Design Dilemma

Hello lovely blog readers!

On Thursday, I shared our living room in its current state.  I recently sewed new pillow covers & recovered the ottoman but unfortunately that didn’t quite transform the room in the way I hoped it would!  So now I’m sharing my “long wall dilemma” with you in the hopes that your awesome thoughts and idea will help me figure out how to make this room a little happier!

 

As you can see, I pointed out some of the issues I have identified in the room.  I think the biggest one is what to do with the wall behind the sofa!  I can’t move the furniture much, as the TV is in the only spot it can be & well we like to watch TV!  Here’s a {reverse} floor plan of what our apartment looks like.  The sofa is on the living room wall across from the kitchen & the TV is on the wall between the balcony door & the dining room.

So now I hand it over to you.  What changes would you make in the room?  I would really appreciate budget conscious suggestions, but I’d also love to hear what you would do with a more substantial budget!  Can’t wait to hear all your awesome ideas!

 

Master Bedroom Progress

Last week I shared the new knobs we added to the dresser in the Master Bedroom & also gave you a sneak peek of our new curtains.  Today, I am back to show you the room with the new curtains & a few pieces of art added to the window wall.

The curtains are very bright, but in the last week or so, they’ve grown on me. I love the punch of color they bring into the room!  This week I’ve paired them with our new navy and white stripe duvet. (Don’t hate me when I tell you I scored that West Elm beauty for just $9.99!)  I’ve also added some bright green pillows that have been kicked out of the living room & our teal chevron pillows.

After art-hanging paralysis (or should I call it art re-hanging paralysis), I’ve finally figured out an arrangement that I like!  I realized that I like my gallery walls to be super simple & symmetric, so that’s what I went with.  The four pieces on the left are done.  Clearly, the four on the right need some more work.  I want to transform the two white canvases using this technique to add some more black & white art.  I’m still undecided as to what art to add into the far right frames, so for know I popped some pieces of art we already owned in the frames.  I’m thinking some more bright color though!  (Oh and Miss. Photobomb was trying to get back into bed & away from the cold in this picture).

There is still a lot of projects left to do in this room, but it’s starting to make sense to me. Young House Love really hit the nail on the head when they said “the middle makes no sense“!

Next up; art for over the bed and/or some paint on the nightstands.  What were you up to this long/inauguration weekend?

Christmas Corner: Framed Lyrics

 

I love Christmas music & have been known to start listening to it well before Thanksgiving.  Don’t worry, I don’t subject others to it!  I had been wanting to print and frame some Christmas-related song lyrics, but I had two constraints; 1. I wanted to spend as little as possible, and 2. I wanted it to work in horizontal frames.

I loved Landee See, Landee Do’s Christmas printables (available on her website in a variety of sizes) but they wouldn’t work in my frames. (Maybe next year?)

Then I found Nest of Posies‘ 5 free chalkboard printables & immediately downloaded all of them.  Aren’t they darling?

I printed out two of my favorites and played around with framing them, using some white and red stripe wrapping paper as the backdrop.  I loved the look, but now I needed to find something to put in the other frame.

So I did what any self-respecting blogger would do, I searched “chalkboard printable” on Pinterest and found Second Chance to Dream‘s Silent Night printable done in the same style as Nest of Posies’ print!

I went back to my other printables and picked another favorite – all with Christmas song lyrics on them & framed my two new printable in the same way as the other two.  Ta da!  Instant Christmas corner art for pennies!What do you think?  I love the black, white and red color scheme & I love that after Christmas I can easily change the pictures out for something else.