Mini Patio Makover

Hi ya'll! Today I'm going to share with you the mini makeover I gave my "patio" last weekend.  Its really just the landing at the top of my stairs, but since I don't actually have a patio or porch or anything of the sort, this tiny space is my apartment version of a patio.



You'd think I would have done it before the 4th right? But no, I'm a procrastinator and did it after. I did do a bunch of thinking about it before though! That counts for something right?!  Haha. Jk.

But for realz... if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you might have guessed that I've been looking for a job which has been a lot of work.

Yup, that's me! All ready for an interview. I'll tell you guys more about all that soon.  But for now, lets get back to the patio makeover...

Who kills every flower they put on their patio? That would be me.  I'm great at keeping my indoor plants alive, but I tend to neglect the patio plants and they just don't do well without a lot of water.  So here is what my patio looked like before the make over...

So sad!  Aside from dead plants, I also wanted to give that thrift store chair a fresh fabric and my welcome mat needed a good shake since my kitty sheds all over it. (I'm blaming that one on her! Haha)  And just ignore the broken screen... that's my ghetto-chic kitty door!  The overhang is also a big disaster. One day the management started scraping the over hang, presumingly to paint it, only to reveal major termite damage, at which point they stopped and left it that way. That was months ago. And lets just not talk about the giant crack in the landing.  Thanks management guys!  But that stuff is not my responsibility, so lets get down to the stuff that is...

The first step was to plant some new plants. I had a snake plant indoors that I wanted to move to that pot and thought it would be perfect to surround it with some fun, hopefully easy to keep alive, succulents.  I stopped by The Plant Stand in Costa Mesa, which has a really nice selection and learned that they were having a succulent "class" the following day at which they were giving out 50% off coupons for succulents. Count me in!

I went back the next day to collect the goods and my awesome boyfriend offered to keep me company. I thought he'd be helpful in the decision making process because he usually just picks one thing or the other, but instead he got super into the succulent hunt!  He kept finding new succulents he liked.  It was so cute!  Now maybe he knows why I always have a hard time making decision like that.  They're all so great!  But we finally did come to a decision and picked out a nice variety of scale and colors.  And the result...

Next, I recovered the chair with a fabric remnant that I got from school.  I actually kind of like the existing equestrian print fabric, but I thought something a little more modern and colorful would give it a little excitement. I went to Joann's to find something but discovered that they are closing the location by my house and only selling fabric by the entire bolt. Not wanting to purchase 6 yards of fabric for which I have no use, I decided to stick with the remnant.

There I am screwing the seat back on... so exciting!  Even though it wasn't my first choice of fabric, when it was all said and done, I think it turned out great!  And especially appropriate for the Fourth of July (even though I finished it on the 6th). I thought about repainting the metal, but I decided to leave that to another day.  Check out the before and after...

And the whole 4 square feet of my "patio" all pulled together...

Much better right?  Now all I have to do is keep my little succulents alive.  Wish me luck!

{Re-Styling} What's On My Coffee Table

Do you guys constantly move things in your home around?  I do.  I'm constantly re-styling my house by moving things I have around.  Because when my eyes have seen the same thing over and over for a while, it's like my brain doesn't even notice it's there anymore.  So the pretty vingette I created last just looks 'blah' to me a few weeks later.  Not only does re-styling give a new look that feels fresh on the eyes, but it gives me the opportunity to enjoy things that I've become accustom to overlooking, and it also gets me to dust when I'd otherwise put it off.  When the goal is re-styling instead of cleaning, its much more fun, right?!

So I thought I'd share my coffee table with you today. Especially being that I just read the Nester's post on creating vignettes.

I got this vase from my mom for Christmas and misplaced it for a while. So glad I found it! I just love the earthy colors, classic shape, and movement in it!

New Salvation Army Sofas!

I've still got more Noah's ARC projects to show you.  But for now, lets take a break.  I wanted to share that in the midst of the project, my new camera came! Yay!

So quite a few of the recent photos were taken with my new Rebel t3i... like 3 photos of our fabric covered suitcases, the final photos of the coral dresser, the completed mobile picture, and the final nursery photos in the stencil review post.  I'm still learning so many of these were taken on the automatic setting, but I'm slowly learning to use the manual settings effectively.  Like I said before, I'll be reading up on how to take better photos, so I'm hoping to improve. 

In other news, I also came up on two new sofas while working on the Noah's ARC Design Challenge!

I was busily putting the space together in the Salvation Army store one afternoon when I spotted this stylish white studded number calling my name.  Guess how much it was listed for... only $300! But wait!... the manager informed me that the next day everything in the store would be 50% off.  So I decided if it was still there the next morning, I'd snatch it up... and it was!  I knew the old one would look really shitty next to this nice new one (well not totally new, but certainly nicer), so I went on the hunt for something to go with it. I found this greenish-khaki-ish microfiber love seat in another Salvation Army store for only $88 on sale. Thats $238 for the pair.  Can you believe it?!?!

They're a HUGE improvement from my old ones.  Here's what the room looked like before...

Not a good photo since it was taken with my iPhone, but you get the idea. You also cant really tell that the sofas were not only outdated in style, but also quite scratched up and dingy. So I'm happy to have these new (well new to me) ones!  Not only do they look better, the also provide so much more room to stretch out since the arms are smaller and they're both much deeper.  Needless to say, after cursing under his breath while hauling the old ones out and the new ones in (up the stairs), Frank is particularly happy about these new additions.  And Duchess is too!

Now I'm in need of a new side table (or tables... not sure if I'll have one on the side by the tv stand or not yet).  And the room certain needs some styling.

I've also been thinking I want to bring some more color into the room to brighten and warm things up.  I'm still not sure what colors.  I'm kinda feelin' pink for some reason, but also have pale blue in the other room and love orange as well. Aaaand love this Cozamia print...

Hmmm... what do you think?

Not So New Apartment (Part 2)

Bedroom and Master Bath

 

  

Thanks!

Not So New Apartment

Its been a year and a half since I moved to my new apartment and plenty of time to make a house a home. With some hand me down furniture, lots of Goodwill and Craigslist finds, and other affordable decor from HomeGoods, Ikea and the like, I've created a home that I've come to love. Later I'll blog about where each thing came from, how much it all cost, and the few DIY projects I've done. Although there are things I would love to replace if I had the money, but I can enjoy the ever changing design day by day. Here are some photos of my not so new apartment...

Living Room

Dining Room

Kitchen

I used to have a green, grey and brown rug in the living room, but we had an unfortunate accident of boyfriend's sick daughter yacking on it. Poor girl :( .  I moved it to get it cleaned and have now been thinking what I really want for this space is a beni ourain rug. Or maybe a white flokati rug. What'd ya think?

Next time I'll show you the bedroom and master bath.

Thanks!