My New Vintage Kitchen Table from the 60's!

I've been living in my apartment since May with no table. That's right NO TABLE. It's been a pain in my ass. I have to sit eating on my bed or on the floor at the coffee table (which is actually my grandfathers old cedar chest).

Earlier this summer my friend moved into this awesome bungalow in North Riverside (a suburb of Chicago). It is beautiful. I love everything about it. Hopefully one day I can have a place like theirs! Anyway... She offered to give me her old pink and gray 60's table that the previous owner left in the basement. Of course I jumped at the chance as I love everything vintage. The only problem was getting it to my apartment. For months we tried to plan and coordinate, but nothing ever worked out. Then Sunday morning I got a call at 8 am, "I have my parents van, want me to go pick up that table for you?" UM DUH!!

And now my little studio is complete. The best part is that it has an adorable Pink and Gray table! YAY

I'm seriously in love!! Every time I look over at my table I smile.

My Beautiful Wall Collage - How to Hang and Make the Perfect Arrangement

I've always wanted to do a wall collage. Pinterest and the design blogs I follow have been so inspiring, so when I moved to this new place I knew that I had to do one. Now making a wall collage is not as easy as you would think, especially when you have concrete walls! I sat down for hours moving, rearranging, and replacing my art, until it was just perfect and even then I still made more changes. Since this is such a complex piece I decided to think outside the box and include new and old pieces, pictures of my best friends, art from my travels around the world, flea market finds, and a piece of art my BFF made me.

The most important thing about making a wall collage, is that it doesn't have to be perfect. The colors don't have to match, it doesn't need to be symmetrical, and not everything has to be the same shape. Keep playing around with the overall shape of your art. Make sure that is has appropriate spacing between each piece, if some are too close or too far from each other it will look funny. As you can see everything is off centered, but the over all shape of the piece has the same amount of weight on each side. Doing this helps to make the piece more visually appealing. 

Once it was perfectly arranged, I took a picture of my art.

Many of my frames did not have hooks, so the next thing I had to do was go to the hardware store, purchase mini hook, and attach them to the backings. After that I traced each piece onto a piece of paper (notated where the hook was), cut them out, and then taped them on the wall according to my photo.

This was so I could make sure my art looked at good on the wall as it did on the floor. It was also very helpful to my handyman because he knew exactly where to hang each piece. 

This hung on my wall for about a month before I hung anything, just to make sure I was happy with it. Its not easy to make changes when you have concrete walls.

We started in the middle and worked our way out, while measuring to make sure that everything was perfectly centered in the middle of the wall and aligned with one another.

Once it was done I was THRILLED!

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE the way this looks! My apartment is one step closer to being perfect!

Here's a close up of the wall.

My Apartment Decor is Moving Along...

I really enjoy interior design. I know decorating my new apartment will take time, but I'm okay with that because I want it to be perfect. I decided that a chandelier in the dining area would really dress up the room and that I wanted to incorporate pieces from my family throughout the space. I love the color gray, feminine details, antiques, and being surrounded my photos of the ones I love. Here's the start of something amazing...

Dining Room Chandelier from Overstock

I had it set on a dimmer switch

I don't have a lot of kitchen storage, so I got this Ikea Expedite piece of craigslist. 

The chest and the mirror wrapped up in the blue tarp were my grandmothers (you can see the mirror hung below). The Gray and brown suit cases are from antique stores and the camel one is from my uncle. 

Here's the mirror hung up, along with my childhood dresser. I want to change the hardware eventually.
The lamps and coat sand are from Urban Outfitters.  

More soon to come!!

Painting My New Apartment - Goodbye Butter, Hello Dovetail Gray!

A week after signing the lease, I decided it would be a good idea to paint my new place before I moved in. So I said goodbye to the horrendous butter color and Hello to the beautiful Dovetail Gray!

Look at the comparison!

Oops, sorry I didn't move my massive bamboo plant.

I love the gray against the white trim...

... and it really compliments the wood floors.

I had the trim painted gray too. I'm toying with the idea of paining it white.

White cabinets, counters, and appliances blend well together against the gray.

Moving to the World of Butter - A Look at my New Apartment

Two years ago, I decided to leave the comforts of my moms house and make the move downtown to Chicago. It's interesting how quickly life can change. On a Monday I broke up with my boyfriend, the next day, Tuesday, I saw an old friend needed a roommate. That Wednesday I drove to the city to check out the space and signed the lease Saturday, which would allow me to move in 2 weeks later. My poor mother, she was so upset to see me move out. As a consolation prize, my grandma moved in... Poor Mom! LOL

Anyway, a year after living in River North at an awesome high rise with a pool, view, workout room, and more, I decided it was time for me to be on my own.  So I made the trip 10 blocks North to the Gold Coast. I left the comfy confines of my 1500 sq ft 2 bed/2 bath apartment, to a 750 sq ft studio with a wardrobe. 

Do not be fooled by these pictures. The wall color was not this good. It was actually the color of butter. Yes I said it, BUTTER. The super yellow, fake looking kind of butter too. UGH. And EVERYTHING was painted in this color, even the closets.

This color did not last very long!

The Eating Area

The Kitchen

The Living/Bedroom

The Bathroom

The Walk-in Hall Closet

The Epic Wardrobe <3