House Tour: Living Room

I figure it's about time I posted some images of our apartment, especially since so much of it is looking pretty good. Also, I went on a cleaning rampage recently and felt the need to take pictures in case it's not that clean again for awhile.  Honesty, right?

Anyway, here's the living room. If you remember, we enlisted the help of our friend, Emily, to help us design the space incorporate elements that Brad and I both love. Please click over to her blog and see the amazing things she does to her own home.

When entering our apartment, you walk in the front door and turn left. From there you have the dining room/kitchen area to the left and the living room to the right. It's a pretty big space and we're usually amazed at how many people we can squeeze in there.

This is the view as soon as you face the living room. I feel like the back wall still needs something else, but I'm not sure what. Brad and I have debated getting another set of the round mirrors ($25 from Target) to help elongate, but we're not sure.  Thoughts?

 Here's another view of the living room. That hallway off to the right takes you to the front door and bedrooms. This view is also a shameless plug regarding my lovingly-constructed gallery wall. We're still waiting on two photos to be printed (hence the post-its that I'm sure only I notice), but here it is.  I talked about it before, but this wall contains images from our engagement shoot and wedding. The tree was our guest book and the circular cross-stitch was our ring pillow.

Again, another view of the living room. That little orange table is from Crate and Barrel (sadly, it's no longer available). I love the pops of orange in our space and Brad loves all the neutrals. Also, I have permanently claimed the corner-spot of our sectional and it. is. fabulous. Seriously. How was I ever comfortable before?

It sounds so weird to say, but I love this little lamp. You can click here to see it in its original state, but it was just a $3 brown lamp from Goodwill when we started this journey. A little bit of sanding and some spray paint and we were in business. The tree wedge is a gift from Brad's parents to commemorate our wedding day. 

We've been moving counter-clockwise around the living room and have now reached the reading nook. It's pretty sad looking out-of-context, but I do enjoy this corner. The print is a series of Picasso sketches from Ikea, but I don't think it's available anymore. Also featured is the Poang chair and footrest from Ikea. We have a couple of "couch blankets" stacked on top of the footrest and a basket underneath for storing magazines and crochet projects.

Finally, we reach the curtains. These beasts, comprised of six panels of Ikea curtains, are hung to cover our patio doors. They were hand-painted over Christmas and I will never undertake this project again. First, we used the green painter's tape to mark off the to-be-orange areas. The green tape is fantastic and I continue to talk about it amazing abilities to this day. After marking off the areas, we mixed fabric medium in with orange acrylic paint from Michael's and commenced painting. We just did one coat and let it dry.  Then, I tried ironing to "set" the paint, but that got boring really quickly and I decided to take a chance and wash them. Big mistake. After one time through the washer, I had dark orange and light orange striped curtains. After a few choice words and tears, I hauled the curtains (six wet panels at least six-feet-long each) to the laundromat near my mom's. She had quarters. We ran the curtains through the wash two more times before we were happy with the outcome and then dried those suckers on high to fully set the remaining paint. Sure, Brad and I got an orange spot here or there and if you get really close you can see some spots where the orange bled into the white, but they look fantastic hanging in the living room. When it's dark, the stripes look completely solid. When they're back-lit, the stripes take on the distressed vibe you see in the above picture. It is more evenly distressed, though, when you see it in person.

So, that's it. That's our gorgeous living room.