decor inspiration...

as always, i'm collecting inspiration for our new apartment (that has yet to be chosen)... can't believe we only have about 4 1/2 weeks until we move! ack!! we've looked at one place so far (which we liked, but may be a tiny bit expensive for the amount of space), with one or two more on tap for this weekend. the onslaught should come after people give their notices on may 1st *much like ourselves!* can't wait! i've been budgeting and marking so many things on etsy as favorites (fabric, art, etc) -- and we will have a trip to ikea in our future for furniture (read: sofas!) once we get settled in. but for now, collecting collecting collecting. ideas ideas ideas.

ART.

i'm so excited! i just purchased an original from danny britto's brand new etsy shop! i followed him on livejournal, and now to his blogspot and etsy shop. and i LOVE it. its a tiny original painting on wood, and i can't wait to put it in the living room of our new apartment (when the time comes). owning original artwork is such a passion of mine with such artful and amazingly talented friends (photography, sculpture, painting...), so it makes me happy to add this piece to the collection (even alongside the warhols and lichtensteins).


i also recently acquired a large piece of art for the mantle and am hoping hoping HOPING that when we move we'll have a large enough wall or mantle to put it on, because its BAD ASS. it is also on wood, and so big -- its almost 3'x3'! LOVE. my boyfriend really likes it as well. i think its going to give our artwork that sort of urban feel i was looking for (living in the city, and all), to mesh with our real pop art. mmm...NYC <3



i'm so excited for finding the perfect new apartment and knowing that our new living room is going to be so artful and funky and fun and comfortable and colorful. and i can't wait! (even the boyfriend is excited, and is doing his part by making 3' tall speakers for our entertainment center from scratch --inside and outside!) we've all got our things ;) i'm still waiting for some fabric i ordered from thailand to arrive, so that i can cover a couple of throw pillows, too!

got 'em!

i broke down and ordered the two large posters i had my eyes on... i have my eyes on a lot more prints, both from etsy and other places online, but i will wait until after we move to order any more incase we have weird wall space. but for now, i love these. (even though one of my frames is warped. booooo!) they are exactly what i was thinking when i started my art search, and i think the colors will lend themselves well for fabrics for pillows, etc. i also bought a large piece of red matte board to make mattes for a couple of the smaller prints. there is some fabric on the way, and i can't wait to make a couple of pillow covers! i'm not going all gung-ho since we'll be moving in a couple of months, but it is still fun....





i am SOOO ready for the weekend to be here! one more work day, and a massage! ack! i can't wait for that either.... this weekend will be full of laundry @ my parents' house (while the boyfriend uses the basement workbench/tools to make his handmade speakers!), and some sewing projects. here are a couple of pictures of some works in progress (some have yet to be started ;))....

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!

<3

more inspiration.... i LOVE this home featured on jen's blog! so funky and eclectic!!

i also really want to get this pillow after we move! love it.

and last but not least: my etsy favorites page, filled with art and funky pillows and throws that i'd love to get for our living room.. as well as some fabric to make some of my own for around here ;)

Etsy Buy Handmade littlelegwarmers

so in love

with these!
..so much so that i am thinking of incorporating some of the ideas into our living room once we move.. to go with all of our black and white decor that we already have. i'm loving the little bits of color!

here's what we did instead:

so, this was supposed to be a somewhat easy project. we figured, how hard could it be to re-upholster our living room chair? initially we had wanted to just use the staple gun... until we found out there wasn't anything inside the chair to staple the fabric into (the faux leather certainly wasn't going to hold it..).

SOOOO... i ended up sewing the covers for the two large cushions, and we lucked out with the arms-- they had wood inside the edges so we got to staple those! but DAMN. the project overall took us about five hours from start to finish. we had to take apart the chair completely, and that large of a pile of nuts and bolts scares me to no end.. but luckily pat was there to do that part and put it all back together. i just had to work with the fabric. he did help measure and cut, though. by the end of it, i had a small mental breakdown, but i love the end result.

the chair was one pat had in his old apartment, and i had hated the faux leather and wanted something more modern looking to go with our black and white decor in here. we'd wanted to get a new chair next time we went to ikea, but we just saved ourselves some money since the fabric only cost me about twenty bucks on etsy! i'll be so excited when we get into a new apartment and have a great "new" chair to use! and i have just enough leftover to cover a pillow or two for our sofa (which is a whole other story and i can't wait to get something to replace our hideous brown plaid ;))!

anyway, onto the photos. they will tell the story better than i can. unfortunately, i didn't get any pictures of when i was freaking out, or when i stapled the fabric onto the arms completely backwards and had to re-do it. too bad ;) [pardon the terrible photos with the awful flash. click on each one to see it larger.]










and for reference, here is what the chair looked like before:


and here's the rest of our living room (these were taken before i re-did the mantle):