I’m still styling the bookcase, but I wanted to share some teaser photos with you! It was a long, arduous process, but Billy is painted! I’m not sure how well it’ll hold, as I noticed some chipping while I was putting things back together, but the shelves are in and the books are on, and that’s the hard part! I should have a more thorough run down of my process later this week!

(We picked up the metal typeset characters at the DC Big Flea this past weekend — only $4!)

He is way too dark! In my old apartment he worked, but now that we have a lighter, airier feel to the space (not yet, that is), I want something lighter! So this weekend, I plan to tackle the bookcase with some primer, some paint, and git-r-done! I was inspired, and plan to follow Centsational Girl’s post on painting laminate furniture.

So Billy, get ready to meet your match! (Wish me luck, DC has been suffering some serious humidity so this’ll be an indoor project..)

The landlord, when she lived there, must have planted some ivy for ground cover, which would have been all well and good, had it not turned into this:

Completely overgrown! To make matters worse, every time I walked up the front steps to the door I would get whacked in the face with a cobweb from the over grown bushes. Not to mention the little bugs that would nip at my arms and legs as I fumbled to get in the house! Needless to say, after a couple weeks, I was sick of being bitten and entering the house with a mouth-full of spider-web!

So Friday night, the boyfriend and I hustled over to Lowe’s to stock up on things we’d need to get the job done! I actually got out of work a couple hours early that day and made one of my tasks to trim the hedges before we got started with the rest of the work Saturday morning. Once stocked up at Lowe’s, we came home and got to bed to get an early start! Little did I know that the boyfriend’s definition of early start was to get out there at 7am, demolishing the overgrown ivy and various ground cover.

After a cup of coffee to wake me up, I suited up in long-sleeves and pants (don’t want all those misplaced bugs coming after our sweet skin!) to help tackle the task of taking the front yard back from all the buggies! A few hours later we were looking much better! (Well, the yard was at any rate, we definitely weren’t going to win any beauty pageants after all that labor!)

Want to see what we ended up with? Well, here you go!

Look, Ma! No weeds! Boy, does that ivy root itself in there! I’m sure we’ll be picking it out weekly for a while, the only way we would’ve gotten all the weeds out would have been to till the yard, and well, I don’t want to buy a till!

We bought a new hose, since the old one burst apart when I turned it on (which equals me, soaked, ugh), laid some pavers down to prevent the drip-off from creating a muddy pit, and purchased four bags of black mulch to really finish it off! Sadly, those hideous scalloped edgers were already in place, and since it’s just a rental, I’m not going out of my way to purchase new ones!

We may end up planting some flowers, but for now, it’s a low maintenance solution to our front yard. 5 hours of work, 4 bags of yard-waste, and less than $75 later, we have a happy yard!

We have a huge space on our dining room wall that will need something. I’ve had a couple ideas, but this may be the simplest with the biggest result! Now to convince the boyfriend that this would be awesome for our wall! Our curtains are green, black, white and tan — would be an interesting combination to work with — maybe we’d even take it in a completely different direction in a complementary color.. Things to think about!
—

Side note: Our new house is still a huge mess. Our rooms are getting switched around, furniture is still being moved around and we still have a few boxes left! We’ll get started on more blog-worthy projects soon!

The West Elm Totem Duvet and Sham set is a wonderfully graphic set. Though it may be too much punch for our small, low-light bedroom.

I first saw the Room and Board Washable Wool blanket in Charcoal Stripe when the boyfriend and I went to visit the new Room and Board store in D.C. last week. It was just so soft and subtly graphic in person that I would put the money down for it, for sure.

As you can tell, I’m going toward a grey theme for blankets on the bed. Both are graphic, and I’d pair either with some crisp white linens and a brightly colored pillow or two.

Our movers were scheduled to arrive around 9:30-10, so we headed over to Caribou Coffee for one last treat and for me to grab some fuel (caffeine) — but we got called half way there and had to turn around — they were already there and it wasn’t even 9am!

So after a bit of rushing and figuring out the best way for them to access my apartment, they got to work and had my furniture moved just as quickly as they got there. They were off to the boyfriend’s apartment, and while I ran to Starbucks for my much needed Skinny Vanilla Latte (iced, of course, since it was already 85 degrees and only 10am) the movers got to work on his place. I got a call on my way home, 15 minutes later, from Chuck telling me they were almost done at his place!!

Once they had everything packed at both our places, we headed off to the new townhouse for them to wind things up the staircase. Everything went up smoothly except our queen box-springs, which prompted a Sunday morning trip to Ikea. And of course, the one piece of furniture I really wanted them to be careful with — my new dresser — was the one thing that got damaged. Just a small chip in the veneer on one side and a scuff of paint from the baseboards as they were trying to get it up the stairs, but still! It slipped out of their hands and dropped about 6 inches onto one of the guys legs (remember those skinny little legs? Ouch!) and I about had a heart-attack!

This was the scene Monday morning. We are still making progress, and we still have a lot of work to do — but we are getting there. Did you notice I am trying color coordinated books? I believe I wrote an old post on how much I hated it — but because we have such a small amount of reading material, I figured it would be worth a try!

Kira is also loving the stairs in the new place — she keeps running up and down them! Hopefully she’ll lose a bit of weight — she was getting a bit chubby! ;) In fact, it probably wouldn’t hurt any of us!

Hopefully we’ll be more organized in the next week and I can really start sharing some of the things we are doing and have planned for the space! :)

We also managed to get a lot of our small stuff in this weekend, but with all the dressers and bookcases and everything still at our apartments, we just have boxes lying around.

Silly me packed away my camera cord, so you’ll have to imagine that the dark iPhone photos you are about to see are actually a lot lighter. To recap, this is the old living room and master bedroom:

Pretty plain and boring huh? Personally I think the white makes the space look extremely dingy. But with our new colors, the space has more dimension and warmth.

Sadly the lighting is not very good. These were taken late in the day, and right after a thunderstorm, so it’s very dark. But we’re making progress! And it will all come together very quickly!

Time to get back to packing and cleaning. Such is the life of a perpetual mover!

First up was the living room. I wanted to go with something that was fun, comfortable and modern. A space that evoked both leisure and style, the living room is the heart of our home. I know, I know — the kitchen is supposed to be the heart of the home, but I imagine we will spend countless hours watching TV, playing Wii, reading, listening to music (both iPod and the boyfriend’s guitar) and hosting a friend or two.

With that in mind, I present the rough moodboard for our space. Nothing has been purchased yet (except that lovely Wayne Pate print) so things may get altered slightly..

What do you think? I decided that since I’m really in love with the mid-century modern style, I wanted to reflect that in our home. Let’s break it down, shall we?

• Room and Board Jasper Couch in Dela Charcoal — This is the big purchase for the room. We have a Room and Board store opening up 2 days after we move in, and are planning to check it out and sit on this sofa to make sure it aces the comfort test. I wanted to go with a darker fabric color that grounded the space, but not black, as I thought that would be too dark. The charcoal grey is perfect. This particular fabric choice will be special order, but should be totally worth it.
• Koldby Rug from Ikea — Originally I had wanted to go with a shag rug, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. While both rugs will probably be hard to keep clean, I’ll feel better about the shorter “hair” length that the cowhide rug will have. Lord knows what would end up in the shag with two sloppies and a kitteh. The plan will be to get one that has some brown in it, some white, and a lot of black to really anchor the room. Plus, if we get it in a shade similar to this one, Kira (the kitteh) will blend right in. :)
• Conical Floor Lamp by CB2 — I have been in love with the Arne Jacobsen floor lamp for some time, but cannot bring myself to spend $800 on a lamp (much like a certain blanket..). So when I came across the Conical Floor Lamp from CB2, I knew it would be a good fit. And even better, there are two light sources, and they tilt to the side and all the way up!
• Accessories to Tie it All Together — These are just as important as the big ticket items! I am still not 100% on a ceiling lamp yet — you see, we don’t have a ceiling socket, so my originally intended George Nelson saucer lamp has been delegated to the dining room. In it’s place, I was thinking something simple and rounded, and I thought this black Ikea Brasa lamp would be perfect. We also have a Spike Clock in colorful hues that will be perfect for a variety of accessories to fit into the scheme and go along with the mid-century feel. And while the color is still debatable (I love it, the boyfriend does not) we have a throw pillow in a bright and bold color as well as one that adds a bit of texture to the couch.
• Color Palette — Our base color for the room, aka the walls, is Valspar’s Oatlands Subtle Taupe which will be a nice, neutral base for the bold and colorful accessories. Accessories will be in a range of grey, (hopefully) chartreuse and salmon/orange/red. We may even toss some turquoise in there to cool it off.

Altogether, I am excited to make this a reality. The last 10 months of living in my current space have been a bit of a disappointment because I knew it wasn’t going to last. Finally seeing a moodboard become reality will be extremely satisfying.

What do you think? Anything you’d change? Anything you love? I’d love to know what you think!

After talking to the boyfriend about my “perfect bedroom,” I couldn’t convince him that the DwellStudio Draper Sheet set was right for us. He apparently wanted something warmer, and I think I’ve found it in this photo. This is the bedroom of Jeff Andrews, whom I found via Elle Decor. That should have stopped me right there. I should have said, “Laura, this room is featured on Elle Decor. Elle Decor is a “fru-fru” magazine and has expensive taste, much like Gwyneth Paltrow. You should really just close the tab and move along.”

But nooo, I had to keep looking, keep oogling. And what’s worse, I showed it to the boyfriend, and he LOVES the bedroom. Great. Now the pressure is on. Let’s break the room down, shall we?

1. Orange pillow. This makes the bed pop a bit, giving the room some bold color where it otherwise lacks. But it’s a basic orange pillow, no concern.
2. Wall color. Well, that’s easy. We just went to Lowe’s and picked out the color we are planning to use.
3. Curtains. Have some already that look just like those.
4. Tan, textured coverlet. Easy enough. Every place from Target to Pottery Barn carries something close enough to that.
5. Patterned rug. Not really a big fan of that part, actually. Let’s skip it.
6. Striped throw blanket on the bed. Yea, that gorgeous, multi-colored wool beauty just casually resting there with that book. Had I known what to expect with HER, boy I would have turned and run.

After looking and basically giving up on finding anything remotely similar in color to that blanket (which boasts wonderful oranges, blues, yellows and tans), I finally came across it. Feast your eyes:

I’m almost 100% sure that this is the blanket. Please, correct me if I’m wrong. Because the price of that puppy in the window?

$825.

Yep, you heard me right.

Eight-hundred and twenty-five smackaroos. Please, pick your jaw up off the floor, it’s unbecoming. Not to say I can’t blame you. A blanket like that would match any room, really. It has all the major color components in it. But the problem is… is it really worth that much money? Missoni, are you effing crazy?!

So the search is on the find something just like it. I don’t know if it’ll happen, but I’m keeping my eyes open, and may even start a Google Reader feed-search for terms that would match it. I’m that desperate for the darned thing.

Do you think it looks like the one in the photo? If not, and you’ve seen something that might match, PLEASE let me know!

Under the yellow blanket… see it? Yep! That’s right! I repainted the Bertoia chairs! You may remember them looking more like this:

Well, sans the kitteh. But she makes the photo better, because those chairs, as much as I loved the lines, were gross.  See this, gross:

See those legs?!

So a few weeks ago, after thinking about the color I wanted them for quite some time, I decided to paint them a basic, neutral and oh so graphic BLACK. I scrubbed them good and clean, managed to get the 30 year, rusted bolts undone and went to town on them with my favorite tool: spray paint.

From drab to fab in a few hours, I now have two sleek and sexy chairs that resemble art (to me) rather than junk.

Because we’ll be moving into a home with a lack of carpet downstairs (fine by me!), I’ve since put some felt glides on the bottoms of them to protect our upcoming floors from scratches. Next on the list will be to pick up some seat cushions for them in matching black so that they are actually comfortable to sit on, and don’t require a blanket to hide those gorgeous lines!

I’m sure they would have looked wonderful in a repainted white, but after seeing the grime and general grossness of the white, I wanted to go in a whole new direction. Other colors I considered were orange, green and yellow. What color would you have picked? Something to match your decor, or something more timeless like grey, black or white?