Home Decor Update

Hi there! We're gearing up for the holiday weekend over here, and what that means for me is cleaning and organizing so Davis and I don't have to do anything not-fun for his four day weekend. But really, cleaning and especially organizing are actually pretty enjoyable for me so it's not as unfortunate as it sounds. I spent a good portion of my time yesterday dumping all of our junk drawers and boxes and figuring out how to keep them in an orderly and easy-to-find fashion.

This is what I was up against. A few hours and labels and trash bags later, the mess was gone and now we know where to find the lightbulbs! Aaaand the stapler, and Davis' Nintendo controllers. Okay, so now that the place is all shiny and clean, I thought I'd post a few pictures of how it's coming along in the furniture and decor department! We'll start with the kitchen, because I'm kind of in love with it AND it's the only room that is pretty much done. We're just a wee bit spoiled having this nice of a kitchen in our first place, but I'm definitely getting a lot of use out of it. And it's been fun finding things to decorate it with, though it didn't need much, and most of it I already had.

 The picture on the left is a Telluride Bluegrass Festival poster and the one up top we snagged from a local artist in Savannah on a college graduation trip. Perhaps what I love the most though is what I call the "texture series" above the sink.

  The frames/mounting were a gift from my BFF Katie and I filled them with photos I've taken over the years of interesting textures that I felt were worth a closer look. From left to right you have: mosaic tiles in San Fransisco, pebbles at Washington's Ruby Beach, my sweet pup Opie's hair, lush grass from Richmond, and a gum wall in San Luis Obispo, CA. They fit the space perfectly and I think really tie in the colors of the kitchen...plus who doesn't want to look at a bunch of chewed-up gum while they wash the dishes?

Ah yes, so from there we'll transition to the living room- which is really still the same room, but whatever.

So we've got our mobile kitchen island in the middle there. Right now, it's facing the wrong way because we have bar stools on the other side and since we don't have a table yet, we decided we'd rather face out than in while we eat. My bike is chillin in that little spot against the wall there and Davis keeps promising me that we'll get a double bike stand *any day now* so that our 2 bikes (one of his is getting exiled to the parking garage) can stack vertically right there and not take over the entire window on the other side of the room.

Davis clearly feels right at home surrounded by bikes but it's just not going to fly when we get a table in here, as it will be going riiight there against the window. Anyway, back to the decor in here...

I'm pretty sure the first piece of furniture we got in this room was the coffee table. Davis' delightfully design-savvy sister (whose blog can be found here) found it for us for $20 on craigslist. I've thought it was super rad from first sight but I'm not sure that it *quite* goes with the rest of our stuff now that we've gotten it all in here, but whatever. We're an eclectic bunch. And you can't beat $20 for a one-of-a-kind coffee table.

The sofa came next, a steal from World Market and kind of a desperation buy (I had 1.5 days in Portland to help Davis furnish the apartment before I headed back home for 2 months...a couch was high priority). It's a little small and slouchy but actually super comfortable so we're happy with it.

I think we spent more on the rug than any other piece of furniture in the apartment, but it was totally worth it because I'm so in love with this rug. Plus it shipped for $1 from overstock.com. Seriously, that's a bargain people. It's super soft and just the right amount of girly while not squashing Davis' desire for a man-friendly apartment OR overwhelming the space. Plus I think the creeping viney buds tie in with the drippy paint at the bottom of our rad art (which I previously discussed here). And it looks really pretty in the sunlight. And is perfect with the couch. Nuff said.

The chair was also a bit of a desperation buy from Ikea but also super cheap and surprisingly comfortable and we've grown to love it just as much as we hoped we would. Davis was feeling overwhelmed by all the grey in here (and rightly so)-- we thought an off-white chair would be perfect.

The most recent addition to the living room was our arc lamp, which I think is kind of whimsical and fun and ties in perfectly with all the colorful circles at the top of the painting. It was also seriously needed as the only lighting in this room is over the kitchen, so at night we were pretty much relying on the twinkling city lights (which are awesome in their own right, but not quite adequate). The lamp hails from Dania, which is a cute and affordable western furniture chain that we've patronized a few times already. 

Whew! That was a lot of rambling, I think I've tackled enough decor talk for one day. I'll get to the bedroom in another post, but here's a sneak peek.

So cozy! Okay folks, I'm off to enjoy this free country. Hope everyone has an awesome holiday weekend. And be safe, people!