In order to mitigate the inevitable subsequent spiral of depression, we decided to spend a little of said refund pile on making our current abode livable. We have hitherto not spent much money or effort on this place because we weren't planning on staying that long. We're still going to try to get out in September, but until then, I needed to spruice it up a little so I don't lose my mind.
This process actually started several weeks ago, and I was waiting to post until I had lots of pictures to wow you with. But the projects are being done one at a time with looooong periods of time in between, so I'm giving up and posting now.
We finally broke down and got a new end table for our living room. We've been searching for a good one pretty much since we got married, and Ikea finally got around to making the perfect one.
We also got a basket to hold the random things like my purse, the diaper bag, the grocery cart seat thing for Ben, etc. that would normally go in a hall closet. I'm not going to show you a picture of that, though, because it's still not may favorite corner.
We also got a few paintings and shelves to put on the naked, ugly walls. I'm a big snob, so I like fine art, which is very hard to find in stores. I found a website, though, that sells prints for reasonable prices, so I nabbed a few, put them in some Ikea frames, and voila, one is on the wall and the others are on the floor waiting for Matt to put them up.
One of the shelves has made its way to the wall above the computer desk. The others are next to the two remaining paintings.
We also got a little something for Ben's room. I've been wanting a little "reading corner" in his room since before he was even conceived. We've got an old, ugly bookcase full of books, and it was time for a little chair. I fell in love with Pottery Barn's "anywhere chair," but I couldn't justify spending over $100 on a chair for a baby (who tends to be a bit messy). We looked everywhere for a cheaper alternative, but nothing came close. Pottery Barn ended up having a sale, and we still had a bit of money left on a Pottery Barn gift card from our wedding, so we splurged and got it. It's wonderful and I love it and Ben loves it and it was totally worth it.
Our poorly insulated, poorly situated apartment is, indeed, much more liveable now with those few little touches. My next goal is to replace some of our bookcases. I have, literally, thousands of books, and they live in whatever random bookcases I have managed to scrounge up over the years. Some of them are rather cheap and/or icky, and Ikea now makes Billys in the nice, dark espresso color that we love. So I'm looking to make the switch. Ben's bookcase is perfect for his room. It's the perfect height and width, the shelves are perfectly spaced and non-removeable (important quality in a child's bookcase)...it's ALMOST perfect. The one downside: it's an awful, dirty white. I'm loathe to get rid of it because of its many wonderful qualities. But it's really ugly. Anyone have any ideas on how I can "refinish" it? I'm not a DIY-er, and we have no space for a big project. But I really want to try to make it work.
That's all for now. I have to go because the guy in the apartment across from us is apparently building an ark, and someone else is cutting down trees with a chainsaw (I so wish I was kidding), so Ben got woken up and is now screaming.
Five and a half more months...
1 comment:
For Ben's bookshelf:
Wash it with soapy water and dry it thoroughly...
...and then paint it a good color for his room with any non-toxic paint... keep a little paint bucket on hand for touch ups.
...and then using mod podge [found at Michaels] and wrapping paper/tissue paper/etc, recover with a fun pattern, once completely dry, spray with a finishing spray [also at Michaels'] let dry... do this part outside.
...and then get colors of washable paint you like, and do a handprint mural all over it with Ben, your, and Matt's hands.
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