I do an updated house tour here every two years (see: move-in, Nov 2012, Nov 2014), so seeing that it is 2016, it is time for an updated tour. It is a bittersweet one though, because after living in this apartment and making it our home for the last 5 years, I just moved to Savannah, Georgia for grad school, so this is the last house tour of our New Orleans apartment. We moved into this apartment on my 20th Birthday (May 2011) and I took these photos the day after my 25th birthday (May 2016). This 1000 sq. ft. apartment has been home and so much more than that. We moved in to this apartment as engaged college students. We planned our wedding here, spent our newlywed phase here, learned all about decorating and DIY here, graduated from college here, lived here when we both got our first real jobs, and have grown as people and as a couple so much in the time that we’ve been here. It is certainly a hard place to leave and a place we will think back on often, I’m sure, but there are great things happening and ahead as well.

I’m so happy with the changes and updates we’ve made to this home and how much I’ve discovered my style here over the last 5 years. There are still little things I would have liked to do in different rooms if we were staying even longer (get a neutral colored sofa (!!!), update to nicer rugs, replace ceiling light fixtures) and bigger things too if we owned the apartment (renovating the kitchen layout!). But I’m so happy to have had this cozy little safe place to call ours.

Foyer & Dining Room:

entry-dining-edit1

dining-2-edit1

dining-flowers-2-edit1

dining-foyer-edit1

dining-across-edit1

into-dining-edit1

dining-from-lr-edit1

dining-edit1

dining-3-edit1

foyer-shelves-edit1

foyer-shelves-3-edit1

foyer-shelves-5-edit1

foyer-shelves-6-edit1

The dining room (or foyer as we mostly call it, since when we first moved in we didn’t have a table in here) might just be my favorite room in the house. I love all the windows, especially those awesome arched ones, the church pew, the mid century modern console, the wall shelves — this whole room is probably the most representative of our “modern minimalist bohemian farmhouse” style.

Curtains are from Pottery Barn Teenplant/console table we built ourselves, wall shelving we installed ourselves, dining room table is from the Nashville flea market, rug and quatrefoil mirror are from Target, baskets on the console table shelves are from Target, dining chairs, milk glass bowl, old Reader’s Digest books, small white cabinet, mid-century modern buffet, and church pew are vintage/thrifted, black lamp was a vintage makeover, Self-Portrait woodcut is by me, paintings in the room are by me, framed engagement photos we took ourselves, the glass jar candles are from our wedding, gold plant pot is from Home Depot that I painted, crock planter is vintage from my dad, and all other plant pots are either from Lowe’s or TJ Maxx. Walls are painted Smoked Oyster by Valspar in a Satin finish.

Living room:

dining-into-living-edit1

living-2-edit1

living-edit1

look-into-living-room-edit1

lr-mardi-gras-beads-2-edit1

lr-dining-edit1

through-lr-dining-3-edit1

through-lr-dining-2-edit1

The living room, on the other hand, is probably the only room I’m sad that I didn’t get to see my complete vision through on. I’ve hated (loathed) the color of these couches since pretty much the day we bought them and the next things on my house to-do list were to update the rug in here and get a new dark grey velvet sofa or sectional. See my living room design plan/inspiration board, here.

Couch and loveseat are from Compass Furniture in New Orleans, television/media cabinet is from Target, coffee table/bench base was bought from a little shop in the French Quarter and Drew and I made the tufted top, white coffee table tray is from West Elm, wood/metal side table was originally from Target that I made-over with a wood slice from the cake stand at our weddingwhite bookcase is from IKEA, stretched quilt painting is by me, gallery wall pieces: “I love you” print hand-lettered by me, my favorite vintage photo of my grandparents, one of my first surface pattern designs (!!!), a sketch from my watercolor sketchbook, an elephant print  that reminds me of my Mamaw (she collected little elephant figurines and that print reminds me of a shirt she used to wear), “Yours Sincerely,” painting I did a few years ago, my favorite picture of my sisters/nieces/nephew that I took when we were in Puerto Rico (with a stray cat), “It Doesn’t Have to be Perfect to be Beautiful” print from The Nester, a gold skeleton key that opened my childhood bedroom door (and was the official key for our secret club), a photo I took of my childhood front yard when I was home for my Papaw’s funeral, and my final drawing for the first art class I ever took at Tulane, curtains I made from white sheets, big turquoise velvet couch pillows are from World Market, teal and patterned pillows I made from World Market cloth napkins (these and these), gold and white pillows I made from West Elm cloth napkins, black pillows from H&M, buffalo check pillow from Etsy, light blue pedestal side table from Nadeau in New Orleans, wire basket (filled with yarn on bookshelf), wooden @ symbol, and inlaid box from TJ Maxx, floor lamp is from Lowe’s, silver table lamp is from Compass Furniture (scored it for $15 with a Living Social Deal!),  8×10 area rug from Lowe’s (scored it for $15!), glass candy dish, wooden ladder and quilts are vintage/thrifted, basket (with magazines in it behind the french doors) was a wedding gift, landscape painting on the bookshelf was a wedding gift (painted my Drew’s mom’s good friend and my 8th grade teacher!), globe was mine from when I was little bought for me by my Mamaw, the chalkboard message board was from our wedding (originally from here), beads are from New Orleans Mardi Gras parades, and the abstract paintings, ceramic artichoke. and throw quilt were made by me. Wall color is Asiago by Valspar in a satin finish.

Hallway:

This hallway, right off the side of the living room, runs all the way down the house. The kitchen is the first door on the right, office/studio is the second door and then at the end of the hallway is the laundry room. At the laundry room, the hallway turns to the right with the bathroom straight ahead and our bedroom to the left.

look down hallway edit1

looking into office edit1

We didn’t really do much to this space, and it is one of the spaces I had design ideas for that just never happened. I would have loved to install board and batten down this hallway and build in bookshelves up to the ceiling in that middle section. I also think it would have looked amazing with a large hanging pendant light. But this is a rental, and priorities. We did paint it the same color as the living room: Asiago by Valspar at Lowes. It had a gallery wall of art up at one point, but after painting the walls I didn’t put the frames back up and opted for the simplicity of this one painting.

Bookcases are from IKEA, little cabinet of drawers was thrifted on a vacation in Savannah, GA, fleur-de-lis coat hook was a gift, painting is by Adam Hall, and the rug is from Urban Outfitters.

Kitchen:

look into kitchen edit1

kitchen tall edit1

kitchen edit1

cabinets edit1

kitchen 5 edit1

kitchen 3 edit1

kitchen art edit1

kitchen art side edit1

pantry edit1

Obviously it would have been crazy to do because this is a rental, but I really wanted to do a mini-kitchen renovation in here. I hate that the space could be used much more smartly! If we owned the house (or were going to live here longer and I could talk the landlord into doing/letting us do), I wanted to extend the cabinets along the window wall (where the cream colored cabinet is), moving the sink underneath the window closest to the pantry, and adding a backsplash, replacing the countertops, and re-painting the cabinets. If we were really going all out, I’d take down the upper cabinets (and rip out the soffit) and put a long, floating open shelf or two along that wall.

Kitchen rug is by Dash and Albert, black and white patterned hand towels from H&M, green utensil holder is a plant pot from Hobby Lobby, gold tray and wooden cheese board were Christmas gifts from my sister, ceramic apple and stool are from TJ Maxx, artwork above kitchen sink is a photo I took of the creek in my childhood backyard (more on that here), stitchery art is by me, most of the ceramic mugs and bowls I made, the floral measuring cup is Molly Hatch from Anthropologie, cookbook holder was a wedding gift from Target, cream colored wooden cabinet is from Nadeau in New Orleans, tall wooden cabinet is vintage/thrifted. Walls are painted Smoked Oyster by Valspar at Lowes.

Office & Studio:

look-into-office-2-edit1

desk-area-tall-edit1

office-2-edit1

cait-side-edit1

cait-side-2-edit1

office-art-edit1

long-desk-edit1

long-desk-2-edit1

inspiration-wall-edit1

bookshelves-edit1

bookshelves-3-edit1

workspace-2-edit1

workspace-4-edit1

I love my studio! I love the depth of the chalkboard wall and the double desk has been such a useful DIY and has evolved over the years we’ve lived here. It started as a desk for Drew and I to share, but he didn’t use his side very much so I eventually took it over and made one side my sewing station and the other my computer/design station. The rest of the room is a little busy, but I have so many different things I use this room for! Sewing, painting, sketching, design! The extra table is in here to use as a cutting table when cutting out fabric for my quilts. The small table I sit on the floor and use when I’m watercoloring or India ink sketching for patterns or doing calligraphy. I sit on the pillows and paint when I have a larger painting on my easel or stretched out across the floor. There are often art/crafting/sewing/DIY projects spread out all across the floor in here!

My desk chair is from Pottery Barn Teen, Drew’s wooden desk chair, easel, big ornate gold frame, crewelwork embroidery in gold frame, small brass pineapple, and brass plant pot are vintage/thrifted, baskets on the built-in shelves and the middle desk shelf are from Target, other smaller baskets on desk shelves are from Michael’s, rug is from Target, curtains I made out of sheets from TJ Maxx, pink curvy glass lamp is from Home Goods (got it on vacation years ago in Charleston, SC), standing lamp is from Target, small wooden table was thrifted years ago (it used to live in my childhood bedroom), shelves DIY built-in out of IKEA Extra-Deep Billy Bookcases, Painting Taboret is IKEA kitchen cart, elephant print on bookshelves is from this Etsy shop, Live Simply print from this Etsy shopgreen elephant piggy bank is from Urban Outfitters, glittery gold frames on wall are from Michaels, abstract paintings are by me, floral print is by Anna Maria Horner, tall painting on the sewing side of my desk was bought at an estate sale and painted by Pierce Jonassen (the mom of one of my co-workers!), “It Doesn’t Have to be Perfect to be Beautiful” print from The Nester, a taped up print-out of one of my first repeatable patterns, white ceramic turtle is from West Elm, and silver desk lamp and cutting table (my old desk) are from IKEA. Read more about my art studio inspiration wall, here. Read about how we built our desk (an IKEA hack), here). Walls are painted Grey Ghost (Olympic from Lowe’s) in a satin finish. Chalkboard wall is painted with black chalkboard paint (also Valspar from Lowe’s).

Laundry Room:

laundry room edited1

laundry 4 edit1

laundry 5 edit1

laundry prints edited1

laundry close edited1

This room is tight and stuffed, but I’m so happy to have this space!

The curtains used to hang in my freshman college dorm room (from Wal-Mart), the laundry basket is from TJ Maxx, the ironing board and cover are from Target, ladder from Lowe’s, my dad bought the washer and dryer for me (they were from a friend from our hometown that used to live in New Orleans –she was moving from New Orleans and didn’t need to take them with her), the deep freezer is from Lowe’s, the rug and the wire baskets on the shelves are from TJ Maxx, wall shelving Drew and I bought from Lowe’s, standing shelving unit is the MULIG from IKEA.

Bathroom:

small hallway edit1

bathroom edit1

bathroom 2 edit1

blue ceiling edit1

sink side 2 edit1

with painting edit1

hanging plant edit1

sink side futher out edit1

Rug from World Market, hand towel from TJ Maxx, abstract painting by me, old books are thrifted, candles from our wedding, frames from Michael’s and spray painted gold, striped Turkish towels from Loomed NOLA, shower curtain made by me from a sheet, houses plant pot is vintage, and hanging plant pot is from H&M and macrame holder is from Etsy. Ceiling is painted Mint Whisper by Valspar at Lowe’s. 

Small hallway right outside the bathroom is painted Semi-Sweet by Valspar in a satin finish and top art is thrifted, bottom is by me.

Bedroom:

look in lights1

whole  bed1

whole bed 21

bed wall1

cait side1

cait side 21

cait nightstand 31

cait nightstand 4 minus label1

i love you pillow 21

bed vi lights 21

whole bed dresser side1

vi sleeping dresser1

dresser and art1

dresser 21

dresser styled1

chair 21

Our bedroom is the room in this house that took the longest to come together. But finally we ended up with a room that feels like us. I love the black, white, and gold and all the subtle patterns! That black and gold geometric accent wall is such a showstopper and was actually really easy and simple to do! More on this room, here.

Headboard wall is painted Semi-Sweet (by Valspar at Lowes) and geometric pattern was hand painted with a gold Sharpie paint pen. The rest of the walls in here are painted Grey Ghost (by Olympic at Lowes). Bedding is a mixture of Target, HomeGoods, and West Elm’s Jacquard Leaf Duvet Cover and Shams. The “I Love You” pillow I made out of fabric I ordered in a design of mine (that’s my handwriting!). Headboard we made from an old door (see here and here), cream curtains from the pergola at our wedding (originally from Target) and white ones are from IKEA, rug and black pharmacy-style floor lamp from Target, dresser was Drew’s childhood dresser that we refinished, gold pharmacy lamps are from HomeGoods, gold I LOVE YOU banner is from Target, floral painting is by Lulie Wallace, girl with flowers print is by Raven Roxanne, geometric canister is from Hobby Lobby, ceramic dishes were made by my ceramics teacher in college – Sarah House, pink chair is from World Market, geometric pillow is from H&M, jewelry stand, white elephant, and black and white inlaid box were all Christmas gifts from my sister, shelving is the IKEA Expedit, copper twinkle lights are from Amazon, nightstands are vintage, art above Drew’s nightstand is by Emily McDowell, art above mine is a handwritten note from Drew. 🙂

———————————————————————–

So happy to have called this sweet place home for the last five+ years!

bedroom design

Over a year ago, I posted this inspiration board for our bedroom:

bedroom inspiration board.inddAnd finally, our bedroom is starting to feel the way I want it to! Pretty and relaxing, soft, but with some contrast. I love black, white, and gold with pops of jewel-toned colors. (see the before, hereI think it could still use some quirky accessories and some more patterned textiles, but I thought it was finally time for an update:

look in lights1

whole bed1

whole bed 21

bed wall1

cait side1

cait side 21

cait nightstand 31

cait nightstand 4 minus label1

i love you pillow 21

bed vi lights 21

whole bed dresser side1

vi sleeping dresser1

dresser and art1

dresser 21

dresser styled1

chair 21

Last December we painted the headboard wall Semi-Sweet (by Valspar at Lowes), the same color as the small hallway outside our bedroom that connects it to the bathroom. Then I hand painted the geometric pattern with a gold Sharpie paint pen (and a ruler and level!). It was really quick and easy actually! I followed this tutorial by Mandi at Vintage Revivals. The rest of the walls in here are painted Grey Ghost (by Olympic at Lowes).

We finally updated our nightstands with super simple ones we found on Craigslist for $30 (total for both!). We had mis-matched ones for years in here while I was searching for the right ones (this is a small space for them to fit in and they had to be short enough to fit under the headboard overhang). I really, really wanted these ones. For the longest time they were out of stock. When they did finally come back in stock, I couldn’t justify spending $230 a piece plus shipping for them. I was hoping they would go on sale, but they didn’t and I got tired of waiting (although it looks like they are finally on sale now — a year later!). I stalked Craigslist like crazy to find anything that would be a suitable replacement for the odd and mis-matched ones we had, until I found these. They are real wood and a great size for our small bedroom. Ideally they would have a drawer and be a little deeper, but for the price I’m not complaining. Drew has a basket on his shelf and I have that black and white inlaid box on mine to take the place of a drawer, which is working out just fine.

We also got new bedding. I’d been eyeing West Elm’s Jacquard Leaf Duvet Cover and Shams for a while (you know me and quatrefoils!) and I finally got them last summer on sale. I really loved the Onyx color (black) but the contrast was a tan/cream color, not white. So I went with the Flax/White ones. I’d also been eyeing those plus sheets from Target for a while and I ended up waiting too long to buy them and they were sold out of a queen size. I bought the only size they had left (on sale) – a California King set. The pillows and flat sheet work just fine (I’ll probably trim the sheet eventually, but I actually like that it hangs over the bed farther than a queen), but the fitted sheet is obviously way too big. We are just using a plain white fitted sheet for now. The “I Love You” pillow I made out of fabric I ordered in a design of mine. That’s my handwriting!

I would like to replace the curtains with simple white ones (the current white ones are too short and the cream ones are too long and too yellow). I bought some plain white sheets to make into curtains for in here (I need 6 panels!), but I haven’t gotten around to making them. I would also like to eventually layer in some more block printed textiles to the bedding – either adding some more of my patterns or some of Kerry Cassill’s block printed textiles. I love our white mattelasse/coverlet, but I would really like one in a bigger King size. I like having it drop farther over the side of the bed (and Drew is less likely to pull the covers off of me in the middle of the night!). We also really need a new bed skirt – ours is ripped on one side! I could also see adding a different rug (fluffy and soft Moroccan? flat weave patterned? vintage kilim?) and maybe a simple upholstered headboard. I’m happy for now with how far this room has come!

Headboard we made from an old door (see here and here), dresser was Drew’s childhood dresser that we refinished, gold pharmacy lamps are from HomeGoods, gold I LOVE YOU banner is from Target, floral painting is by Lulie Wallace, girl with flowers print is by Raven Roxanne, geometric canister is from Hobby Lobby, ceramic dishes were made by my ceramics teacher in college – Sarah House, pink chair is from World Market, geometric pillow is from H&M, black floor lamp is from Target, jewelry stand, white elephant, and black and white inlaid box were all Christmas gifts from my sister, shelving is the IKEA Expedit, sheets are from Target, duvet and shams are from West Elm, copper twinkle lights are from Amazon, nightstands are vintage, art above Drew’s nightstand is by Emily McDowell, art above mine is a handwritten note from Drew. 🙂

kitchen creek photo edit1

Last week I switched out the art print that was above our kitchen sink for this photo I look last May (with my iPhone!) of one of my favorite places in the entire world — the creek in my parent’s backyard in Southern Illinois. I liked the print that was there, but after over 4 years of seeing it daily, I was ready for an update (see the old print and some old pictures of our kitchen, here). I was inspired to change it up after seeing this photo of Jess Lively‘s kitchen on Instagram, here. I just love the simple, but sophisticated feel of her kitchen.

I just started working through the 52 Lists Project journal (which I’m really loving, by the way) and List 3 is “List the happiest moments of your life so far.” I had initially put this list off, because what a big question to answer. But last night as I was thinking about it, the first moments that came to mind were of my childhood in this magical creek. It was my favorite place on earth, one that I retreated to when I was stressed or just needed a bit of peace and calm. I waded through this creek with my little sisters, Kelsey and Jill, my childhood best friend Molly, and our neighbor Michelle. In the winter when it got cold and snowy and the top of the creek froze over, we would push each other down it in our sled. We had a “Tarzan vine” for swinging back and forth from one bank to the other and it was in these woods that we climbed lots of trees and made forts and played “house.” We dressed up in play clothes and played “Little House in the Big Woods” and drank water from the natural spring that fills this creek. Molly and I walked barefoot through it at all times of the year, even when it was cold outside and especially when it started to warm up and we probably should have been more scared of water moccasins. We even dared each other to skinny dip in the deepest part of it (which to my knowledge, she is the only one that ever followed through on. Sorry for outing you publicly, Mol. 😉 Looking back, I wish I’d had more of your bravery.). I fished for crawdads with my brother Blake there too. I’m a fifth generation Wallace to live on that land, so I even imagine my Papaw playing in this creek as a boy, or my great-grandmother out there in her dress and apron picking blackberries (see the bottom of this post).

I love that having this photo hanging in my kitchen reminds me of all those memories every time I see it. It brings me so much joy.

What can you add to your home that brings you such simple and magical joy as this?

—–

Magical: beautiful or delightful in such a way as to seem removed from everyday life – extraordinary, remarkable, exceptional, outstanding, incredible, phenomenal, unbelievable, amazing, astonishing, astounding, stunning, staggering, marvelous, magnificent, wonderful, sensational, breathtaking, miraculous. 

Joy: a feeling of great pleasure and happiness – delight, great pleasure, joyfulness, jubilation, triumph, exultation, rejoicing, happiness, gladness, glee, exhilaration, exuberance, elation, euphoria, bliss, ecstasy, rapture.

—–

Merry Christmas from The Rowlands!

Here are our Christmas Cards from this year:
christmas cards color edit1

It is subtle, but the back has one of my patterns on it! The front also includes my own hand-lettering, as has become a tradition.

Print

It took a lot of tries to get Violet looking at the camera. Here was another good option, but the composition didn’t fit the front of the card as well:

christmas1

I love having them taped up from each year since we’ve been married:

4 years christmas cards color edit1

Along with the rest of our Christmas cards:

tree and door with cards color edit1

We had gotten several more since I took most of these photos, so here is another with more cards filled in:

tree and door with cards 2 color edit1

The rest of the room: (P.S. I LOVE having those doors painted black instead of the red they were when we moved in!)

living room decor color edit1

dining room tree 2 color edit1

dining room tree color edit1

Our tree includes Mardi Gras beads that we’ve caught at Mardi Gras parades here in New Orleans and silver, gold, and colorful ornaments that I’ve acquired over the last few years. I made the crochet snowflake ornaments last year. I love mixing regular Christmas lights in with some bigger round bulbs to give the lights more interest.

tree 2 color edit1

tree lr color edit1

The black and white buffalo check ribbon was an addition this year. I’m obsessed with black and white buffalo check lately! (you can see I have a pillow on the couch in it too!)

tree close 5 color edit1

This year I also painted some abstract ornaments as well.

paintedornaments1

I love the way these came out!

tree close painted ornament color edit1

tree close 6 color edit1

tree close 3 color edit1

violet and presents color edit1

This year I also made some custom gift tags using the same theme as our Christmas cards. I love these!

custom tags color edit1

I made this bowl vase in my ceramics studio I’ve been taking this year. Love using it to hold candy canes.

ceramics candy canes color edit1

Perhaps my favorite part of our decor this year though, is having these shelves in the foyer to decorate:

nativity shelves far color edit1

I hung some glittery gold snowflakes from the shelves, added my favorite “O Holy Night” print by Lindsay Letters, and put up a simple white nativity scene that was given to me when we were cleaning out the SCAPC office for our renovation last summer.

nativity shelves color edit1

Love the reflection of the tree in this mirror:

tree reflection 2 color edit1

Past Christmas Posts:

Merry Christmas 2010! (the Christmas we got engaged) and Christmas Eve that year

Christmas Shortbread Cookies (from before I was Gluten-free)

Christmas Decorating 2011 (our first year in this apartment)

Doily Christmas Wrapping

Rowland Family Christmas Card 2012

Rowland Family Christmas Card 2013

Christmas Decor 2013

Scenes from Christmas 2013

Christmas Memories, Heartache, and Peace

Crochet Snowflake Ornaments

Christmas Cards & Decor 2014

 

In the 5 years that I’ve been blogging, I’ve put together a couple of inspiration boards for rooms in our house (bathroom, bedroom) but I’ve never pulled individual items together into a mood board like many home bloggers do until now (shocking I know!). I’ve had a vision for our living room for a while and it is about as close as it can get until I invest in a new rug and sofa like I want. Those are both expensive purchases, so they likely won’t happen soon (not until we finish paying off Drew’s student loans), but a girl can dream, right?

For several years I’ve wanted a charcoal grey velvet English roll arm corner sectional sofa (this is the one pictured below). I’ve also wanted a vintage kilim rug. Last week I stumbled across the Mirabelle Rug in Grey and Teal from Lulu & Georgia (not vintage, but so beautiful) and I loved the colors in it. Dark enough to hide stains, colorful enough, but still relatively neutral. All the bright colored ones are so pretty, but I like big pieces (and expensive ones!) to be a little more neutral so that I tire of them less easily and can switch accessories around while still keeping the same base pieces. I just had to see what it would look like with the other things I’d envisioned for the room.

living room design plan crop1

I LOVE it so much! The rug and my dream sofa go together so well! The art, wood/metal side table, gold and white and teal pillows, paint color (Asiago by Valspar), wooden floors, white trim, similar lamp and white curtains are already in our house. Eventually I would like to upgrade our basic black TV stand to a mid century modern wooden dresser (like the one in our foyer/dining room). I’m also crushing on black and white buffalo check and leather Moroccan floor poufs, so those would be nice additions as well. One day!

See more inspiration for our home on my “For Our Apartment” Pinterest board.

Drew and I seem to get more house projects done in the summer than any other time of the year (last summer we painted the living room, foyer, french doors, little hallway, and built a living room ottoman/bench (more about those here). This year we’ve painted the long hallway and kitchen, made over a side table, added some homemade pillows, and the project below). I’m not sure why, considering summer is always sweltering in NOLA. Maybe it is the longer daylight hours and general sense of excitement that summer brings? But, I’m not complaining! We’ve recently done a couple things in the foyer/dining room that were long overdue. Now it’s become one of our favorite rooms in the house!

pew with cat 2 color edit1

I’ve wanted a church pew for bench seating for our dining room for a long time. New Orleans doesn’t really seem to have an abundance of old church pews though. I’d looked and looked on Craigslist with no luck. But earlier this summer, my older sister, Blair, who lives in Nashville, TN, called me one day saying that her babysitter was selling one. She went to look at it and the dimensions were exactly what I was looking for! She bought it for me and stored it at her house until Memorial Day when she brought it to my hometown in Illinois for my dad to store until he had time to bring it to New Orleans for me. When Drew and I were visiting family over Memorial Day we got to see it for the first time and it was in a little rougher shape than I originally thought. All the transporting had broken the bottom of one of its legs and the seat was a little wobbly. My dad took it to a guy to have the leg fixed, seat reinforced, and he also sanded it down for me (the original finish was dirty and dingy –I think it had been left outside for a little bit and had some moisture damage).

pew closer 2 color edit1

It still needs a little love, and I’ll eventually put a little more work into it and then probably seal it. But for now, I love it! Such a cozy spot in there now.

cat 6 color edit1

Violet definitely approves of her new sunny napping spot! I wish I knew more about its history. I only know it came out of an old church in Nashville. I love having pieces with old stories in our home.

shelving side color edit1

Our second new piece of furniture is this lovely 1960’s mid-century modern china cabinet base. It also has quite the story! I’d been searching for a dresser like this for in here for a long time. We needed storage for our bar items and some overflow from the kitchen (cloth napkins for dinner, etc..) as well as Drew wanted a place to put the record player and store his records. New Orleans is also quite lacking in mid-century pieces, but I’d still been stalking Craigslist with no luck. Then on Facebook one day, a friend of mine from Southern Illinois posted a photo of this one that she’d seen and loved at a local antiques shop, but didn’t have a place for. I immediately texted my little sisters begging them to go find it for me. They both had to work, but a couple days later, right as I was getting ready to board a plane to NYC for my fabric design workshop, Jill called me and said she was on her way over there to look for it. When I landed in New York I had several text messages waiting for me, including a receipt of the deposit she’d made on it for me (yay Jilli!). She even talked them down in price for me and I got it for a steal! (double yay!)

shelving tall from living room color edit1

Once I was back from NYC, I called and paid for it over the phone, then my dad went over and picked it up for me. It worked out perfectly that he already needed to bring me my church pew, so he was able to bring this down too in the same trip. I waited most of the summer for them, but he finally brought them down a couple weekends ago. It is so perfect for what we needed and in amazing shape. The side cabinets are perfect for storing records!

shelving color edit1

Finally having the dresser in place spurred on the next project I’d been wanting to tackle in here for a while — wall shelving! With all the horizontal surfaces in here (dresser, table, console table, side table) all at close to the same height, we really needed something with some height in here to balance everything else out.

view into foyer dining color edit1

These shelves make such great use of otherwise mostly wasted space in our house. Actually this wall is the least shown view of our house on my blog! I don’t think I’ve posted a picture of this wall for several years since Drew’s old desk used to live here. The last couple years it has been a mostly empty space or a storage space for supplies of whatever project we were working on at the time. I LOVE it now!

shelving 2 color edit1

I love that it provides a place for barware/glass storage, plants (that Violet kept getting into elsewhere), art, etc… I’ve been wanting to create a welcoming entry area in our home for years and this area with the mirror is finally getting us there! I can’t decide if I want to also hang a couple coat hooks up here as well. The top shelves especially could use a little more styling. I’m thinking of putting a big fern or something up there. We also need more lighting in this area of the room, so maybe a hanging lamp as well?

shelving tall color edit1

The rails, brackets, and wood are all from Lowe’s. The rails and brackets were originally white and we spray painted them oil-rubbed bronze. They are screwed into studs, so they aren’t going anywhere! This is actually probably the most secure thing that we’ve ever put on the walls in our house! Sidenote: we also figured out the best way to find studs in old homes with plaster walls! Find an outlet on the wall (there is one behind where the dresser is) and drill a screw into either side of it to see if it hits a stud. Electrical boxes for outlets are pretty much always attached to a stud. Once you find one, measure 16 inches over in either direction and you should find all the studs. (We did have to drill several holes in the wall to accomplish this. We did it close to the bottom of the wall though and I actually forgot about even filling them in. No one can see them with the dresser there.) With plaster walls like this, there is wooden slatting behind the walls, so using an electric stud finder never worked for us. This electric box and measure trick worked like a charm though! These railing systems are pretty inexpensive for the impact they make! I plan on eventually staining the shelves a light honey color, but wanted to live with them as is for a bit while I made up my mind for sure. At first I was worried about having too much wood in the room already, but I don’t think I really want to paint them either (there is a lot of white in here too with the door and trim and blinds). So I’m going to do a lighter tone than the rest of the wood surfaces in here, but something that isn’t as stark as raw wood.

looking into foyer dining from lr 2 color edit1

So there you have it! A full view of our entire foyer/dining room area. I just love how “us” this room feels now!

P.S. Did you see how many pictures Violet made it into? That pillow on the console table is her “perch” and she loves it up there. Easily spends half her day or more there.

Isn’t it amazing how sometimes you put off something for so long that in the end only takes you a short amount of time to actually do? That has been the case with painting rooms in our house. When we moved into our apartment four years ago, every single room in our house (except the bathroom and laundry room) were painted the same exact sunburned flesh color. I hated it. It was the worst orange-red muted shade of tan (in a flat finish!). But for the longest time I didn’t change it. I kept telling myself that it was just a rental, that we didn’t need to spend the money on it.

But there isn’t really anything good about telling yourself the “someday” mindset. What is the point in only ever living for “someday?” The fact is that the “someday” when we have a house of our own could be a really long way away. Who knows. I don’t want to live my life waiting on the future. They are only painted walls for goodness sake!

So the last couple years we have worked on getting rid of those ugly walls and making this apartment our own. I’m happy to say that as of this weekend, every single sunburned-flesh-orange-red-muted-tan wall color is GONE from this house!! (See the before pictures, here).
hallway further color edit1

The silly thing about it is, I would sit on the couch in the living room, staring down this hallway, just hating the previous color. I don’t know how much time exactly I spent hating it, but you know how long it took us to re-paint it? 2 hours. Only 2 HOURS to cover up something I spent YEARS hating!

hallway color edit1

violet1

Violet approves.

look into kitchen 2 color edit1

kitchen2 color edit1

kitchen sink area 2 color edit1

We don’t want our small apartment to be a rainbow of different colors, so we painted the hallway the same creamy white color of the living room (Asiago by Valspar in a Satin finish) and the kitchen the same taupey gray of the foyer/dining room (Smoked Oyster by Valspar in a Satin finish).

I still can’t believe that it took us so little time (2 hours per room) to get rid of something I spent years hating. What have you been putting off in your life that won’t actually take very long to finish? Get on it!

 

This weekend, I finally finished up a simple little project that had been on my to-do list for a long time. Making over this side table with a little bit of spray paint and the wooden stump cake stand from our wedding.

beforeafter

I bought this table on clearance at Target for $10 a couple years ago. I love having it in the living room, as it is super convenient to pull over to set my laptop on or whatever while I’m working from the couch. However, the style could’ve fit in better with our decor and I didn’t love the cheap laminate top.

If you remember from our wedding (three years ago!), I bought this thick wooden tree slice to use as our cake stand.

cakestand1

Since our wedding, it has just been sitting around our house with no real purpose. I didn’t want to throw it out, but I didn’t have a good use for it as is. So when we went back to our hometown a few weeks ago, I brought it with us, in hopes that someone we knew with a chainsaw could cut it up for me into more usable pieces.

I was over at my friend Tonya’s house chatting with her and her mom, when I remembered that her brother, Tyler, had cut several wood slices for Tonya for her wedding. The cake stand just so happened to still be in my car and her brother agreed to cut it down for me. He even cut it into three slices, so I have other pieces that I can use in the future for other projects. (Thanks Tyler!!)

tylercutting1

Tonya also helped me scrape off some of the bark that was falling off. (You are the best Tonya!!)

tonyascraping1

Then once we got back to New Orleans, I sanded down the wood top (no one wants to get splinters from your side table!) and added three coats of satin finish polyurethane, while Drew lightly sanded and spray painted the base with oil-rubbed bronze spray paint.

It really takes a village sometimes!

lr with black wood table1

I love how it turned out! I think the wood and black combo make it look a lot more sophisticated and fit in a lot better with our style. I love the thicker top and that I was able to use something with sentimental meaning!

This weekend I finally finished a project (in under an hour) that I’d been talking about for the last 6 months! If you remember from several of my previous “Life Right Now” posts, I’d mentioned buying these cloth napkins from West Elm:

cloth napkins1

They are beautiful as napkins, but I had plans to use them to make pillowcases for throw pillows in my living room. I bought them last Thanksgiving, seam ripped out the seams, washed them, and then they sat for months just waiting for me to iron them and sew into pillowcases. The hold up was with pillow forms. All the pillows that we had in the living room had poly-fill inserts. Poly-fill inserts are cheap, but over time they get flat and I feel like in general they just don’t look as nice. For these, I wanted to use down/feather pillow inserts. They are more plush, cooler to the touch, and hold their shape better (you can also give them the “chopped” look if you are into that). I found some in the size I wanted on Amazon, but when I ordered them, they sent me the wrong size. I had to return those and when I went to buy more, the price had gone up. Eventually I ended up buying some from a different seller at a great price for two 22″ pillow forms (these ones at $35 for two).

couch pillows1

I just love how they turned out! I love the bit of shimmer the gold sparkle adds and the way that it ties in with the gold frames on the wall. They even look fine with our green couches (that will hopefully one day be replaced with something more neutral).

couch with pillows1

With these, I sewed a zipper in the bottom so that I can easily change them out or wash them. I wish I’d done that with those patterned teal ones I made. It was quicker to sew in the zipper than it was to hand sew that opening shut and so much more convenient! (here is an easy tutorial if you don’t know how to sew in a zipper).

You could buy enough fabric to make these for the same price or cheaper than the cloth napkins, but this is a great option if you come across a napkin fabric that you really like! Love these!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, then you might know that our bedroom décor has always been the thorn in my side of our house. It has just never been what I’ve wanted it to be, despite many small changes here and there (I will give it credit and say that it has come a long way from where it started…). It is a small room with great natural light, but the wall color has always been wrong, the bedding has never felt put together enough, I’ve been searching for the right nightstands for years, the headboard is too long for the bed, and I’ve yet to get the curtains where I want them. I do love Drew’s dresser and our gold pharmacy style lamps though.

I’ve had some ideas of what I wanted to do in here for a while (neutrals with black and white and pops of color, mixed patterns in the bedding, open wooden nightstands with a drawer, simple, breezy white curtains…) and it is simply time to make it happen. One of the best ways to get a clearer picture of where to head with a room is to go back over your Pinterest boards and look at images of rooms that you’ve pinned. You are guaranteed to find a pattern across the images when you look at them together. I think this is one of the best ways to really visually see your style emerge.

bedroom inspiration board.indd

For me, that means a room with neutral bones (neutral walls, flooring, headboard, furniture), different scales of patterns (geometric, organic, florals), and both soft and deep jewel toned colors (plum, teal, mint, raspberry, lavender) in places that can easily be swapped out when I want a change. I also love deep, dark caramel wood tones and gold and black hardware.

I already knew all those things of course (look at the rest of my house and my style in general), but it always helps to see other rooms that fit within your style and what you like/don’t like about them.

So what is on the to-do list for this room?

  • Nightstands (after over four years of searching, I finally found and ordered ones I loved, but unfortunately they ended up being out of stock and it just wasn’t updated online! I was so sad when I got that order cancellation e-mail! Back to the drawing board.)
  • Curtains (simple, breezy, white)
  • Bedding (I love Kerry Cassill’s block printed textiles and I’ve been eyeing that West Elm duvet for years! I really want to design my own patterns and have them printed on fabric for some of the bedding though!)

Those are the main areas I want to address, but there are also a few things on the “maybe” list:

  • New rug? The one we have is fine and neutral, so I might not change it, but it is a little too small and I like the idea of the rug adding in some extra pattern.
  • Paint the walls? (for the 3rd time…) When we moved in, the walls were a tan color with reddish/orange undertones. I hated it. So we painted it what I thought would be a nice creamy white, but it turned out too yellow. Finally last summer I got tired of the pale yellow, so we painted it a warm grey color that we already had the paint for (it is the same color as the office/studio). It is definitely an improvement, and I’m glad we tried to use what we had, but the color reads totally different than it does in the office and looks too blue in the bedroom. I really want it to be a nice creamy white (like our living room color). But I want to see if changing up the bedding and curtains makes me like the current color more.
  • New headboard? I do love the history in our DIY old door headboard, and it has gotten a couple makeovers over the years to help me like it more, but it drives me crazy that it is too long for our bed. It sticks out like 8 inches or so on each side. It is heavy and is attached well to the bed, but it does move/shake around a little when you get into bed or move around. I would really love something that is upholstered and is softer on my head when I sit in bed to read. (also see next point)
  • New layout? Our room is tiny, so there isn’t a lot of room for re-arranging, but lately I’ve been wondering what the bed would look like centered under the windows on the back wall. I think it could look great, but our current headboard is too high and covers up way too much of the window to make it work. I might try this layout if we decide to switch the headboard.

I’m excited to finally have a relaxing retreat in our home that I love! Stay tuned for the progress!

P.S. Click here to see what the bedroom currently looks like.

All images used in the design board above can be found, with sources, on my “for our apartment” Pinterest board. If you can’t find something you are looking for, let me know in the comments below.