America the beautiful

Decorating themes really aren't my thing...unless you're under the age of 5 and an aspiring princess or super hero.
 . . . or have a boyfriend that loves, I mean LOVES, America.

When we moved in, I quickly realized that bedroom no. 2 would function as our office, guest room, workout area, and crap catch all.... just writing all of those words gave me hives.

This room definitely got the short end of the decorating stick, but for a themed room that was put together on a measly $40, it may just be my favorite room in the apartment.

We found the desk at goodwill- it was absolutely filthy, but absolutely perfect all at the same time. After scrubbing each and every square inch with a Clorox/water concoction,  I threw a coat of leftover paint on everything but the desktop and drawer handles.

There is a vintage/thrift store in Philly called Jinx..it is nothing short of amazing...it is where we found that great desk chair.... With a $20 price tag it was a pretty massive investment (wink, wink), but we couldn't bypass its American charm

The side of the room that you are about to scroll through is much less inspiring, but I'd be remiss if I didn't share my DIY closet 2.0 (1.0 can be found here).

While I cannot complain about space after living in a NYC studio, our new Philly apartment really dropped the ball on storage space. After working at a fashion company and acquiring an insurmountable number of shoes, two puny closets with no depth an no shelving just wouldn't do.

Here is a look at dead space turned walk in closet (crap catch all) space...

If you've read this far (thank you!), and you're doing the math, the remaining $10 to complete this room was spent on the closet components. If you're looking to build a closet of your own, I'd highly recommenced these items at Ikea:

MULIG Clothes bars 

KVARTAL Triple Curtail Rail 

KVARTAL Cieling Fixtures

KVARTAL Gliders and Hooks

Apartment Tour: Bedroom Edition

Racy post title, eh :) oh, common... 

Having two bedrooms was a must for us (me) when we were on our apartment hunt. Given the fact that we moved further away from my family, I wanted to be sure that they had a place to stay when they came to visit. No hotel for them, family time...the whole time (we are sickeningly close).

Our apartment is two levels, with a bedroom on each floor. We opted to make the room on the main floor our master. While I love the room (bright light, high ceilings, plenty of room) I feel like it is missing something decor wise. I am on a mission to "jazz it up"... just not sure how yet.

Despite the room needing a bit more oomph. our bedroom is home to the light blue dresser you'll find below....one of my favorite DIY projects of all time.

This thing was REALLY ugly pre-painting (I am kicking myself for not taking a before photo)...super light wood, pastel flowers stenciled across the drawers, and cob-webs throughout...BUT it was free... zero dollars.

It took me 2 days and $10 to transform this piece from "drab to fab". A fabulous Oops paint find in the perfect color ($2.99) + Anthropologie inspired knobs from Marshalls ($7.99)= voila!

Take a look here for a step by step guide on how to refinish a dresser... it really is quite simple (and cheap)!

Next up on the apartment tour... Bedroom #2...stay tuned!

Refurbished and Reused: The Dining Room

Because our first floor has an open floor plan, I paid extra attention to which photos I published in my last blog post... making sure not to "reveal" the dining room prematurely (ridiculous, I know).

It's not that I think that our dining room is anything spectacular, it is actually pretty basic, but the room is filled with DIY projects (tutorials to follow) and truly lives up to this blog’s name... Particularly the kitchen table.

The entire room was put together for less than $50, The table/chairs were free, the shelves are made with scrap wood and L brackets, and the dresser has been in every apartment since the inception of this blog, we just re-purposed it as a buffet. 

Living Room Revealed

I'm acting like you guys are living each day in anticipation of my blog posts. Trust me, I know that's only true for some of you :)

Regardless of what camp you belong to, I am really excited to give you a peek into our apartment...starting with the living room

I tried incredibly hard to make sure that it was our space, not a manifestation of my Pinterest boards 

and feminine decorating tendencies...

The room is bright and open, everything that my NYC studio was not. I wanted to infuse the space with the character it was lacking and personalize it to our needs/living habits...no white area rugs, no fancy furniture. I wanted it to feel comfortable and lived in.

I made the mantel and the white floating shelves, but overall DIY projects were few and in between when completing this room. I had toyed with trying to reupholster a chair, but then I found the blue gem you're seeing in these photos for $35 at a local antique shop, that idea went out the door. 

We bought the sofa new (coming right in at our $1k budget) and the coffee table was a floor model at pier one that we snagged at a deep discount.

And the rug...oh the rug....we went through 5...yes FIVE different 8x10 rugs before deciding on this one. Buy, drag up 3 flights of stairs, unroll, re-roll, carry down 3 flights of stairs. The 6th and final rug was not returnable and, in part, purchased because of that fact. 

So, while this room was certainly not "paid with pennies" it is my favorite room in the apartment...enjoy!

New Apartment, New Projects, New Posts

After 2 years (plus some) of living in a shoebox on Bleecker Street, barely blogging, and burning through cash like it was Monopoly money-I put a fork in the big apple and relocated to Philadelphia with a very special someone (mush alert).

If you read this blog, even sporadically, you know that I am on an unofficial 2 year moving rotation. Boston to Charlotte to Stamford to NYC to the city of brotherly love… You also know that with each move my blogging picks up— new apartment, new projects, new posts.

Our new apartment, a 2 bedroom/2 bath in the Society Hill area of the city, makes my 300 sq ft studio seem even smaller. And while I think that I made the most of that space, I can’t begin to tell you how awesome it is to have a bedroom door….and a dishwasher, and a patio!

Here is a look at the place before we moved in…
 




Given the (extremely) historic neighborhood, the interior is strangely modern. But it checked all of our boxes: 2 bedrooms, an outdoor space, not on the ground floor, washer/dryer in unit, etc… and,  given how non-descript the space was, we were able to flex our creative muscles and really personalize each room… Rather than posting photos of the entire place, I am going to write about each room separately— a slow reveal if you will. Stay tuned!