The Layout Debacle & Lots of Black & White

Now that most of the purging is done and we're finished painting, I'm left twiddling my thumbs until we get the big pieces of furniture out and make room for the new stuff! So... what am I doing to pass the time? Going completely Pinterest + Paint mad!

Even though Pinterest is really good (really, really good! I'm still addicted, how about you?) for gathering photos, I'm not sure they're helping! I think I need to get out in the stores to really find what I like/what we need, but for now, these images are keeping me inspired that one day, hopefully soon, we'll have a place equally as elegant! A few inspiration faves: 

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 I love the colors and the cottage chic feel. I really love the French chair and the soft blue wall. I also loooove pops of pink! Wonder if Aaron will mind a little pink in our place?

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This is the image that inspired our paint job... It's so beautiful, isn't it? Again, I love the cream furniture and cottage-like feel! The silver-lined frames and soft grey chairs are such a nice touch, too! I could stare at this room all day! 

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I really love the furniture arrangement in this space. There's so many places to sit! I'm really obsessed with double ottomans right now, too! And those stripes! Gah- my heart skips a beat! I love the symmetical gallery over the couch (also with silver frames)!

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I like the use of round/oval objects like the ottoman and coffee table. It really breaks up the room. I also love the velvet texture of the sofa- super chic - and striped chairs like these would be a dream!

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Aaron probably hates the above photo {No, hunny, don't worry! I'm not buying us a pink couch!} but I just really love, love, love all the black and white. I have a real thing for round dinettes with french chairs, too (see: second photo above)... I hope our place looks this cool when I'm done!

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I loooooove the zebra rug. Yes, I'm one of those; one of those woman with a thing for animal prints! I know it might be difficult, but I'd love to have a similar rug in our home. I also looooove the lamps on each side of the room in this photo. Hello, symmetry, my dear, dear friend!

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I saved the best for last. I'm SMITTEN with this room. I LOVE the dresser! It doesn't get anymore glam than that, for me! Like I said, the black and white makes my heart sing...

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So that's Pinterest, this is Paint... and the reason I know I'm overthinking this: the {tough} reality is that I probably won't get the layout figured out until I'm in the apartment with all the new furniture and I'm actually moving it around! Nonetheless, I can't help but think {overthink} how things should go. I guess I feel like I need to know so that I know what furniture to buy! Or, should I buy furniture, then figure it out? Oy! Who knew decorating could be so diffcult! Here are a  few optional layouts:

Note: The bottom right corner is the entrance. Next to it is a column and bar. On the far left wall there's a window and next to it, it a door.  

LAYOUT #1:

I like the idea of a mini-work area behind the couch. I like that we'd have that PLUS the dinette. I also like that the rooms are somewhat seperate and that the entryway is wide open.

LAYOUT #2:

I like the idea of having the couch against the window because I could do lamps on each side. I could also create some symmetry in this workspace (with a rectangular table instead of round). I don't like the couch isn't facing the TV. Aaron will hate that! 

 LAYOUT #3:

This is similar to what we have and I don't love it. I feel like all the furniture is up against the wall and isn't that what they tell you NOT to do in design school? Who knows. It's simple and would be easy to accomplish, but it's not thrilling me! ... I do like the desk in front of the window, though!

LAYOUT #4 (the favorite):

This last one is my favorite (hence, the additional details), but I'm not sure a round table will look good in the corner by the bar. I love the idea of having something round, but my number one goal is to make that space a functional work area for Aaron!

It might seem odd to face the back of the couch toward the entry way, but I think that will create a living room, rather than having the entire space BE the living room. It would give us a place to sit on our laptops facing the TV, but we'd still have some room in the corner for a dinette. Hm. Wonder if this will really work!

So, there you have it. My obsessions in black and white, and lots of black and white inspiration! What can I say? I guess because I can't buy anything and there's no point in rearranging until we do, I'm stuck doing this kind of stuff.... I obviously can't wait to get to the stores! Just a few more weeks now!!

What do you do to prepare for a big shopping trip?

How did you configure the layout in your living space?

Sneak a Peak at our Apartment Makeover

Happy hump day friends! How was your weekend? It's been hot here in DC, but we've had plenty of rain to cool us down! We've had thunderstorms the last few nights! Good thing our place is cozying right up!

Remember my post Friday? It's really happening! We are in the middle of our apartment makeover and so far, so good! Check out these pictures of our progress:

Woa! What a difference, right?

I'm VERY happy with the color!! The room is a lot warmer and more relaxing than before! We never did notice just how yellow it was until the yellow was gone!

As you can see, purging is going great, too! Wow! What a difference!

I'm not going to lie, though... It's been somewhat difficult, trying to decide what should stay and what should go, but once it's gone, I have to admit: I'm relieved! Take these end tables, for instance, they had to go!! The knick knacks on top had to go, too. That blue thing is a snuggie!!! We NEVER use it! It's gone and I don't miss it!

It's been a process going through everything, but I am really proud of myself (and Aaron!). We've thrown out A LOT: one bookshelf, two end tables, a desk, a chair, and tons of knick knacks. Most of what is left is either a.) books or b.) papers, which we've stored in these lovely Whole Foods bags! You can see just how empty the place was before we painted:

 

I was nervous about the silver sage at first, but I tried to trust my gut. I was very decisive when I picked that paint... I saw it online and made the decision, not second-guessing myself, which is unusual!

Seeing it turn out so perfect felt great!

Having a warmer color on the walls, really makes the white base boards pop!

The biggest shock was our split second decision to get rid of the TV stand. I know a number of you commented that is very nice, but it was just so massive! It was a bit of a eye sore, too and although I was planning to refinish it, I couldn't pass up the excellent deal we found at Home Goods for a TV stand marked down from $399 to $149! The creme color was exactly what I had envisioned for the space so we went for it! I was/am thrilled with the way it looks, but it prompted a lot more purging! Our old TV stand provided A LOT of storage... Look at these huge drawers full of stuff we had to sort and organize!

My favorite thing about the *new* TV stand is that there's a place for everything! Our cable box and the play station used to sit next to the old TV stand (taking up a lot of wall space), but now everything fits snug and pretty in these little shelves! Ta da!

At this point, we're waiting for my brother to come pick up the huge brown recliner and that's going to open up the room even more! We're also trying to figure out how to get our overstuffed couch out and into storage! As soon as that stuff happens, it's my cue to fill the space with new, inspiring, functional pieces! I. CANNOT. WAIT!

In the meantime, please, feel free to share your design advice! If you haven't yet, check out my *House Makeover* Pinterest Board, too!

What did you do this weekend?

Have you ever considered painting a space to change it completely? 

Friday Favorites from Around the Web :: It's Memorial Day!

It's Memorial Day Weekend! Yahoo! Time to break out the shorts and hot pink (or teal!) nail polish!

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It's going to be an awesome weekend and great, great start to summer! Why? Because we're PAINTING our apartment TOMORROW! Double yahoo! I'm pretty sure we're going with Silver Sage by Restoration Hardware. Our place already feels a lot different with all the purging we've been doing, but I have no doubt this light blue paint is really going to bring a calm, softness to the space! You know I'm planning to post before and after pictures here on the blog, right? Have no fear! 

In other news, we're headed to a cookout at Aaron's sister's house this Sunday. She's a great host and cook and I can't wait. Have I mentioned I'm not eating meat? I don't know if it's a phase or what, but so far (it's been about 2 weeks!), I don't miss it!

I'm on chapter six in Fifty Shades of Grey - Ahh! I'm completely smitten with Mr. Grey so far, but I hear I may not always feel that way! We'll see! We were talking about the movie at work and a few of us ladies agreed Chris Hemsworth (aka The Hulk) should play Chrisitan in the movie! Those sultry eyes...... !

Who fits the your "Grey" persona in Hollywood?

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I've been ALL OVER THE WEB this week and this list should be A LOT longer, but here's what I have:

• I can't believe this DIY chandalier -- Holy Crap! I don't know if I could ever {in a million years} create something so beautiful from wax paper! This chick has a lot of other beautiful DIYs on her blog too! Explore :)

• Did you see these night stands over on Love & Renovations? Beautiful! When our living room overhaul is done, I'm definitely shifting focus to the bedroom!

• The Wedding Pickle has an awesome list of marriage books and blogs for Biblical wives for this week's Love Challenge! I can't wait to dig into these this weekend!

• How is it that I'm even more obsessed with Pinterest than I was when I first discovered it. IT. IS. A. PROBLEM. Lol. I just hit over 1,000 pins! Are you a follower yet?

• Oh my gosh! Before I forget........ I found the BEST heathly living/food blog. Check out Pickles & Honey if you get a chance! I made her Crispy Roasted Brussel Sprouts last night and they were OUT OF THIS WORLD DELICIOUS! 

Doing a complete demolition of our apartment and remaking it has me really, really excited about summer! I'm already dreaming of ladies nights and Bible studies happening in our new space, and lots of blogging too, of course!

What are your favorites from around the web? What are you doing this weekend?

PS: I'm thinking about going with this as a color scheme {grey, yellow, & blue}. It's totally different than anything I've ever done before and way different than our current brown-tan-burgandy theme... What do you think? Lots of white accents! 

What other colors go well with light blue walls? Looking forward to your feedback! 

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Pointers for Window Shopping // Our Trip to Ikea

Happy Monday lovelies! How was your weekend? Mine was great! Purging is AWESOME! The more stuff we trash, the better I feel in our space! We also went to Ikea and did some window shopping... I wanted EVERYTHING, but I showed great restraint! I followed Ms. Gina's advice to define before you design and found it very, very helpful! I thought the whole experience was so good that I pulled together a list of pointers for other window shoppers! Here it is!

Use Key Words & Mood Boards :: Before we left to go to Ikea, I printed out the Home Makeover board I created on Pinterest. At the bottom of it, I wrote out the words that I want our room to feel like when it's finished; words like "elegant, airy, white, bright, pretty." As we walked around, I referred to my paper quite a bit. I was excited when I found something that looked similar to what I had pictured and that fit the description of words. When I caught myself considering something that didn't fit, walking away from it was really easy! If you're indecisive and easily swayed like me, take the define before you design advice and add pictures! 

Our key words are elegant, bright, light, airy, and white!

Only a few things we saw actually fit this criteria.

Measure :: Make sure you know the dimensions of the space before you head out shopping. We measured the length and width of the couch we're trying to replace and having that information handy was very helpful! We kept gravitating to couches that were the same size as our current one, and since the main objective is to go smaller, we were able to eliminate a lot of our options!

Avoid Salesmen :: You don't really have to worry about this at Ikea, but at stores like Value City, the sales people flock to you! My best advice is not to run, but to politely decline their help. I usually say "We're just looking. Thank you!" I don't like to feel pressured when I'm just looking and if I have a question, I'll ask! 

Don't Get Hungry :: We walked around the Ikea showroom, sat, ate, discussed what we saw, ran through the warehouse for what we decided upon, and left... The sitting and eating part was so valuable because we had a chance to reflect and discuss what we saw, and re-fuel for round two!

Take Pictures ::  Again, I'm a person who needs time to make decisions and therefore, pictures are vital! I took tons of pictures at Ikea and Home Goods, and when I got home, I went through and erased the ones that no longer appealed to me... sometimes it's easy to get carried away snapping pictures in the store! What I'm left with is what I know I really like - having seen it, taken a picture, had the opportunity to erase that picture, and look again later!

*Most important for me* Give Yourself Time :: I usually go for stuff when Aaron's on board, but showing restraint gave me time to consider what I'd seen without added pressure, and decide what I like! Waiting to see how the space looks empty is going to help a lot, too! I think in the end this approach is going to result in us designing a space we're really sure-of, rather than one that is reflective of our impulse buys and what's on sale (our usual approach)!  

The only three couches I liked, after looking at dozens ::

White Leather Karlstad (Ikea $899)  

Medium Grey Karlstad (Ikea $499)

Colette Grey Sofa (Value City $499)

I love the last couch but Aaron reminded me, it's dark, which is true. If I picked it, I would definitely need to fill the room with accents that went with my vision for white, airy, and bright, like those awesome miniature ottomans. They make a huge difference! I also love the accent chair. Unfortunately, this entire living room set (chair + sofa + ottoman) would cost about $1,000 and that's more than we want to spend!   

It kind of reminds me of this couch on the Ikea homepage. Even though it's dark gray, the white accents make it work for me! Of course, I wouldn't have realized this - in the moment - at the store, but having had time to think about it, I realize WHY this darker set appeals to me (see the last pointer listed above!).

We both really liked this white dining room table and chairs at Ikea. The only concern is whether we'll have space for it (after the purging and painting, we'll see). It would be an awesome to have a dining room table that doubled as an office, but it wouldn't provide a lot of storage.

When we got home from Ikea, I went through the pictures in my phone and searched the Ikea website to find the stuff I saw and liked. Here's a peak at my current wish list: 

I also have quite the list to Home Goods! It's definitely another great resource for inexpensive accessories! Click the link below to see how well this stuff matches up to my inspiration board!

{Similar to this pin}

 {Similiar to this pin}                                                              

All and all, it was a very successful day. Even though we didn't buy anything, we're a lot closer to making decisions on what to include in our *new and improved* apartment during the replenish stage.

 Do you like to window shop?

What do you think of what I found?

What tips would you add to this list?

PS - Our pup is at the vet today because he was limping around last night and this morning. We think he hurt himself trying to jump up onto our bed Saturday night. Thank goodness they could keep him for the day so that I could get to work! I'm so thankful for veterinarians and those people that have dedicated their careers to helping animals! Here he is in the car on the way to vet this morning... Poor guy! Prayers are welcome :)  

 

How To Tackle An Apartment Overhaul :: It's Finally Happening

Happy Friday friends! Sorry I have been MIA! I've been pinning my heart out because we're finally, finally, FINALLY re-doing our apartment! HALLELUJAH!!

Two weeks ago when we went to Richmond for our photo shoot (that was rained out, btw!), it hit me how much I hate our apartment. Not the apartment itself, but everything in it... I feel as though I am suffocating in our apartment! I'm depressed! I'm not inspired! It's time for a change, seriously this time! The problems?

• Most of our furniture is secondhand.

• We have something on every inch of every wall;

•  and none of it is a reflection of my style.

• Most importantly, we don't have any office space.

We love our laptops and we both spend hooooours on them in the evening; but sitting on the couch with mine in my lap sucks because it gets hot! It also sucks not having a designated place for "work" or an area to collect inspiration and store papers. Making our living room double as a functional office is of the utmost importance!

Back in February we thought we were moving, but ultimately decided to stay to avoid the hassle and costs. We vowed back then (how many months ago?) to revamp the apartment. Paint it. Buy new furniture. Make it work for us... Well, no offense to my hunny-he is trying hard to make sure we save-after purchasing one big mirror and one painting for the living room, I was told I spent too much. It's been a few months now and after discussing it this week, we are both finally ready. BUT, rather than starting the process buying stuff, I formulated this plan of action:

1. PURGE :: This is the best therapy, y'all. Throw stuff away! If it isn't doing anything for you or for your space (i.e. it isn't functional or beautiful and inspiring), TOSS IT. One of the big motivators to this revamp was staying at my friend's place in Richmond. Her house is GORGEOUS. Every.single.thing is functional and there's NO nick knacks. I never thought of myself as a nick knack girl, but taking a hard look at our place upon our return, I realized, OMG I HAVE SO MANY NICK KNACKS!! Welp, I'm purging them and I have to say, every thing I've thrown out so far, has given me SO MUCH clarity and peace and satisfaction. I don't miss any of it! Purging is free, too. Imagine that, Sara! You can change your space and your environment and not even spend a dime! WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? I definitely didn't, but now I get it. I get that we can't bring stuff in until we have a clean slate. If you need to revamp your space, I suggest starting with a purge.

2. PAINT :: We've gone back and forth about whether to paint since we're in a rental and will, eventually, have to paint it back, but guess what? I'm tired of living in lazy camp!! I want to feel good in our home. I want to feel relaxed and inspired and I can't do that with manila yellow walls, sorry! We've also been looking at these walls for more than a year now and I'm a girl that likes change. I thrive on it. I need it. The walls have to be painted and I'm not wasting another day in discussion about it. What do you think of this color I picked?

Amanda Carol at Home {Restoration Hardware-Silver Sage}

I'm also conjuring up my DIY skills and planning to paint some of our furniture. We've decided to keep about THREE big items, and depending on how the paint job goes, may keep less than that. The curio, the coffee table, and the TV stand all stay. They TV stand is getting a little makeover, though! Remember this project that I mentioned back in January (yeah, SIX months ago), I'm tired of looking at it, wishing, daydreaming, and thinking I could do that! I'M DOING IT.

Turning this:  

Into this:

 Classy Clutter {How To Spray Paint Furniture}

  

3. REARRANGE & REPLENISH :: This is going to be the funniest part, y'all! Finally, finally, it will be time to rearrange and replenish the space with inspiring new pieces! I know Aaron loves his couch, but this housewife is ready for something new. I want something smaller, with clean lines, and some style! The Ikea Karlstad is a fairly inexpensive option.

I really love the white leather one with the tufted cushions! I have a thing for white!

{1/2}

I'm excited about the couch, but I'm more excited about having a work space! We both need a place to sit comfortably with our laptops and spread out our books and to-do lists! I really love this type of desk - the Ikea Expedit - because there's ample storage but, I'm not sure it's not enough surface area on the actual desk. It's also looks better suited for one, not two.

{...love Maegan}

Both of us envision a larger surface, like this:

{Bjarni B. Jacobsen/Eckmann Studio via Desire to Inspire}

I also like the idea of a t-shaped desk, like this:

{Jeff Andrews via Desire to Inspire}

Something like this would be really good, too!

{Finding Home Online}

Or, an inexpensive option would be the long double desk seen on Young Youse Love. This would provide ample storage and surface area!

{Young House Love}

Aaron also suggested putting a farm table under out from under the bar (since we never use it anyway) and that table could double as a dining room and office. I'm SO excited at the thought of dining room table!!

Anyway, I don't want to get to carried away thinking about new furniture and the layout because remember, that's the very last step! I think this approach is going to work well for us. It's going to give my hubby some time to say goodbye to his bachelor couch and get comfortable with the idea of bring a few new pieces for the house!

Here are few inspiration boards I've created to help hone in on the style I'm trying to achieve. It's definitely clean, classy, and has a lot of black and white!

And another...

I'm really excited you guys and motivated, too! I'd love for you to comment about your favorite places to shop and tips for rearranging furniture! Also, check out my Pinterest Board "House Makeover SERIOUSLY THIS TIME" to see more of my inspiration!  

Have an awesome weekend!! xo