The Contented Renter

I AM a giant

2011-10-21T11:57:00.005-05:00

So I had been going back and forth about whether or not to throw my hat in the ring for the awesome Emily Henderson's I'm A Giant! Blog Challenge. I've been mad googling dollhouses for a couple weeks, but couldn't find anything that I thought I could really do. And then it came to me on my Overslept Again Cab Ride downtown this morning...

I am not a house person. I am an apartment person. More importantly, I am a Chicago apartment person. An in my mind, the greatest apartments in Chicago...

Oh em gee, Marina City. You are so curvy and scrumptious.

Ever since I did a tour there a few years ago for a surprisingly interesting zoning class, I've been in love with this building. So I decideded. My "dollhouse" is going to be my dream Marina City studio apartment. And I am so excited now!

Here are some inspirtastic house tours from Apartment Therapy:
Jules & Ikers Marina City Heaven
Stephanie's Life of Pie

I am most excited about using some of the new woodworking skills I've slowly but surely been acquiring to put this thing together. Looks like several trips to the Crafty Beaver are in my future. (The Crafty Beaver is a hardware store, not a burlesque show. Although, awesome.)

New Bedroom: Version 1

2010-02-26T17:06:00.004-06:00

Moodboard for a possible bedroom redo. The only piece of furniture I have from this one is the desk. Let's call this "Elegant & Modern":

I like a lot of white in the bedroom, as you can tell. The walls would be a soft aqua that would play into the rest of the house. The bedding would stay white. A new bed and side tables would come from Ikea. The curtains would be hot pink for a pop of color and relocate from the living room. The patterned fabric would be two 16" square throw pillows. And the major purchase would be the Starck Victoria chair, which I really have loved for a long time.

Look! Pretty!

2010-02-22T14:39:00.005-06:00

Sarah Brown helped me recover my dining room chairs this weekend. Here is the before:

They are super cheap Ikea chairs, covered in an aqua-ish former table cloth. I love the color but with the dark chairs it reminded me too much of mint chocolate chip ice cream. So I went through my fabric collection and found some nice stuff that I had previously used for throw pillows. (Helpful hint: if you find a fabric you really like, buy twice as much as you need for the project you're thinking of. I've never regretted having extra fabric around.)

There was just enough left for my four chairs. Et voila!:

So cute! Thanks, SB! You're invited to dinner any time!

Cushions (as the Brits say...)

2010-01-27T11:50:00.007-06:00

Finally, I have made cushions for my couch. (We Americans call them "toss pillows")

I am super please with the way they turned out. A little background: my living room colors are aqua, purple, and hot pink (yes, I know, tres girly). I had been looking FOREVER for throw pillows that:

1. Incorporated those colors.
2. But not too much.
3. On a neutral background.

My first effort involved some linen fabric, various colorful ribbons, and StitchWitch. This ended in a disaster I am too embarrassed to show.

But I had this linen fabric that I had bought a bunch of on sale last summer. And I had acrylic paints left over from my triumphant rug-painting experience. And, JoAnn's had a stencil that I kind of sorta liked. So, I thought, why not give it a go. At the most - you will lose $8 of basic fabric that will not be hard to replace. So, I stenciled the design on and liked it. Then it was just a simple matter of stitching and stuffing and sewing closed and voila:

Like I said, I dig them. I like that they are neutral, with a kick of color. I think the stencil is an interesting design without being to "stencil-y". The girls also look like they approve.

Cost break down:

1 yard of linen: $8 (sale)
2 acrylic paints: $2
Stencil brushes: $5
Stencil: $4
Stuffing: Free (recycled from old cushions)
Total: $19 ($9.50/pillow)

Time: 7 months planning (ridiculous), 2 hours doing (good!)

Finally...curtains

2009-06-15T10:45:00.003-05:00

I made curtains for the living room this weekend. Hot-pink curtains. Hot-pink taffeta curtains! Yes, they are a tiny little bit "Barbie Dream House" but I love them. Here they are:

I got the material from fabric.com for less than $5/yard, and used 2 packets of Stitch Witch to do the hemming. The clips were $5/pack of ten at Target. I already had the drapery rod. I also picked up the bambo blinds from Target for $15/each. So, the whole project came out to $80 - but I think it looks like I spent a lot more.

And what do the fur babies think of the curtains?

"As long as we can still sit here, we cool."

Assembling my wall of art

2009-06-12T10:21:00.014-05:00

I lived in my apartment for a year before putting anything on the walls of my living room, for a couple reasons. First, the picture I had above my sofa in the last place was too dark for the new place. Second, I wasn't sure if I love-loved my furniture arrangement. Third, I wanted to add some color to the living room. Finally, I wanted to shop around to find stuff I liked. Here's the best I can do for a "Before" photo (ignore the bored nephew):

But once I hit the year mark, I realized it was past time to get started. I knew I wanted to do a collage-type arrangement, since it's a pretty vast wall and a piece would have to be Damn Big to not look lost. My first stop was etsy.com, where I finally bought the YumiYumi print I've been thinking about for a while, as well as two other prints that spoke to me:

"Wild Garden" in Kaleidescope from YumiYumi.

"Summer Swallow" by Hadley Hutton.

"Thought Print" by tuttistudio.

I played around with the images in paint until I found one I thought I liked. Also, Young Alex, my personal Art Consultant, approved. Note the two blank spaces - I had to add those in to find some kind of balance. Also, this is not my couch, but is really close.

I couldn't figure out what color to do the frames. Most of the wood in my living room is dark. I was worried that doing dark frames would be too dark on the wall, and it would distract from the pictures themselves. So, I decided to do white frames. Also, I knew that I had quite a few frames that I could paint white, so it made money sense too.

I dug around in my big box o'art (Yes, I have a big box o' art. I tend to buy what I think is pretty, even if it doesn't work. But then, it's there when I need it!) Sure enough, I had a 16x20, a 10x18, and a 8x10 frame that could be painted. The 10x18 even already had some art cards that would go with the arrangement. And, as a special bonus, there was an 11x14 flower print that could be used as well. It was from my lavender phase, so it will probably be replaced soon.

A trip to JoAnn's later, I had both old and new white frames. And, voila:

View from the doorway (Look at Scout in the corner - too funny!)

Straight-on. (Yes, I'm not the greatest photographer!)

It definitely is more eye-catching than the blank wall, no? And I've already picked out some colors from the pieces to put in the room, most notably in my new curtains (coming soon).

In the summer, I turn into Martha Stewart

2009-06-11T15:00:00.002-05:00

I've been in a super-crafty mood lately, which happens every summer. I think it's because when it's light out later, I don't feel the need to crash onto my couch as soon as I get home. Last night, I even got the drill out to put up my window hardware, in preparation for my curtains.

Here are some of my upcoming projects:
1. Finish living room curtains
2. Paint 6x9 rug for living room
3. Make cushions either out of linen or curtain fabric.

I also need to do a huge amount of spring cleaning that hasn't gotten done yet. Hopefully I can button down and get some work done over the next few weeks!