Extreme Makeover: Apartment Edition

{The Living Room}

I don't pretend to I have an ounce of design sense in my body. I can tell you if I do like something or don't like something, but I'm not great at creating a cohesive 'look.' I think I exhausted all creative decorating juices when I re-designed my bedroom in high school. (Amazing buttery yellow walls with a beachy theme due to my obsession with the Florida Keys and blue and aqua walls with an ocean theme in the bathroom. Loved it.) Thankfully, Ross has more than enough design sense for the two of us! Although since living with him, I find myself complaining about things like the "poor design" of feeding pumps at work, so maybe he's rubbing off. Sometimes simple is better. And I know Ross will be happy to hear me say that!

This month we finally got around to de-Ikea-fying our living room. I do love Ikea, but Ross and I are both over the age of 25 and our apartment still looked like a student rental. (Granted, we are actually both students again. But graduate students with full-time jobs. And that's beside the point.) Plus, the red couch was fading to an ugly dull orange and sagging in the middle. And the seat pillows had developed holes in the front, so the zipper side was always exposed instead.

The opposite wall held the entertainment center, but I didn't get a picture of the placement before Ross moved it. Here's the big, black, credenza that held our TV.

First of all, we (and by 'we' I mean Ross) thought the layout would be better flipped. It was kind of weird having the couch right by the door so we moved it to the opposite wall by the patio door and put the TV stand on the wall by the front door.

We also wanted to get rid of the red and black theme we'd ended up with so we found a nice brown couch for a reasonable price at Crate & Barrel. We also fell in love with some geometric prints and the white pillow there. The pink flower pillow is from Target this month and the blue blanket is from Target... ummm... my freshman year of college.

Then Ross got crafty and made a 'coffee table' out of reconstructed wood. He was so excited to go to drive out to the woodlot and pick out some pieces.

I'm told it's mid-century modern to go with the couch.

The fun orange elephant is a piggy bank from Urban Outfitters this winter that I fell in love with. Ross has grown to love the whimsy as well!

Then Ross decided to build a credenza to put on the wall where the red couch used to be.

It still needs to be sanded and stained, but you get the idea.

The picture frames and flowers are from Hobby Lobby and the purple vase is from Crate & Barrel. Finally, here's the view when you walk in the door and look to the right, toward the patio.

The rocker is some fancy-schmancy molded chair that Ross loved. I'm so happy we seem to have found a decorating style that's classy enough for Ross (I swear he'd live in a white cube if he could) but colorful and fun enough for me. Such a happy space!