MY LIVING ROOM

I'm almost 34 years old and have never owned a home. That means I've spent a lot of adult years in rentals. Never feeling a sense of permanency and being a bit frugal, I've never taken the time or spent the money to have a living room that I love.

Our move to an apartment a few weeks ago was solely for the purpose of saving money so that we can pay off Tim's school debt faster. Normally that would make me be even more hesitant to decorate the way I want. However, through random circumstances, our apartment complex painted one of our walls the color of my choice. A beautiful blue.

I love, love, love colored walls, white furniture and a few light/medium wood pieces! A lot. However, I've never had a colored wall in my life. Well, that wall inspired me. I figured that if I already had a little color and if we're going to be here a while, then I should spend a little money to really make this place something I love.

I hopped on Craiglist to look for the furniture that I've coveted for years. I periodically look for it there and drool over it on the IKEA website. Guess what? Not only was it on Craigslist, which it always is in some form, but it was the best deal I've ever seen. Ever. And it was about $10 more than the deposit we were getting back from our rental in Beaverton. Clearly it was God's will that I get the furniture. Don't you think? To make things even better, the sellers, who live over an hour away, ended up giving Tim a discount because of some little marks their kids got on the slipcovers. So, I got both pieces for less than half price. Love it!

Tim, who has the ability to figure out spatial stuff in ways that I'll never be able to, was able to load a couch and chair into our van. I'd never have been able to do that. Then, thanks to the e-mail and digital pictures, Beep and Sonja were able to help me figure out how to arrange the living room. Next up was a collage of pictures on the wall. A couple pics had to be matted and re-framed, so I got some cheap frames at Value Village, mats on sale at Freddy's, and busted out my black spray paint. Then Tim did about 75% of the work in getting the collage done and listened to me stress out while I did my 25%. The man deserves an award.

Here's the almost finished product. I have a couple little frames that we need to fill, but I love the way the collage turned out! The lamp on the left is ultimately going in the boys' room, but the living room is borrowing it until I find the lamp I really want. Meanwhile, the cave feel of the living room had to end. And the couch will eventually have some pillows with a little black and blue in them.
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Now, the whole living room isn't done, but the above view, taken from the hallway, makes me smile. Below is a picture taken from the dining room. All but one of the plants on the shelf will be put somewhere else and I need to figure out what to put on the wall. Maybe a mirror. The "5 Ws" frame was there, but we ended up adding it to the collage. The rocking chair, which my grandparents bought to rock my newborn mom in, doesn't fit in the main seating area, but it makes a cozy little reading corner by the window. And just as an fyi, the couch isn't normally pulled out from the wall and flaunting the lamp cords. I just forgot to push it back after hanging the pictures.
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This is the view from the front door. That big wall space is going to have something colorful and with a chunk of blue in it, perhaps a world map, hung on it. And that cord will get hidden. And something, maybe a lamp, will get put on the TV cabinet.
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So, it's not done, but it's getting there. I think I'm going to have a living room I love. Cool, huh?