living room wishlist!!

since there are only a couple of months until we start looking for a new apartment, i have already begun pulling together ideas and purchases for our new living room.

aside from being a seamstress and putting together fabric and colors that way, you probably have already figured out that i am in love with home decor as well. i like a good challenge, like a puzzle-- fitting furniture and pieces and colors and textures together to make a comfortable whole. my boyfriend also has good taste, but for the most part lets me decorate however i want. he likes black and white decor, and since he's a drummer he's a bit of a rockstar himself ;) i really want our new living room to fit both of our styles (not to mention i would like it to be the total opposite of our bedroom, which is more bohemian in style and color) -- we like bold prints, bright colors, but i tend to like a more minimalist approach when i can (and can clean out the clutter ;)). he likes sleek lines (on his way to his engineering degree, no less..), and i love pattern. the room that we have now is okay but not exactly what i'm going for- i have some serious ideas.

here is what we've got going on right now:
(our newly reupholstered black and white chair!)


i recently redid the Expedit shelf to hold our books, with color coordinated books on the front and the remainder of the books (and our boxes of dvds, cds, and photos) on the back side. [pardon the terrible photos, it was dark out! bleh.]



the main thing we want to get is a new sofa, since the one we have is an old handmedown; and even though i love it, it just isn't pretty and is saggy and so extremely heavy that we hate moving it (its a fold out!)... ikea has a sofa that we'd like to sit on next time we're there and see if it is worth the money:


as you can probably tell, i love the glam look of black and white damask and artwork prints (and the ottoman, mantle decorations, and the white coffee table.. it goes on and on). since we are in a very tiny space (half of the living room is my sewing room), it works well. but i know that once we actually have a whole room instead of half of a room, we'll want to spread out a bit. my idea is to keep a lot of the black and white, but incorporate a bit of pop art/ art deco inspired artwork and fabrics into the mix, to keep it bright and bold. i think with that new black sofa, we'll really have free rein on decorating!

obviously since we haven't found a place yet, i don't know anything about what our wall layout/situation will be.. but i am hoping that i can do an art wall, pretty much from the ceiling downwards, similar in style to these, with all of the different prints and frames collaged together:




i recently purchased some prints to mix in with those you see in my photo up above (with all of our framed black and white photos/prints)-- the ones we have already range in size (framed) from 11x14" to 16x24", so i wanted to find some smaller prints, and also a couple of larger ones.
from a shop on etsy, all 5x5":




i'll be getting just simple white frames at Ikea, no matting.

i also ordered two larger prints to help bring in the pop art feel:
24x31" (for me):

28x35" (for the boyfriend ;)):


i have my eyes on a couple of other prints on etsy, that i am excited to hopefully order, too (they are medium sized prints):


yessssssssss, joan jetttttttt! <3

and of course, some new pillows will be necessary. i always cover my own pillows, which tends to be a pretty easy afternoon project, so i'm looking forward to recovering a couple that we already have, as well as making a few new ones to go alongside some of the black and white damask. (that ikea sofa is almost seven feet long, so we'll need some more pillows ;))
i ordered this awesome fabric from thailand:

and would love to get some of this as well:



but i also have my eye on this pillow on etsy, that is made from an old ship sail! ahh! i want it so badly!:

i can't decide which color i'd get, but i know i can't afford both ;)

and these!!! from lama designs:



and then of course, alongside the sofa, there are all of the obligatory items from ikea...
like a new rug (4x6'):

and some other odds and ends:



(i LOVE that frame.. and they were sold out last time i went...booo.)

also, recently at work (in the OR), i acquired an old cart.. and after much washing and cleaning (hahah...ew.), it will end up as an end table in our living room! i love it, even though my boyfriend thinks its sort of weird. i love the quirky weirdness of having a piece of medical equipment as furniture! its a bit tall, so it will be interesting to find a good spot for it! i'm thinking it will be fabulous with a small lamp, pencil jar, a vase or two, some magazines, maybe a couple of folded blankets on the bottom shelf...

right now its just holding junk ;)

so, it feels good to have all of this clumped together in one post and look at it all at once.. since i've been trying to pull ideas from all over the place... i think its going to end up being really fun to put it all together; and hopefully it will end up as i want it to.. i really just want a fun but glam/rock and roll living room. functional but stylish. bright and bold, but still minimal. and i think having a new sofa (not to mention a totally new apartment) will make me feel a lot better!

new!

new in the my shop... a funky and glam pillow made from japanese imported Echino fabrics!

it was really fun to make, with the flappy border and swirly stitching!

mantle redo, diy.

[click to see all photos larger!]
well, i have been inspired by this photo, for some time now:

and decided that i could maybe try something SORT OF like that. i say sort of, because who could ever find frames that odd size to mimic the wainscoating? and i certainly was not up for the task of making my own, for a low budget diy project this weekend... so. i had one 24x36" frame already up on my mantle, which housed an inexpensive black and white poster that was simply filling space. i went out and bought a second 24x36" frame, and a roll of wrapping paper from Border's, which i had seen numerous times and always thought to myself, "i want to wrap gifts in that," but never remembered to purchase. until yesterday. (the wrap, by the way, is plain white paper with black FUZZY(!!!) flowers. since the wrap was 6.5 feet by 27", it proved absolutely perfect with none to spare for this project! i think 3 frames would have been better, maybe more balanced, but the mantle is only big enough for 2....

here is the mantle yesterday -- including brand new candle holders purchased at target and tj maxx...

and here is the mantle a few minutes ago after this morning's project...


now, normally i would actually hang the frames on the wall.. but i am trying to get away without putting any more holes in the wall than necessary. so they will sit on the mantle for now. my hope is that when we end up moving (whenever that is...), we'll have a good wall to hang them on. because for a project that cost me all of $25, they're pretty sweet.

inspiration.

so, after perusing the internet for awesome inspiration on decor for my sewing room, i have managed to compile a bundle of photos that seem to fit what i'm thinking. i want girly, we know that much. but i want it to not be kid-ish... so, that being said, i think i'm going for shabby chic meets glam meets modern. haha, go figure. anyway, i want to keep the furniture very modern and white (think: ikea!) or even metal/silver (think: OR table ;)). and i love this room.... you'll get the idea:








and this is where all of the cupcake art i want to collect will come into play. among some other things i'm thinking of.......

and inspiration for the bedroom, colorwise, looks a little bit like this:




and of course, our inspiration for the living room, is this:


all without it being to girly so that pat still feels like he lives here too ;) hopefully when we can get ourselves into a larger apartment with a larger living room, it will be easier to think about getting new furniture: along the lines of sofa and chair and end tables ;) ...i'm all about chandeliers, but i don't think my boyfriend is. so we will have to compromise, or go totally out of the way, with something more like this:


and of course, our bathroom is also black and white, with the zebra shower curtain and black rug, and damask towels. anatomical skeleton poster.

and the kitchen is... ugh. well, right now its white curtains, yellow rug, lime green table, plants, and white pendant lamps. but maybe i'd be more excited about it and its more "natural" feel, if we didn't have a gross linoleum floor and old gross cabinets and countertops ;) someday.....

so my goal is to keep each room with its own theme, different from one another. which i think makes it more fun!