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!