poll: what should I do with my living room?

Decisions are my enemy, and you're my best friend... so I'm glad we have developed this fantastic relationship where you can help me decide REALLY EXTRA LIFE CHANGING decisions.... like which dining room table/chairs I should get. 

Every night for at least two months, I lay in my bed [during my only "me time"] and try to find the perfect set and I don't think "perfect" is going to happen in my budget. So here's what we're looking at. 

You know my living room is purple and turquoise, but my kitchen is green, and the dining room is inbetween. I've decided I definitely want a black table of some sort and green chairs, but I can't decide which shade or which height. This is where you come in. [I put a vase that is similar to one I just got so you can see how the colors will hopefully flow, along with other artwork etc.]

This is your typical dining height table [this one expands to get longer] with a really light "celery green" leather chair or a lime green microfiber one.

This is "counter height" which is really only a couple inches higher, but to me it seems cooler. Again, a cloth true-green option, and leather lighter option. 

In my head, the lighter colors would be an easier, more fun transition with colors, but now that I put these together I'm not sure if that's entirely true. Also, it's impossible to find a green chair with black legs. The C option is the only one I wouldn't have to paint to match the table. 

I'm trying to class up my apartment so which option do you think best does that? 

I know the tables are plain, but a girl's gotta save SOME kind of money! I figure the chairs make more of an impact... right or wrong?

Have I told you lately that I love you?

love,
elizabethany

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poll!: help me decide how to paint this furniture!

After your help with my hair turned out to be extremely beneficial, I'll probably start leaning on you to help me make a lot of decisions. I'm pretty terrible at them most of the time. 

Today's bother: How to paint my chest. Toy chest. Seriously. It's filled with nothing but games and toys. 

Originally I wanted to do it all bright blue.. then I decided to only do the top blue, and the bottom gray. Now that I've gotten the colors [and they're probably way brighter than they should be], I don't know if that's the right decision!

Here's a look at my living room as a whole so you can get a feel for it. [Keep in mind it's still in the middle of the from college to real life transformation.]

The coffee tables and my tv stand/shelves are white, and I'll probably end up painting the futon frame gray.... or whatever color you suggest.

Here it is so far. I quickly threw on some of the gray just to show ya the contrast... and some blue to see how it would look down there.

Is there a way to add black paint to gray and make it a little darker?! It's gotta work, right?! That gray is just too close to white for me to love it right now... but still, I gotta make a decision. Help a girl out!



I feel like I'm trying to bring too much color into the room, but like... I LOVE COLOR. And this dark purple/bright blue-ish turquoise have been the colors of my living room since junior year. Why go back now?

If you have any other ideas/tips, comment or tweet me and I'll send you loves and kisses! Or mostly just loves.

love,
elizabethany

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my new home: the difference new curtains make

I keep promising that I'll post all the changes I've been trying to make around this new apartment, but... well... I have an online shopping problem.. and boxes are constantly everywhere and as soon as I "finish" one "project," another one pops up.

I gave this little peek on Instagram a while ago...



The TV stand still needs drawers or doors, but every time I go to IKEA, I get the wrong size- go figure. The second biggest change in that room were the curtains, though. This apartment came with gross-gold drapes, and I knew they were hideous, but I didn't realize how much they can change a room until I experimented in my bedroom.

[Before I go and show you these, you need to know that this room will be my biggest project. So much of my furniture is from my sophomore year of college. It's been through eight moves. I finally got my first big girl bed, though!]

How ICK, right?!

Loved this pattern when I put it up against my yellow striped comforter, but the shorter length was a bigger deal than I expected.

I put these college-curtains up just in the meantime, and figured I'd show another big difference. 

And here's my final decision [for now]. Look how much better the darker contrast and long lengths look!

Now I just need to rearrange everything so I like it even more. I've been using this website to experiment, but haven't figured out anything I like yet. The interesting part: It's the exact same dimensions as my room in Texas! 

Curtains have to be the best way to quickly makeover a room, though. If you're not too picky on color/pattern, you could do it for like $25 and a trip to TJ Maxx. I spent hours and hours looking online, but ended up with a pair of panels from Target for a total $50.

Also... that chair is freaking me out, man. I took those pics on completely different days, but it's always in the same position. IS THIS PLACE POSSESSED?!?!

Aw hell... I'm gonna have to move again.

love,
elizabethany

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crafted: painted fabric canvases

It's  been a month and a half since I moved into my new place, and I haven't put up a single piece of decoration. Normally that's the first thing I do, but I really wanna make this place look nice and not like some college student's first apartment. I've been looking all over Pinterest and magazines and EVERYWHERE looking for ideas, and I still don't know where I'm gonna go with it, but I decided to make something for the awfully bare walls.

I went to AC Moore on Sunday when they had an extra 25% off everything in the store, and got a bunch of 16x20 canvases for $2.50 each! HELLO BARGAIN! I've always wanted to have some to play with, but there's one project I've been wanting to do.

Some people cover shoe box tops with fabric as decoration... I wanted to take that one step forward and paint a quote or something on them... then I decided to cover the canvases [kinda defeating the purpose of them, but I can always take the fabric off] and paint simple silhouettes on them.

I suck and didn't take pictures during the process, but that's because it's so easy.

NEED: 

• Canvas or shoe box
• Hot glue/gun
• Fabric to cover your canvas or top [$1/each if you get swatches]
• Simple acrylic craft paint
• Paint brushes

DO:

1. Iron out the fabric if necessary and place it on top of the canvas.
2. Glue down the sides, doing about two inches at a time and alternating sides. Make sure you pull it a little so it's nice and flat.
3. If you need to, pencil an outline of what you want to paint on. 
4. Paint.. and then love!

After I hung them up, Nugget and I both decided I should have made bigger ones... but they'll do! And I'm hoping they'll look 100x better as soon as I get some new furniture in this piece.

Also, my walls are not nearly as pink as they appear there, but for some reason my pictures always have a different tint in each place I see them.

So they're not the most artistic things ever.. but they're personalized and fun! I might end up redoing them on different fabric, but these were the only options at the time, and they'll totally work for now, don't ya think?!

love,
elizabethany

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pinspired: diy striped curtains

If you're a renter [like I will be for the rest of my life], it's hard to figure out the best way to make your house "yours." For me, I feel like it's impossible sometimes because I don't have the money to buy all new decorations and furniture to make a place really nice.

The house I'm in right now left us some drapes that were the most boring of boring, but when I looked online to buy nice ones, they were too expensive for my brain to handle. I found this pin of DIY striped curtains that were temporary and knew I needed to give them a try!

Yes, the stripes come off and no harm is done to the curtains I'm renting!

So, I gave it a whirl. I bought cheap, light, black fabric for $3/yard [had to get 6 yards] and the temporary fusible bond, cut the fabric into even strips, measured it out on the curtains, and started bonding!

As you probably know by now, I tend to take the easiest route with crafts, so mine aren't perfect. I also decided not to put ribbon on the edges of the stripes to cover up the cutting imperfections. I'm hoping no one will inspect them, but knowing me I'll point it out whenever someone comes over and I show off my latest project. I also didn't iron them out before hanging. I'll let the sun do that.

They really make a huge difference. I figured I'd like the added touch, but I think they bring a new feel to my whole living area! Here's a picture from the week we moved in and then today:

[I'm not showing the whole room because a- it's a mess and b- I wanna do a lot of revamping this month! Hopefully the official after picture will be awesome.]

Now it's time for some honesty: Doing these myself were totally not worth it. Besides the pride of finishing a project that I really like, nothing adds up. 

• It was far more expensive than buying curtains that I won't have to take apart when I move. I ended up spending around $50 thanks to a mess-up in measuring.
• It took a lot of time for such tedious tasks. 
• They're not perfect, nor are they *really* unique. I coulda gotten similar ones from ebay for $40.

If I were you, and you didn't have to salvage the original curtains, I would opt for getting some cheapies in any color at Walmart or wherever, then using tape and fabric paint to get your stripe on. Who knows... I might even try that technique for the master bedroom.

But for now... I'm going to try and forget about how much money I spent, be proud of my creation, and devise a way to steal these whenever I have to move out. 

love,

elizabethany

PS: This is the beginning of my Month of Pinspiration! I'd say it's a good start.

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