Apartment Therapy's "Small Cool 2011" Contest

Last April, our apartment made it into the Apartment Therapy "Small Cool" contest. Unfortunately, we didn't win, but that didn't deter us from entering again this year.

We received an email this morning that we made it in!

So what are you waiting for?! Go register and vote for us! You have until noon on May 1st.

Here's the link: http://community.apartmenttherapy.com/contests/smallcool/2011/entries/1035

And of course you can look back at our decorating posts to see how far our humble abode has come here.

Big Screen Debut!

My buddy, Dan Opsal, is a regular participant in the Channel 101 competition. For this month's entry, episode 5, he shot part of his short in mine and sweet hubs apartment (our apartment is about 28 seconds in)! Very exciting! Our kitten, Abigail also got to make her big screen debut.

Dan is a very funny and super talented dude, so you should of course check out his previous entries in Channel 101, as well as his website (my favorite is his infomercial for his company).

Enjoy!



Original episode link here.

The Big Reveal! Part VI: The Living Room (ie. The Final Frontier)

The last post from the big reveal is the Living Room.  I love everything about this room from the steps and railings to the wall color and how our furniture looks in it.  It makes me happy.

When we started it was a big bland box.  It's quite the opposite now if I do say so myself.

Inspiration Board:  The paint for the living room is the darkest shade from the same paint chip that we used in the Foyer / Hallway and Kitchen.

The Big Reveal! Part V: The Bedroom

The bedroom at first didn't seem like it would be much of a challenge sheerly because sweet hubs and I were so stoked to finally have SPACE instead of having about 2 feet on each side of our bed like our old bedroom had, but arranging the furniture took a little bit of time and rearranging to get it right.  We're really thrilled with the outcome now.

It's so nice to finally have a REAL bedroom!

Inspiration Board:

The Big Reveal! Part IV: The Kitchen

We really didn't do too much with the kitchen - it's a little bit of a lost cause since we're renters.

Everything is in pretty good shape (sink and cabinets) although I despise "euro" style cabinetry.  The appliances were new, which was awesome, although I'm not a fan of white appliances, so we are making due.

We used the middle shade on the triple paint chip that I spoke of in the Foyer post - Behr's "Tide Pools", which made the cabinets look not quite so bad.  Luckily we also have a big window in the kitchen which lets in a nice breeze and a fair amount of light.

We always like to keep a bit of Georgia in our home.

The Big Reveal! Part III: The Entryway

Like the office, I didn't really do an inspiration board for the entryway.  It's a large space, but can't really be utilized too much.  We're finished with the space aside from one piece of furniture we're currently missing, which is a spirit's cabinet (hence why in the "after" photo the circular mirror is so high on the wall).

For the Living Room, Entryway / Foyer and Kitchen, we used one paint chip with three shades of color - for the Entryway / Foyer, we used the lightest color on the chip since that room gets the least amount of light out of the three, which was Behr's "Country Mist".

The Big Reveal! Part II: The Office

Here we go with part 2 of the apartment before/after reveal: the office.

Unfortunately the "before" photo of the office is kind of crappy, but you get the idea.  The space turned out really nicely after sweet hubs worked his magic.  He needed a space of his own to do his work since he's a freelance photographer and this room was perfect - it can be darkened for retouching if he needs it to be, but it has a big window that brings in a nice breeze and indirect light if he wants it to be a bit more open.

I can't take credit for decorating this room in any way - this is all sweet hubs.  It's perfect for him in every way.

The wall color is Behr's "Misty Surf" and the trim is Behr's "Bright White".

It's a BIG week!

Well folks, it's going to be a post heavy week this week.  Lot's going on and lots to share!

First off, it's mine and sweet hubs two-year anniversary today!  We will be leaving on Saturday morning for a week long vacation that includes a short stopover in Virginia, an overnight in a luxurious hotel in Miami, FL and then a five day cruise to the western caribbean that includes stop overs in Honduras and Mexico.  We're VERY excited!!

So to my sweet hubs, happy anniversary, love.  You're the best friend and partner in crime than a gal could ask for.  I'm one lucky dame.  Two years down, forever to go and I'm pleased as pie about it.

Next on the list, we finally have finished our interior design project of making over our apartment.  I know, we took our sweet time, but it's worth it, I promise!  I posted part I last night of our bathroom (check it out here if you didn't catch it).  There will be a post each day this week with each of the rooms.

The Big Reveal! Part I: The Bathroom and Foyer

Well folks, its been a few months since my last inspiration board post and now sweet hubs and I have pretty much finished decorating! We're very excited!

I'm going to reveal in several posts again... just to keep you waiting with bated breath. Aren't I sweet? Haha.

Without further adieu, here's part 1: The Bathroom!

First off, if you'd like to read back on the inspiration board and our decorating plans, check that out here.

And now for the before photos:

And the inspiration board:

And the final product!!

A New Apartment Calls for an Inspiration Board! (Part 4: Living Room Design)

Gosh! Mid-August into the beginning of September has been pretty busy! I've been slacking on my apartment updates!

Anyhow, without further adieu, here's the fourth installment of inspiration boards and design for the new apartment: the living room!

Here's what we're working with:

We've sort of gotten to the point where we are in a little bit of a holding pattern with actually FINISHING the apartment - we still need to purchase 2 pieces of furniture, acquire 2 awesome chairs for the living room (which are kindly being donated by sweet hubs' great aunt), and get some organizational tools for the closets. We can't finish hanging things until we get one of the two pieces of furniture and we've just gotten a little lazy since we've both been incredibly busy.

Regardless, here is our inspiration board for the living room. We've got a great space to work with - it's a sunken living room with an adorable wrought iron railing and steps off of a very generously sized foyer, which really lives up to the whole 1960's mid-century modern style that the building has going for it. I love it.

We figured that since the living room is such a large space (I believe its approximately 20ft x 10ft), we could go a little bit darker on the walls - not too dark though.

(Clockwise: Behr "Marina Isle" - 2 qt. of paint, West Elm Sunburst Wire Wall Art, Ikea Barometer
Floor Lamp, Corduroy Rug in a Bag, Ikea Expedit Bookshelf, vintage lounge chairs (photo from a
similar chair on Ebay), West Elm Modern Media Console (no longer sold), Room and Board
Lenox sofa (no longer sold).

A New Apartment Calls for an Inspiration Board! (Part 3: Bathroom Design)

Onto the third installment of inspiration boards and design for the new apartment: the bathroom!

I'll admit - I always like a somewhat girlie bathroom.  I just can't help it.  In the room which I make myself pretty, I need it to FEEL pretty too.  It helps make my morning a little brighter.  Not much to say about it except I kept the colors bright and clean feeling (always important in a bathroom!) and tried to not make it TOO girly so that sweet hubs will be happy with it too.  Sweet hubs and I love the vintage feel of the bathroom, so we wanted to play up the black and white tile floors and the vintage fixtures, but find accessories that blended in with them.

Progress wise for the rest of the apartment, this past weekend was spent finishing the last bit of painting and LOTS of unpacking, so hopefully we'll be finished getting all set up soon.  It's definitely starting to feel like home, which is nice.

Here we go!

(Clockwise: Behr "Ice Folly" - 1 qt. of paint, Lenox Chirp Shower Curtain, Wamsutta Palace Classic Bath Accessory Collection, Ikea Grundtal Glass Shelves)

A New Apartment Calls for an Inspiration Board! (Part 2: Bedroom Design)

Well folks, our move is complete.

Last weekend was spent with my parents, since they so kindly offered drive up from Virginia and let us use their muscles to help us move and paint the new apartment. I am so thankful - if they hadn't, sweet hubs and I would be painting for the next month and I'd be one tired and cranky lady.

My step-dad and sweet hubs spent their days moving things, running to Lowe's and Home Depot as well as various other stores while my mom and I hunkered down at the new place and painted. And painted. And then painted some more.

The end result is GORGEOUS. I'm so proud. We scrubbed and polished the floors, painted all the walls, trim, radiators and cabinetry. It was so worth the time and effort. And let me just mention that I adore Behr paint. We didn't need a second coat on anything. Amazing stuff.

I was pleasantly surprised that we even managed to fit in going to a fancy dinner at The Good Fork in our old neighborhood as a well deserved treat on Saturday evening. It was a great and productive weekend, to say the least.

Now that my parents have gone back home, sweet hubs and I have the tasks of unpacking, organizing and decorating. We've done quite well so far. We managed to luck out on quite a few deals on things we needed to buy or to replace and only have a few more big purchases to make.

Obviously its not quite time for us to do a big reveal of the final product, so instead, I'll share my inspiration boards for decor which includes the furniture and accessories we currently own, what we've purchased so far and what we intend to purchase, just to see how things will work together.

Here's the first edition, our bedroom.

The bedroom is quite large (12ft x 16ft), at least compared to our previous bedroom, which was approximately 8ft x 9ft.

Here are the photos from when we viewed the apartment. Apologies on their grainy quality, but you can at least get an idea of what we're working with. We've got a HUGE closet and two really nice sized windows.

This is what we've decided to do, decor and color wise, with the bedroom. I'm not an overly girly girl, and my style is more clean lined and mid-century modern inspired, which works well since I can't picture sweet hubs being a happy man living in a frilly apartment. That being said, we decided to paint the bedroom Behr's "Bon Voyage", which is a beautiful, rich and deep blue with a little bit of a muted grey tone to it. We painted the trim and doors bright white which really makes the wall color and the beautiful hardwoods pop.

We found that one thing that seemed as though it was going to break the bank was buying rugs. As most of you know, once you go above a 5ft x 7ft rug, the price usually doubles or triples. Yikes. Well we did a lot of researching and managed to score some great deals. For this room, we found a pretty awesome, and really quite soft diamond textured 8ft x 10ft brown rug ($70!!), which nicely compliments our brown throw pillows.

For our bedding, we went with a simple textured charcoal gray quilt with square european pillows. We didn't want to get too crazy, so we kept our bedskirt and curtains white.

(Clockwise) Behr Ultra Premium Satin Paint, Ikea "Hemnes" 8-Drawer Dresser, Cream Colored Barrel Lamp Shade, Portfolio Rustana/Satin Nickel Table Lamp Base, Casual Home Grommet Top Window Collection, Brown Diamond 8' x 10' Rug, Brown Felicia Cushion Cover, Charcoal Alina Bedspread and 2 cushion covers)

A New Apartment Calls for an Inspiration Board! (Part 1: Paint)

I love inspiration boards. They're such a great way to collect your ideas into one place and be able to get an idea of what does and does not work together before you make any big decisions or investments.

I'm currently in the process of picking out paint chips for the apartment. Sweet hubs is being quite kind and allowing me to decorate the apartment (with the exception of his office area) - which makes me oh so happy!

The building we're moving into was built in the early sixties and still maintains a good bit of that flair. They're currently renovating the common spaces, and while sweet hubs and I were apartment hunting, we were able to view some of the other apartment buildings by the same management company which are also under or nearly finished with their renovations. Let me just say that the end result is gorgeous.

But I digress... our apartment has got some great vintage features, but also has a few less than desirable traits which were products of the late seventies / early eighties (euro kitchen cabinets - yuck).

Some of the fantastic features that I love are:

Large Living Room with lots of light.  (Living room, viewing from the foyer.)

Large sunken living room with adorable wrought iron railings on each side of the steps.
 (Reverse view of the living room.)

Nicely preserved vintage bathroom.  

Awesome original built-in drawers and cabinets in the hallway next to the bathroom.

I love the idea of picking out two darker colors for the living room and bedroom, since they are much larger rooms, and then painting the other rooms lighter variations of the same colors. That way it will all feel cohesive but each room will still be slightly different.

So far, here are the first round of paint chip color families that I'm looking at.  They are all in the blue/green/gray family.  I'm sure I'll change my mind over the next two weeks, but at least this is a good starting point.

The bedroom is fairly large, so it can handle a darker color.  I plan on doing all of the trim throughout the apartment bright white so everything will look very crisp, calming and cool.

BEDROOM:

"Bon Voyage" or "Bayside"

Since the bathroom is located just outside of the bedroom, these colors are in the same family, just obviously much lighter shades.  Also, the bathroom isn't very large, so I want to keep the color in there bright and as light as possible.

BATHROOM:

"Rhythmic Blue" or "Ice Folly"

The living room is quite large, so I'm looking at a darker color for in here as well.

LIVING ROOM:

"Aspen Aura" or "Garland"

The foyer is another large space, which leads into the living room, so I'd like to stay in the same family as the living room, just go with a lighter shade.  The kitchen is also off of the foyer, so I'm going to do a lighter shade than the foyer for the kitchen.  Also, the kitchen cabinets are a "euro"style cabinet, so I want something that will take down their beige color, which a cooler light green shade will do.

FOYER & KITCHEN:

"Country Mist" for the kitchen, "Marina Isle" for the foyer.

The office, which will be sweet hubs home base for work, will be a light blue-ish gray color, per his request.

OFFICE:

"Misty Surf"

We spent this past weekend packing and on Friday we will receive our keys to the apartment, so I'll have another design post very soon!