folk art!

i've been so desperate for art [more color!] in our loft lately. we have scores of photographs from our travels and wedding. i've even given pi the ok to get his old basquiat out if his closet that i've always hated and told him we could find a place for it.

so when i found these little treasures for $5 buried in a sale bin earlier in the week i couldn't resist! the wall decals add the perfect amount of folksy color to our bland hallway. and since we got the new tv stand, our old one has been moved out into the hall.

it just what the space needed, i'm convinced!

we are headed off to nyc tomorrow to see family and getaway for the weekend [again]. the city in spring is just lovely - can't wait to come back with pics!

til next time...

look what i got!

it's always nice to come home to your own place after a long trip, especially after a red eye flight. and especially when it's cold and rainy outside and you just want to cuddle up inside with your kitties.  and especially when you have to go straight from the airport to take your brother to the hospital. not cool.

anyway, imagine my excitement when i came home to two packages filled with goodies for my living room! huzzah!

first, i opened this lovely darling.  this is the first thing i have ever bought straight off of pinterest, but it was super affordable and with free shipping from nordstrom, how could you not?

polka dot pouf ottoman, $78

after my new ottoman was all set up, i ripped open the package containing these delights.  i needed some new pillow covers to breathe life into my living room where i have been dying for some color - and these affordable covers can be found in just about every color or pattern under the sun, thanks to pillow makeover via etsy.  they slipped over some pillows that i'd had laying around in drab browns and earth tones and instantly made me feel happy.

elephant pillow cover, $15

red chevron pillow cover, set of 2 for $30, orange ikat dots pillow cover $13

green chevron priced with red chevron [above], right pillow cover from a salvaged home

living room today!

loving all the color and how the room is coming together... all i need now are a few colorful throws and i'll be totally in love.

that couch is going to come in handy with all this rain - i am planning on hiding under the blankets and catching up on the mindy project and new girl :)

happy wednesday!

til next time - xo

the couch...

a little angry with me today.

'you are diabolical,' my husband said to me today.

see, we got a new couch.  the couch i wanted :)

not that i made him, or we only got the couch i liked.  pi wanted to get a new couch too - but he wanted a new couch in addition to our old couch.  i, on the other hand, wanted to throw the old one out in to the hallway.  the thing is that we have a gorgeous, fancy couch.  we bought it from arhaus before we were married when we were moving to brooklyn.  it has lasted us five great years and is still in decent shape. 

but i've been feeling like it is time to move on.  it’s not super comfortable for us to snuggle up on, it’s small, and it wouldn’t really be practical if we had a lot of people over or just wanted to be able to not worry about the fanciness of the couch.  which is why i have been rooting for us to get rid of said fancy  couch and get a new one all together.

but pi loves the fancy couch.  and, what’s more than love, is that we spent what was, at the time, a small fortune on it.  so he wants the couch to stay.  this meant that, in order to keep the fancy couch, we would have to still buy another couch to fit around the couch that we currently have, it would have to match the sofa style we already have. 

old fancy couch.

new super-comfy uber-practical couch.

but that didn't exactly happen.  we purchased our new lovely corner-piece couch, thinking we could potentially make it work along with our old fancy couch.  and it turns out, there was just no way that we could make it work.  we tried every possible way to get our new couch and old couch to mesh.

taking the couch apart during the first re-arrangement.

then the tv had to move...

he's still smiling here!

well that doesn't work...

...and neither does this...

so, at the end of the day, the old couch had to go away.  i tried to banish it to the hallway, but that would not happen.  so we compromised.

here is the new living room and dining room area.  it may look silly to you, but we like it, and this is our compromise to keep us both happy today. 

couch in my dining room.  love it.

still need to hang stuff on the wall.

 marriage is a compromise, guys.  we successfully bought a new couch and kept our old one.  and i'm pretty happy with the results so far :)

ikea night stand hack

i am loving the loft still.  and i am still totally craving some color.

so, i struck a compromise with my husband.  we picked the cheapy nightstands from ikea that i wasn't totally sure of - but with the promise that i could paint them a new, happy bright hue and of course he reminded me that the money we'd save could go to other fun items, such as:

my new footstool/coffee table from world market! should be here in a week.

which means that my ikea nightstands looked like this when we picked them up:

 my first step was to put them together.

but after getting through step 2 [seriously, has anyone ever tried to put something together from ikea?!], i decided to wait til pi got home so he could put it together for me. that worked much better.

 

 

once the nightstand was put together, it was actually pretty simple to paint and revamp the nightstand.  first, i had to pick a color.  i decided to go with my favorite color - blue - so if i get out of this color phase pretty soon at least they will be in my favorite blue color.

supplies: paint, paint brush, sandpaper, and of course a dropcloth.

because the nightstands were originally a fairly pretty grey-ish color, i decided to only do one coat of paint.  they grey base underneath really stuck out with just one coat.  when doing only one coat of paint, brush strokes are key.  after coating each side with the bright blue, i dragged the brush from top to bottom to keep the brush stripes the same and make it look more like i had painted directly over wood.

the finished product!

closeup of the top of the nightstand.

i am pretty happy with the outcome, i gotta say!  the bedroom still needs some pictures hung up over the night stands and a few other decorative accents - and once i have a few of those put together i'll throw some pictures up. 

but so far so good, and it's beginning to feel more like home.

happy sunday!  til next time...

bookcase styling is hard.

so guess what i learned today?

i learned that if you have a functional bookshelf [read: you actually use it for all your books] you can still make it pretty.

our bookshelves in our old house were always so jam-packed, mostly because we used them all the time.  both pi and i are kind of bookworms, so using our bookshelves for decor was always out of the question.  but i always loved the look of bookshelves that i saw in design mags and online - you know, the kind where each shelf has like eight books, an anchor and three picture frames. 

that just isn't practical for people who actually need to use their bookshelves for, you know, BOOKS.

so when pi the other day said he would start unpacking the books, i told him to hit the brakes and give me a day because i wanted them to look nice and not too packed in.

so here are the few rules i found helpful for those of you interested in styling useful but pretty bookshelves.

 1.  first sort your books by color, then by size.
this allows for books to be placed in color groups together, then then can be ordered by size later on the shelf.  sometimes ordering them by size takes a few tries.  line them up on the floor til you are sure you have the right size order. 

bigger books on the inside, getting smaller towards the end of the bookcase.

2.  then play with the the look. 
not all the books should be stacked up on their side neatly.  some of them can lie flat on top of one another [i find this especially useful for ugly books or ones you want to hide]. they can easily be hidden by a picture frame, or one nice book standing our front.

below, i have some smaller and unattractive books stacked up behind the etch of the saint.  

the picture and small book service to hide unattractive books behind.

 3. pick out some accessories in the same color family as the books for each shelf.
it's possible that you might have so many books not every shelf can have something pretty.  that's ok.  if you are like me, you own some pretty books you can stand our front or make the center of attention for that shelf.

a book of poetry, green vase and dark lantern go with the green books.

4.  use that extra space sparingly! 
i had little to no room for fun things like pictures - but by getting creative and turning books on their backs or putting the pictures in front of smaller books, i was able to let my sense of bookcase style stand out.

orange books get a gold frame and a a bright orange flower.

white books get a framed book page [my fave] and a stack of old books on top.

5. use the big bottom shelves for textbooks, coffee table books, and other big [or ugly] books you don't frequently need.
hide those nasty books with accessories out front. 


6. have a glass of wine and enjoy your fancy new functional bookshelf.

all this down time is leaving me with lots of projects - so tomorrow or this weekend i will share another diy. 

happy thursday!  til next time... :)

here comes color!

i am dying for some color around here.  back in our lovely denver house, i was really into earth tones and neutrals.  now that we are in our funky boston loft, i am really dying for a shot of color.  a few shots of color.  and an open space with old, dark hardwood flooring and lots of exposed brick are just is just the place to do it.  i don't know if it's the fact that we are in the loft for just a year so i don't have to commit to a style forever, or if my taste is just evolving.

i've always really been into colors and prefer a more eclectic look than something super put-together [i'm never 'put-together' a second in my life, so why should my home be?].  so i am hoping that the black and white photography we brought along with us from denver will go well with some new color in the loft! 

we are in the market for new nightstands, a new bookshelf and a new couch [possibly a new chair/loveseat to go with it].  here are a few of my new favorite and colorful finds:

pair of arrow tables, furbish, $479

orange steel night stand, target, $63

marketplace woven table, urban, $98

flourish side table, urban, $49

my fave! brimfield bookcase, urban, $79

aspelund side table, ikea, $40 [would be re-painted]

moroccan side table, one king's lane, $199

vintage orange bamboo side tables, the colonies, £200

right now it's too much fun fantasy online shopping to make any decisions or purchases.  i'll just have to keep looking until i find just the right thing... suggestions are welcome!

til next time...

starting over [kind of].

one of the things i am super excited about with our new apartment is kind of starting over, design and decor wise.  we are moving from our 100+ year old four bedroom single home [which i miss so much] to a one bedroom loft in the heart of boston.  it's a big change, obviously. 

most of our furniture and decor is obviously the same - but there are a good amount of things that we left back in denver, simply because we won't have the room.  which means there is room for new stuff, reinvention of old stuff, and new decor ideas.  so i did what any girl would do... i raided my pinterest board for inspiraiton.

i started a new board for our new apartment with all my new ideas... i can't wait to move in and start decorating!  here's a few ideas i have...

  

asdf 

 

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til next time...!

pinspiration #4: pillow covers

i don't sew.  that's exactly what i said to the woman cutting my fabric at joann's last week.  she looked at me like i was kind of crazy, which i understand.  who buys fabric, and then, while it's being cut, says they don't plan on sewing at all?  the woman tried to tell me about ways to iron fabric together like a hem but without sewing, and i told her i still wasn't going to do that. 

see, i had found this pin on pinterest:

and i was determined to give it a shot.  all i needed was two yards of fabric (that was just a guess that turned out to work).  i have some very boring pillows and have been wanting to mix it up.  but i am not too crazy about the idea of spending money on fancy pillows (i usually use them as a plate and/or desk), especially because i like to change them up with the seasons.  end result?

well hello there, fancy pillow!

all for two yards of fabric.  plus it took me twice to tie the knot just right.  but i pretty happy with it - i'd say it's my favorite pinterest project so far!

i did a LOT of awesome stuff this weekend with my sister in law n!  i have tons of pictures to share, but unfortunately i am super behind in school with the funeral last week and n's visit - plus we are heading out to new york in just three short days!  so lots to do around here.  i'll be back soon with pictures from the weekend and updates.

til next time...

pinspiration #1: coffee filter wreath

hey friends!

so i've decided to create a new series called pinspiration.  it's going to be things i have attempted to make from pinterest.  see, i'm not a very crafty lady.  in fact quite the opposite.  i love little handmade things, but i'd prefer to pay for the goods that others have made.  i could never color inside the lines, i never learned how to sew, and i don't own a hot glue gun

but since we've bought our house i've tried to start doing more things myself, very little things mind you.  so i am going to be taking on some new projects!  i have a pinterest board where i'm starting to collect ideas for new projects.

pin i love: coffee filter wreath

the pin

now how easy is this?  it looks easy, and i happen to know my sister in law b made one and hers looks fabulous - of course she's 1000x more crafy than i am.  but really, all you need a is a styrofoam circle of some kind, coffee filters, and a hot glue gun.  this required me purchasing my own glue gun at hobby lobby.  man those things get hot!  luckily i had all the coffee filters i need as a horrible coffee addict.

my version

so, in retrospect, i learned a few things. first, i should have wrapped the sytrofoam wreath in something before pinning on the filters, as you can still kind of see the green wreath.  second, i shouldn't have used the filters i had that are straight.  should have used the curvy kind.

i'm only a little ashamed to display it.  but i made it!  myself! 

my late-summer mantel this morning

i need to stop taking pics with my iPhone of my house, that looks awful. i am so lazy!