Living Room Tour

Guess what guys... our living room is CLEAN.  So you know what that means: it's time for a living room tour!  

Let me start by explaining that Caleb and I live in a studio/ loft apartment.  As you can see in the floorplan, basically this means we live in one big room that's a whopping 863 square feet.  

Nevertheless, we are very proud of our newlywed nest.  I'm proud that I managed to make my extensive collection of roadside rescue furniture and DIY decor work for a small space.  And Caleb is proud that he found us an apartment that, although minuscule, still has more than one bathroom {1.5 to be exact} and a flight of stairs.

  Now with that said, I don't know if this post will actually qualify as a tour since you can pretty much grasp our tiny living situation in one photo:

Yep you're looking at it.
That's the whole living room people and pretty much our whole apartment.
Tour over. Just kidding.

Even though the photo taken from our lofted bedroom space pretty much covers it,  I'll still do my best to walk you through the things we have that define our living space.  

Alright, let's take a closer look at some of our decorative items. 

First we have our extra storage in this faux-front apothecary chest from Kirklands.  Above it hangs another engineer print that was converted to a faux pull-down chart.  Quick tangent: after I made my first pull-down chart in this tutorial, I was inspired to make another by this exquisite architectural alphabet print.

I did a little digging and learned that each letter was taken from a famous architectural publication by Johann Steingruber circa 1773.  Talk about vintage.  I tried DESPERATELY to get my hands on a reproduction image of the whole set with no luck.  But what I did find was a high resolution blueprint of the letter H.  H for Henderson - score!

Ok still with me?  Let's get back to the rest of the tour.  For those of you attention-to-detail CG readers, you might notice a couple of previous posts sprinkled through out the room...

{Geometric Lamp Copycat provides extra task lighting}

{Steve the Stag still stands on the credenza}

{Extra credit if you spotted the roadside rescue from Chelsea's suitcase table post last September}

Confession time: when she first made those tables, I was immediately smitten.  At the time however, they were promised to another project.  So when that went in a difference direction, I was ready with the rebound plan and Chelsea graciously let me inherit the pair!  

There are also a couple new-to-CG ideas in the room.  Continuing my suitcase motif, more suitcases on the wall provide extra hidden storage.

On our walls hang some original artwork - two acrylic paintings and one art piece made using a photo-to-canvas transfer method from A Beautiful Mess.

Behind the floating sofa is an old metal file cabinet that I spray painted aqua.  It provides a great place to hold all my tools since we don't have a garage.

Head up the stairs and you'll find the remnants of an old church pew from my childhood church in DC.

 And on the window sill is an antique grate pulling double duty as a trellis.

You can kind of see in this photo that the white slip-covered sofa sits up against the kitchen counter.  What can I say... small apartment problems.  But it's great if you want to make toast without leaving your comfy spot on the couch.

The lofted ceiling does help the room feel bigger and the pops of red, marigold, and chartreuse mixed in with navy gives it a playful personality. 

I know what you're asking yourself... there are no dog toys littering the floor so where's Thor?

Snoozing through the whole tour of course...

And that concludes the tour of what is definitely the focal point of our little apartment.  Hope you enjoyed it and have a happy Wednesday!

~ Cate

This post was published under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.

 

DIY Salvaged Wood Sunburst Mirror

Hi friends! Stopping by to share a very easy DIY project with you today! Though this project is simple and the supplies cheap, the end result looks far from it; this decorative piece will look like a rare gem when you're done, (especially when you customize it for your home)!

When I shared our basement makeover yesterday, I included a few peeks of our sunburst mirror above the couch.

This was the second DIY project using my smuggled paint sticks, (check out the rustic lampshade here). Let me show you how I made it!

Supplies:
About 60 paint sticks (Home Depot)
10" round mirror (JoAnns)
10" embroidery hoop (JoAnns)
14" x 14" piece of wood (Home Depot)
Hot glue gun (JoAnns)
Medium sized D-Ring for hanging the mirror (Home Depot)
*Optional: wood stain and/or paint (Home Depot)

If you plan on painting and/or staining the paint sticks for your mirror, you'll first want to lay them out all nice and straight. I used three wood stains for a salvaged wood look, so I separated the sticks into three lines.

I used Sunbleached, Weathered Gray, and Ash wood stains by Varathane.

To apply stain, I love using staining sponges - they're these white cloth 'sponges' that come in a 3 or 4 pack in the paint department of the hardware store. I just dip a small section of the sponge in, fold it in half so the stain is spread over the sponge, and wipe it on in a back and forth motion. You can even the stain out by gently rubbing a clean part of the sponge over the surface you are staining. And don't forget to wear rubber gloves! I keep a box of latex gloves in my garage so they're always on hand and within reach!

Once your sticks are dried, lay out your 14 x 14 piece on a flat surface. If you don't have scrap wood at home that can be cut down to fit the bill, you can always ask the lumber department if they have any scraps you could go through. Or just buy a 3 x 4 ft sheet of plywood for $5.

Hot glue the 10" mirror onto the center of the wood.

Hot glue the embroidery hoop around the edge of the mirror, (gluing it to the wood base, not the mirror). Embroidery hoops come with two rings. The inside one will be a half inch shy of reaching all the way around the mirror, and the outside one will be just a tad bigger than the mirror so there will be a slight gap between the mirror and the hoop. For this sunburst mirror, I used the inside hoop for a tight fit all the way around. I figured once the paint sticks were all glued on the small gap would be unnoticeable.

Now you're ready for the fun part! Hot glue each stick onto the wood by applying a line of hot glue onto the wood base, and laying the stick on top. Press down on the paint stick, and move onto the next.

At this point I got really into a groove and stopped taking pictures. Hah! But I finished the first layer of paint sticks, then started filling in the gaps, (where you can see the wood base), with a second layer. For the second and third layers, I actually broke the paint sticks down for a more authentic salvaged wood look. Paint sticks are thin and snap very easily. I just put one end of the stick under my foot, and pulled the other end up. Each one broke differently, which I love!

Then I finished by tapping a D-Ring into the back of the wood base!

Finished product!

I sure had fun making this, and it was ridiculously quick and easy! The stains and wood base I already had on hand, and the paint sticks were free, so the only costs were the embroidery hoop, ($2ish), and the mirror, ($4). Since making this mirror I've already made another one for my daughter's room using the second embroidery hoop! To add that up, that's two sunburst mirrors for a grand total of $10!

Coming up tomorrow, Cate's sharing a sweet tour of her living room with you in her Wednesday edition! 

Thank you so much for stopping by!

~Chelsea

This post was published under Chelsea's Garage, now affectionately known as StyleMutt.