reno stories! on the hunt…

this is continued on from “demo and reno“…

throughout all of this major reno work, i have been spending a LOT of time researching what we need in the apartment. give me an idea and a budget and i’m ON IT. actually, i kind of like having to work within a budget more than having no budget — it makes me get more creative! we knew we were taking a lot of furniture with us, and so we just needed some new/additional items. it was more about color and planning. i wanted this apartment to feel as homey as possible, and not at all temporary.

(from top left: white kitchen with rafters from design manifest; white kitchen with butcher block countertops from coolshire.com; mexican tiles from mexicantiles.com)

after having decided the kitchen (white cabinets, butcher block countertops, spanish tile backsplash), we needed to plan out the dining and living rooms that would surround it. i fell in love with dark teal walls , mostly because my cool buds at pistachio press and anemone press had teal walls at NSS in may. dave wasn’t going for it though — too much color, too much dark. so i got him to compromise on light teal walls, with dark teal, bright yellow, and white accents for the living room. we decided to put the teal in both the living and dining rooms, since they are essentially one space now, but the dining room gets a little more dramatic with darker furniture and more formal orange curtains. i found us a new couch on megasale at macy’s that we both loved, and a bright yellow floor lamp at urban outfitters that gives the room an awesome pop. in hunting down light fixtures, we found this A-MAZING industrial light fixture from schoolhouse electric, which has that yellow pop we want in the space. a fab dark-teal rug and new white ottoman/coffee table, both from overstock, complete the look. all other furniture — our side chairs, our tv table and tv, etc come from what we already have.

(from top left: teal and yellow living room from unknown source; yellow floor lamp from urban outfitters; dark teal rug from overstock; yellow industrial light fixture from schoolhouse electric; sand-colored tufted couch from macys.)

speaking of light fixtures, i WON a pendant fixture from niche modern. yes, WON it. they have giveaway contests every so often, so i put my name in to win a pendant at the end of the summer. one friday at 2pm, my best friend called me from work and says, “congratulations!” i had no idea what she was talking about until she told me that i was announced as the winner of the giveaway. i rushed to facebook and to my email to find out she was right! i never win anything, so i was in shock for a little while. and not only did a i win a pendant, but i won a pendant of my choice! no leftovers, no blemished pieces, an honest-to-god made-for-me pendant worth $1k. dave and i took to calling it my “major award” (a christmas story, for those who didn’t get the reference). we knew we had to use it in the dining room, so we chose the terra pendant in opaline, which is this beautiful milky white color. i just received the pendant and it is PERFECT. i cannot wait to get it installed. sigh…

(from top left: flooring from lumber liquidators; pendant fixture from niche modern; curtains from ikea, discontinued.)

anna jae really wanted red for her and her brother’s room, so she and i went to ikea to pick out their curtains, her bedspread, their shower curtain. she also picked out the wall color for “her” bathroom, a crazy-bright coral color. ha! it’s a small bath… i had wanted to make them these beautiful balloon light fixtures for the bedroom, but extra areas of lighting in the bedroom is part of what we nixed. so we are getting them a drum pendant instead. and i found this awesome circus canopy that will sit on the wall between their beds to play under. gotta love ikea! kid stuff there rocks. a fun red and white polka dot area rug from overstock completes the look.

(from top left: letters from urban outfitters; tent-top canopy from ikea; bedding from ikea; rug from overstock.com; red and white/multi curtains from ikea.)

my office is not huge — only 8×10 — but hey, it’s an OFFICE. with WALLS. and a DOOR. or, well, it will have a door soon. so i’m excited for that. i’m sick of my work taking over the entirety of our apartment, especially during show prep or when i’m packing orders. i decided that the best use of the space was to make a big L-shaped desk on a long and short wall, so that there’s room for not only my computer and cintiq, but also a long tabletop for assembly. to be as economical about this as possible, i’m using ikea countertops to make the desk, and ikea telescopic legs to put it at the right height, because i’m also putting ikea dressers underneath for cards and prints. a small shelving unit will go on a jut-out, and i’m getting a very small, shallow futon for when we have family staying over. the lighting, again, was supposed to be extended, but that got nixed. i did buy myself the new ikea vaster pendant light, in red. it’s actually a red-orange and looks almost exactly like my logo! i couldn’t help myself. of course, that’s not enough light for working, so i’m getting a few plug-in pendants to go above the desk. and i have a leftover vinyl logo decal from the show last may, which will go on a wall as well. =D

(from top left: desk concept pic from houzz.com; countertops from ikea; the nic studio logo, from NSS 2012; malm dresser from ikea; pendant light from ikea.)

the separate entrance hallway is actually rather roomy, so it would be a shame not to use it. we’re putting my easel in there so that i can actually get back to oil painting once the baby is big enough. the kids are also getting an arts-and-crafts desk in there. our current ikea lack bookcases are coming with us and going in the hallway as well. like all other rooms except the dining/living rooms, we are putting a warm white on the walls.

finally, there is the master bedroom. or, our “wing” as i like to call it. it’s on one end of the apartment, completely separated by the entrance hallway and 2 doors. it’s a ginormous room, with a dressing area containing our 2 closets and our master bath. we immediately knew we needed to put a sitting area in there, as well as a desk for dave. this is so important — we find ourselves going to bed early if someone stays over, because there’s really nothing to do in our bedroom now other than sleep. but often times i feel like staying up later to watch something, or we have work to do. plus, with the baby coming, i’ll need a place other than bed to nurse the baby in comfort in the middle of the night. we were going to buy a new loveseat and armchair to go in there, and based our entire color scheme on it — warm white, warm gray, and just touches of orange. but after realizing that the settee i picked on overstock is always out-of-stock, we decided that it might be best just to take our current couch with us and put it in the bedroom. it’s comfy, and big enough for us to sit on together or have anna sleep on if we need her room for something/someone else. this will also save us a bunch of money and the pressure of finding a buyer for it on craigslist. we’re also going to take our current coffee table and put that in the bedroom. the color scheme will be saved by throw pillows and blankets, and our gorgeous area rug, also picked out on overstock. the desk for dave will come from ikea.

(from top left: color concept pic from decorista daydreams; desk from ikea; trellis rug from overstock.com; gray bedding from overstock; curtains from ikea.)

notice a trend? overstock (for quality) and ikea (for function) — my go-to’s for outfitting the apartment in style on a budget.

i found out today that the sink in our master bath is leaning forward a bit too much to be considered safe. so, to make all our lives easier, we’re going to buy a very inexpensive vanity from home depot. we already bought very inexpensive medicine cabinets, light fixtures, and faucets from there as well. they are all nice enough and not at all offensive, as well as dirt cheap. honestly, if we are redoing our bathrooms in a few years, we’re not spending serious money on them right now. i also got shower curtains for both bathrooms from ikea, and we will be removing the awful shower doors/frames. the tubs can indeed be cleaned, including the awful green stains from years of neglect, so that’s pretty awesome.

the kitchen, as mentioned in the last post, is getting all-wood cabinets from an awesome local company. but of course we had to buy hardware for them, appliances, a sink, and fixtures. the hardware was originally going to come from another company, but they didn’t have what we wanted/needed… ikea came to the rescue again with great black hardware. we are getting the walnut butcher block countertops from lumber liquidators. the appliances were bought from both lowes and home depot during their labor day sales so that we could save some money on them. the sink is a kohler cast iron sink. because the dining room and living room both have amazing light fixtures, dave felt strongly that the kitchen one should blend in, preferably with some equally-blending hallway fixtures for the adjoining hallway. so, i found these great, super cheap mini-pendants (sold in home depot) that fit the bill for the hallways, and found this larger semi-flush fixture for the kitchen. it somewhat mimics the form of the niche modern pendant without trying to match it or taking any of the spotlight away (no pun intended). these are not my favorite lighting choices throughout, but they will work for the moment.

if you want to follow my ideas and thought process for the decorating and planning, feel free to follow me on pinterest!

and if any of you are wondering, yes, we do indeed own an awful lot of furniture that does not come from ikea or overstock. =) most of our current furniture comes from random sources — a local furniture store sold us our couch 5 years ago. our side chairs are from a brooklyn antique store. our dining table is from ABC carpet and home (also on megasale). and one of my favorite pieces in the whole place — an armoire that we currently use in the dining area — is a $35 street find from a garage sale that i repainted and put new hardware on YEARS ago. i love the hodgepodge method of hunting down all the right pieces. i’m just glad that, now that we do have the right pieces from that method, we can buy the rest from these inexpensive, convenient, stylish sources. when you’re on a budget, you have to think like that. i’m just happy to still be able to find some very interesting items that way.