Saturday, April 14, 2012

Moving BAD! Decorating GOOD!

Moving into a new place can be super stressful. Especially when you are moving in with your boyfriend who's still bitter about you throwing out some of his "bachelor pad" favorites. Wah wah. (If you happened to find a beat up tacky green leather couch on the corner of Hamilton last year and took it home...I'm sorry.)

This is our second move. We found a much nicer apartment with a view of Brooklyn. Nothing is broken. Our landlord and neighbors seem pretty normal. And the walls are freshly painted and ready to be decorated!

For those of you who don't know, Mike and I have different styles. He's punk rock bachelor and I'm earthy eclectic chic. He likes lots of color. I like splashes of color. A trip to Ikea once resulted in an argument about such differences of style. He picked up every brightly colored and very patterned pillow, rug and tapestry he could find and said "This is what I want our apartment to look like!". I said "Hell no! We are not going to live in a CLOWN HOUSE!!" From then on most of what we picked up here and there was very neutral. And now that we are in a new place we thought it would be a good idea to try again to merge our styles.

I am decorating the bedroom. Mike get's the hallway and dining room. And together (God help us!) we are decorating the living room.

I have been collecting some ideas on my Pinterest on my DIY board.
http://pinterest.com/piratesushi/do-you-diy/

Here's are some of the projects I liked.






And here's my take on it!







Fun Fabric Hoops:

I got the embroidery hoops from Michael's and the fabric from Joann's Fabric. The larger hoops I secured to the wall with Command Strips hooks and the smaller hoops are secured by poster putty.




Antique Frame Jewelry Hanger:

The "antique" frame is actually a thin craft wood frame I got from Michael's. I attached the garden wire I got from Home Depot to the back of the frame. I placed small felt pads along the frame to prevent it from scratching the walls. Painted it a funky green color and....viola!




If you decide to try this or a similar idea, feel free to share your photos as well! :-)