our kitchen) and a galvanized metal bucket and #8 gas station sign (also from Brimfield).

speaking of antiques...

The Brimfield Antique Show is coming up and I told my boyfriend that all I want for my 25th birthday is for him to take the day off and go with me (esp since C will be away on the 12th!). I went for the first time last year and it was awesome. This year will be even better since we need furniture for our new apartment and for a couple of other projects that I'm working on. I reeeeally want a cool console table that I can fix up - such as this one from Domino (scanned via the Domino Book of Decorating). Brimfield is the largest outdoor antiques show in the world and this years dates are May 11-16, July 13-18, and September 7-12.

new office {yellow + green}

I think I'm going to stick with yellow + green as inspiration for our new office. I love how cheery the colors are against our warm grey walls and black and white accents. We spent a lot of time this weekend working on our new place so hopefully I will able to share more pictures soon. Hope you had a great weekend!

Sorry for the mediocre pictures - had to take these late in the day with a flash!

antique side board

Hoping to make this little baby mine this weekend. Needs some TLC but I think it could be fabulous.

via Craigslist

pillow obsession

Speaking of yellow and gray, I saw these silk pillows at Target and had to have them. Not sure where they will go yet, but they were too darn pretty to pass by (which happens to me all the time!)

project update {chairs}

Remember these? After a lot of prep work and some very careful spray painting, they've gotten a big makeover.

The silhouette is pretty traditional/country so I chose glossy black paint and a chevron print for the seat cushions to achieve a dressier, more modern look. Total cost for the chairs (from craiglist), materials and fabric = about $20/each.