I'm starting to put together a little house tour of my humble abode, beginning with the bedroom. My apartment is one bedroom, one bath and is the top floor of a large older home renovated into apartments. It's right by Emory University village, so I've got a Starbucks, a CVS and a
fantastic brunch place within easy walking distance (so the basics are covered!). There are some things I love (like the big kitchen and lots of natural light) and some things I dislike about the place (my living room is impossibly narrow, and I have to work around carpet and not hardwood floors). I've lived here for almost a year now, and have painted, scrubbed, and arranged it into my little treetop nest.
I think my aesthetic is eclectic, colorful, vintage-y, sometimes kitschy (I try to keep a sense of humor). I love corals, reds, and turquoise, aqua, and white. I am a sucker for an obnoxious floral print. I thrift, garage sale, estate sale, recycle, paint everything, and do it myself most of the time.
And so we begin with the bedroom, which I painted from a horrible lavender color which was so hideous I had to paint it the day I moved in. The prints above the bed are vintage magazine ads (for stockings and wigs) that I got for a steal at an art festival. They are in cheap Ikea frames painted white with mats I cut out of black and white poster board.
I saw this color in an Anthropologie ad. A peacock navy blue with lots of white to balance the dark color.
My little bench that has become a window seat. An Ikea find and awesome extra storage for linens. The stained glass is on loan from my dad. It's been in my care for at least 8 years, but I am on notice that it can be "repossessed" by him when he decides on a place to put it.
The dresser was liberated from my parent's house. It used to be my brother's, and the peeling wood was in dire need of help. I painted the whole thing white, and decoupaged vintage sewing patterns all over it.
Clearly, I have an issue with collecting bangles. I made the fabric flowers, and the portrait I just did at a print making class.
The vanity tray was a great find by my mom at a neighborhood wide yard sale. The little bird is also a mom find from an antique store in East Tennessee.
The bedspread was also a great garage sale find for $5, including bedskirt and shams. I know, ew, linens from a garage sale, but they were in the original packaging and they got a good washing. Including all the furniture, linens, drapes, and accessories, I spent around $350 over the years on everything in this room.
I made my own advent calendar this year, and decided to use materials I already had in the house. I used plain white envelopes to make square paper pockets, and cut out interesting photos from magazines and some old books from the thrift store. I buy a lot of books just for the pictures to use in collages and card making. I added a little ribbon loop from scraps and hung each on a wide gold ribbon with an ornament hook. The ribbon was salvaged from some old holiday decorations my mom was sending to the thrift store this year. It was perfect for this project because it is a wide weave, so the ornament hooks worked out great. I wrote numbers with a Sharpie, and in each envelope a put a page from the Advent meditation book that is a collection of writings (new each year) by people in my church. You could put little candies or treats in the envelopes for kids, but I don't need any more chocolate in my life than there already is.
