we moved...amen, hallelujah, let the peaceful living begin. in case anyone missed it, we were living one floor above the neighbor from hell. she would bang on the ceiling if anything dropped, yell obscenities when she was drunk (always), and her last stunt...pushing all the buttons in the elevator before we got in...complete loca! after a million emails to management about the crazy they finally offered us a newly vacant apartment far away from la loca and complete with a huge backyard and private entrance...all of which is pretty unheard of in new york city! within seconds of the news i dragged jack down to the super so we could peek at the apartment; sadly, I wasn't impressed...at all (except for the yard). you see we were living on the top floor corner apartment that overflowed with natural light (i love me some sunlight) and the new apartment was on the ground floor so it was lacking some major light! also, the kitchen floor in the apartment was gross and the kitchen itself was significantly smaller! and to top it all off we were short 2 closets...tragedy!!! however; the yard, lack of crazy neighbors, private entrance and living in peace made up for all of the cons...we could make those work. it was time to put all of the hgtv watching to use and make our house a home! brace yourself for a ton of diy projects, thrift shop finds, and instagram worthy nooks in our home...everything in our home has a story, comes from the heart, and most likely made by us or purchased after hours of negotiating. enjoy! and if you have any ideas or sell any awesome pieces please share!
first up, my absolute favorite place in our home...the dining room! for this new apartment we decided we wanted something more intimate and functional for family meals so we said buh bye to my single girl "pre game" bar table and made the perfect setting for a romantic dinner for 2 or a family style meal for 6. sooo much sweat, work, and love went into this piece which is why it means so much to me, not to mention it's where our favorite people sit when visiting us. the table: we purchased 6 pieces of 2x4 from home depot, played with paints and stains until we found a winner and got to work. jack did all the screwing, measuring, and building I jumped in for the sanding and painting oh and my favorite part the branding...yup, we branded our table "jj"! the whole painting process took quite a few days so while that was happening i went on a man hunt for chairs. we knew we wanted a settee (aka a mini sofa, i just learned that was a word...i'm not really that fancy) but finding the perfect one found itself to be difficult and expensive. however, after days of searching i found a few contestants on craigslist, apt deco, and krrb and started negotiating...you have to commit if you really want to come out on top on sites like these, i committed! we walked away with a gorgeous mint condition mango colored settee from jonathan adler that retails for $1,900 for $215, a freaking steal that still seems too good to be true. fyi, my favorite of those sites is krrb it is the classifieds for apartment therapy (literally the best home blog/inspiration website ever!), all sellers are verified, they get rated for response time and rate which removes all the sketchiness, and they have amazing more upscale selections. then, we took a trip to marshalls for hangers and candles (my real life obsession, fyi i hate vanilla scents) but instead walked out with these gorgeous high back, white washed, upholstered dining chairs...perfect for the head of the table! we wanted to mix designs and textures when it came to seating; we covered cozy with the settee, antique charm with the high back chairs, vintage farm look with the table, all that was missing was modern...so what better than ghost chairs!? jack introduced me to ghost chairs and i thought that he was smoking some serious crack...ghost chairs are like $1,000 for some damn plastic...acrylic whatever the hell they are! hell even knockoff ghost chairs were over $300, not a shot in hell...they're clear like invisible and i'm going to pay money for something that's "ghost"...nope! but i knew the the boyfriend loved them and with them and pintrest made me swoon a bit too, so i did some major research and found a website that sold them for $65 a piece #winning! to complete the look we ordered these stunning flor tiles and put together a custom carpet. flor is actually a genius concept, they offer hundreds of tiles in different colors, designs, and textures you chose what you want and create your own rug. oh and get this if a tile gets dirty you pick up that single tile and throw it in the dishwasher...freaking genius! with that our dining room is complete and glowing with love
