Apartment Goal #2

Another one of my spaces that could use a bit of love is my living room.  I like this room as-is and I've already done some fun stuff in here, including hanging my mason jar chandelier.  Still, there is always room for improvement and I'd definitely like to make this room a bit more stylish.

I'm already pretty happy with the table side of the room.  Just out of the frame is my mason jar chandelier.  I love the convenience of my drop leaf table, but I am thinking about recovering the chairs.  That can be toward the bottom of the living room to-do list because I don't really have a problem with the blue.  I just think a brighter color could also be fun.

This side of the room is where the challenges begin.  First, ignore that big honking brown dresser at the front.  I finally moved the yellow dresser into my bedroom, but that left the brown one stranded in my living room.  This baby's going on Craigslist as soon as I get the time to clean it up and photograph it.  Maybe I should have done that instead of blogging?

In any case, even without the brown dresser, this side is a work in progress.  You can see that I put up some pictures for a gallery wall, which I love.  Other things I love in this picture are my cozy cable-knit throw and the fabulous yellow and oatmeal throw pillow on the chair.  The chair itself provides a lot of food for thought.  It's wide and deep and super comfy.  My mom found it at a thrift store and it's in great condition.  The only thing I don't love about it is the color.  The green isn't even that bad, especially once you add the pillow and the throw.  I think it's just something I fixate on.  I either need to save my money for a slipcover or find something else to focus on.

Something that I would love to have in this space is a second chair or loveseat.  Either one would be perpendicular to where the dresser is now.  I've been pretty picky about what I want though.  It's an important step to making this room look finished, but it's not the kind of essential that I absolutely have to have and so I'm not willing to settle on something I don't absolutely love.  Am I setting the standard too high?  I'm not sure.  I think I'll find something I like soonish or run out of patience and find something that's "good enough."

I think it will be a lot easier to pull the room together once I have a second chair or loveseat.  The new piece of furniture would help determine accent colors, whether I need a coffee table, and if I should hunt for a fabulous area rug.

I might add painting that bookshelf to the to-do list, but I'm not sure yet.  I don't love the dark laminate but it doesn't look bad because all my doors are painted a deep brown.  I think I'm ambivalent about that bookshelf in general.  It's made of cheap particle board and I think I could find a thrift-store piece that is more interesting and better made.  That's another thing that will have to wait until a second chair/couch moves in.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention the number one thing on my to-do list: get mini blinds for that door!  Did you see my lovely curtain?  It's not even artfully hung between two cafe rods.  I bought one used curtain of the wrong size and had to cut it into two squares to make it work for that window.  Classy, right?  I should add going to Home Depot or Lowes to my list for say... tomorrow.  

Alrighty, now to the best/worst part of the post: the part where I show pictures of amazingly fabulous living rooms.  I love this part because it's inspiring.  On the other hand, sometimes I find it depressing.  I love these spaces that I'm about to show you, but is it unrealistic for me to hope my rooms will have the same feel someday? I think the key to that question is "someday."  If I want to wake up tomorrow and suddenly have gorgeous spaces, of course I'm going to be disappointed.  If I'm willing to wait and accumulate furniture and accent pieces as I find them at a price I can afford, maybe at some point I'll have a magazine-worthy room.  In the mean time, I'm happy with what I have!

Country Living

BHG

Example of Cottage Chic from Sproost.com

BHG

As you can see, I'm really loving neutral living rooms.  I think neutrals make such relaxing spaces and I love the pops of color and neat accents that a neutral room allows you to add.

A Decorating Circus

For a while, I've been swooning over the mason jar chandeliers I see all over the internet.  The enormous fixtures are neat but I love the simple pendant clusters the most.

Etsy: BootsNGus

Unfortunately, all the chandeliers I have seen are way out of my price range. Fearlessly, I took that as as sign that I needed to make my own.  I decided on three jars and hanging lamp cords.  A little bit of elbow grease and I had a light fixture I love!

For a while, my new mason jar pendant chandelier sat in a box in my closet.  I just had nowhere to put it.  When I moved into Apartment 1925, I immediately knew that I wanted to hang it above my dining table.  Easier said than done, apparently.

There were already a couple hooks in my ceiling so we decided just to reposition one.  The trouble started when I climbed up on my step ladder.  It's a bit taller than a dining chair so I thought I would be able to reach the ceiling with ease.  What I hadn't counted on was the fact that the ceilings in Apartment 1925 are quite tall.  Tall enough that I could touch the ceiling with my fingertips but there was no way I would be able to get my hand high enough to screw a hook into the ceiling.

This was an interesting problem for me.  I'm fairly tall and rarely have difficulty reaching anything.  My mom was visiting and for a moment we were both at a loss.  All the usual alternative were no-gos -- no access to a taller step ladder; no tall friends or acquaintances in my new city.  All I had was a mason jar chandelier that I dearly wanted to hang from the ceiling.

Then I had an idea.  A brilliant idea, if I do say so myself.  I sprang to the closet and pulled out a pair of my summer wedges.  They're cute and fabulous but, most importantly in this situation, they have a five inch heel.  And being wedges, I thought they would be fairly stable.

So I strapped on my shoes and gingerly climbed the step ladder.  With my mom grabbing my belt loops to stabilize me, I was able to reach the ceiling and begin screwing the hook in.  Did you know that the ceilings of Apartment 1925 are super tough?  Even with the shoes allowing me to get the proper leverage, it was still very difficult.  When my arm got tired, my mom even took a turn with the wedges and screwed it in a bit more.  The whole process was ridiculous!  Half the time we were both laughing so hard that nothing was getting accomplished.

Finally, we decided the hook was secure enough.  I looped the cords over it and lowered the jars to the point we had already determined before moving the table.  I swagged the cords over to the hook that was (thankfully!) already in the ceiling by the window.

Then I ran the cords down the wall, up against the window frame.  I used a series of small nails to wedge the cords between the nails and the window frame.  Into the power strip and ta-da!

Isn't it gorgeous?!