Coffee table restyle

When I first moved in I was using my lego table as the main coffee table in the living room. That was great, except that my coffee cups were always fighting with AT-STs and ewoks. So I watched craigslist, looking for a quirky table to fit my quirky space. My living room is connected to the entry, stairway, and dining room. This means it's as much a hallway as a room. I've worked around this by positioning the chair on an angle, effectively closing in the seating area and leaving room behind it for walking. 

This coffee table works perfectly with my funny angles. There's enough space to walk around it, but it's within reach of each couch. And here's the cool part:

Yes, it lifts up. Perfect for lazy nights when I just want to eat dinner and watch a movie on the couch. The table had been living in someone's garage, and it wasn't in great shape. And I already have a lot of different wood shades in the house. (Several people have complained that I ruined a perfectly lovely piece of furniture, but it's just composite wood and was kinda ugly. I have no regrets.)

Made to fit

This was the summer of weddings. I got sick of packing and unpacking the same dresses. I thought I would try making my own for a change. This was totally not worth the time and effort I spent on it. I sewed a lining into the dress, which meant I had to cut double of everything. The top section is sheer, and was a pain in the butt to work with. I didn't have a pattern, but I based the dress on a red one from Goodwill.

That's my mom in the red dress. I think we're kinda cute.

 

Not flawless, but not bad for a first try.

Nesting

There were a few weeks after I landed the job and before I had found an apartment. It took me 4 weeks of searching online, calling landlords, driving 400 miles every weekend, and visiting lousy apartment after lousy apartment. I was stressed, and that made me want to nest. 

I knew I wanted to incorporate Italian tiles into my decor. On a whim, I decided to make pillows that looked like tiles.

I printed out black and white copies of the tiles, taped them to the window, and traced them with sharpies. It was time-intensive, but I love the results. I ironed the fabric to set the sharpie. 

Rug swap

Confession: this post isn't about anything secondhand or homemade. But it is about making my space comfortable and inviting, so I'll include it.

First I thought I wanted a warm round rug. I thought the round shape would accommodate my unusual furniture placement. The rug was supposed to be a warm gold, but it wasn't. So I sent it back.

Then I thought I wanted something bright and youthful, so I went with this rug. It reminds me of a peacock, and I thought it would pick up the blues and greens in my other pillows. But it was too busy for the room and stuck out oddly past the furniture, so I moved it upstairs.

I spent some time on Pinterest looking at what really made up the rooms I liked most. (Here's my home decor board.) I realized I like warm neutrals as a base, and pops of color as accents. So I found this brown and white striped rug, and got one big enough to fit all my furniture and extend a little bit into the walkway.

And I love stripes.

Connect the dots

Awhile ago I was poking around my bedroom and I started noticing all the nail holes in the walls. I was kind of irritated until I realized that two of them were centered over where I had placed my bed. I ran out and got twine and clothespins, and started hanging my travel postcards.

(While we're in the bedroom, can I show you the cute things I have on my bed posts? My bed can have tall posts that support a canopy, and when I take the posts down I'm left with exposed screws. Solution? Goodwill! The owl and bird are both hand painted ceramics, and the weird wooden thing is resting on a napkin ring. I like to think they add character.)

Frames, frames, frames!

 Once again, I started a project because I was tired of staring at blank white space. This is a shot of my living room wall. Nice, but dull.

I went on a thrift store rampage and came back with a variety of wooden frames (I had a few already from previous projects). I laid them out on the floor, trying to mix up colors and sizes and proportions.

My neighbors really liked the part where I hammered a lot of nails into the wall. Oops.

Black and white and feathered all over

I have a rather small bathroom. It's beautiful, though, and contains some of my favorite pieces in the house. I have a lovely white clawfoot tub, black and white flooring, and an oval vintage mirror.

Growing up I was really lanky and awkwardly tall and skinny. Eventually the rest of me filled out, but for several years I had bizarrely long, stick-shaped legs. It wasn't long before I realized I could identify with flamingos and their logic-defying legs.

Brightening up the dining room

I love that I have a dining room and I love the windows in it, but let's be honest: it's an empty, boringly white room. Here's a shot of my stunningly boring ceiling.

Thanks to clearance sections and experience living in similarly boring dorm rooms, I've accumulated quite a collection of paper lanterns that I've hung in every place I've lived.

I always lay out the lanterns on the floor before I start hanging. That way I know I won't end up with all small lanterns on one side or all the warm colors clumped together. Once I like the arrangement I hop on a chair and move them from the floor to the ceiling. 

I hang my lanterns with command hooks and loops of fishing line. The command hooks make for easy removal (and I only have to get new strips instead of re-buying the whole set), and the fishing line gives some freedom of movement and height variety.

Ta-da! A little bit of life. Stay tuned to see what I do to the dining room walls!

Homemade kitchen island

The first week in my new kitchen was very nerve-wracking. I was never sure where to put things. I have lots of counter space, but the counters are on the opposite end of the room from the stove. I spent a few days running back and forth with hot pans before I got ticked off and drove to Home Depot.

Counters on one side...

...stove on the other. Yes, I used moving boxes as extra prep space.

At Home Depot I ran into Rich, who took all of my wild ideas and turned them into something manageable. He did all of the planning work and doesn't even get to use the finished product! 

Office chair redo

This isn't about my house, but it was a fun project. When I took my job I inherited a gorgeous wood desk, three paper clips, a small plastic smurf, and a functional but really boring office chair. As the youngest person in the building I figured it was my job to bring some life into the office.

I spent a long time debating just how lively I wanted to be... and went with the really bright one.

When I took this project on my sewing machine was in another state. So I cut the pieces in MI, took pictures so I would know how to line them up, and did the sewing in IL.

I basically followed the lines of the chair, leaving a half inch of wiggle room on each side. The tricky part was imagining how it would slide on and attach. I split the back of the chair from the bottom of the chair and left enough fabric to overlap and pin. The arms were tricky to work around--I ended up sewing ribbon ties onto the top fabric and sewed the bottom ones on when I knew how they would line up.

(Isn't my desk cute?)

By some miracle the slipcover turned out perfectly! It makes me smile every day when I come in to work. :)

Have you personalized your office space? Tell us about it!

Comfy and cheap: scoring the perfect couch

I love couches. And it seems to me if you're going to have a couch you might as well have a comfortable one. When I went couch shopping I had just learned that the apartment would be mine. I was really excited but couldn't remember what any of the rooms looked like. So I went looking for neutral couches, hoping that I wouldn't do anything that would clash too horribly with the house.

I was very lucky in that I lived right by Jubilee Furniture in IL. Jubilee resells good quality furniture, and the money goes to run some really great programs through the community center. They post the newest furniture on their blog every Friday: jubileefurniture.blogspot.com.

I looked for solid, quality brand furniture that just needed a little cleaning or a slip cover.

I found this gorgeous suede chaise for $95

a comfy oversized chair for $50

and this sad leather couch for $50. The cushions were in really bad shape (some of them held together by duct tape), but the frame was solid and the arms and back could be restored with a little love.