Now it's all girl-i-fied and cute. Here, let's have a look-see at some of my favourite things. And let me point out that there is NOTHING expensive about the decor. Most of the stuff is from one of only a few places which include but are not limited to Wal-Mart, Ikea, or my Dad's storage shed. I'd love to say that a lot of the stuff came cheap because this is only an apartment and we're saving ourselves for our future house, but as my charming fiancee so often points out, I have "cheap taste." See? Charm-freakin-ing.
This is the "Sitting on the couch having coffee" shot that started it off. The little green crushed velvet chair was my Nana's, and it's always fit perfectly with my style. Striped pillow was like $2 on sale at Tweed and Hickory. Black and white photographs were taken by my sister and given to me as a gift. The grouping of the other three photos is 1. little red frame from Ikea (like $2.99), 2. Seurat print my sister brought back from the National Gallery in London and 3. framed photograph of the roommate and I at a wedding this past summer. My sister's always been a fan of photo groupings and I've grown fond of it myself - it's something that can fill a bigger space without having to buy a huge piece of art.
Here's a shot of the living room from the porch. Right now my favourite piece is the rug we picked up at Ikea. I love the bold, graphic pattern. I know we have two couches in the living room (not exactly 'zen', although I'm not quite sure that means), but they come in really handy on Football Sundays and Girls' Wine Drinkin' Nights
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Another of my most favourite things is my antique map of the world. Last Christmas, when the roommate asked me what I wanted, I said "an antique map of the world." I in no way, shape or form thought he would be able to find/purchase/wrap/surprise me with one. But Christmas morning, out he came with it. I've always imagined it decorating the walls of an office, but we're not there yet.
The schoolhouse clock was another Ikea purchase, and another of my faves.
Every so often, my Dad will go through a box of old things in the shed and pile it on the table. "Go through that," he'll say. "Take what you want. The rest is going to the dump." That explains my love of purging, and also? Gets me some really great (read: free!) stuff. The picture here is a reproduction of a Group of Seven painting (I think) that was in a box, painted on a piece of cardboard. I framed it with a frame I already had and voila! Free art.
Another grouping, featuring the roommate's family portrait, my sister's photograph, and a photo of my mama. The piece on the far left side was a frame I didn't know what to do with, so I printed out some of my favourite passages from novels. I like how it looks graphic-y and still has some meaning. (Passages are from The Lovely Bones, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Charlotte's Web.)
This is the entrance way, which like the living room, I painted a very light grey. The hanging lantern is from one of my Dad's purge-fests, bottle and bamboo is from Ikea, shelf from HomeSense, and print from a trip to New York City.
The print will always remind me of wandering around Times Square with one of my best friends, in awe of the energy that city radiated. I'm pretty sure we stood in the middle of it, looking up, spinning slowly in circles with our mouths hanging open for about half an hour. One of my favourite trips ever.
These 4'x6' cards are from Ikea, and while they had no real sentimental significance, I thought they were super adorable. A flapper Grizzly bear? MIND. OFFICIALLY. BLOWN.
I thought this ceramic owl from Wal Mart would serve a dual purpose in being really cute and keeping the vermin away, but LOOK! A RABBIT CHEWING ON THE TV CORDS! Come on Mr. Owl. Step it up.
If you ever have an empty space on a shelf (like I did) and are at a loss as to what to put there (like I was) just take the jackets off some hardcovers and pile 'em up. The hardcovers of hard cover books are usually really pretty!
This was a bathroom DIY project I was kinda proud of. I found this wooden spice rack in one of my Dad's purge-sprees, and painted it white. Instant extra bathroom storage. (Please disregard the blue appliques on the medicine cabinet. I didn't do it and I am forbidden from painting over it.)
That's about all I can take today - mostly because the other rooms in the house are too disastrous to take photos of right now.
Like I said, most of my favourite items are a) really cheap, b) second-hand steals from my Dad's garage and c) hold a lot of sentimental value. I never claimed to be Sarah Richardson (althrough I do often wish I were friends with her,) but I love the apartment with all its personal, girly touches.
What are some of YOUR favourite things from around your house?
I LOVE the Lovely Bones - it's one of my favourite novels. Which passage do you have on the wall?
ReplyDeleteMy favourite things in my apartment are mosty wall/art related as well. In our bedroom, we have three shelves over the bed. One has this antique wood carved/painted cottage room; which hung in "my" bedroom at my grandmother's farm when I was growing up. When she sold it when I was 19, she gave it to me. I also have a frame with four photos of the farm I took - one from each season. It was a gift I made the same year the farm sold, and gave to each family. My uncle passed away in 2007, and the one I have was the one I gave to him - so it has double meaning for me.
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ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Lauren! The passage from The Lovely Bones I have hanging on the wall is:
ReplyDelete"These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections - sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent - that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events that my death wrought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole at some unpredictable time in the future. The price of what I came to see as this miraculous body had been my life.”
Beautiful writing!