LIVING ROOM/OFFICE REVAMP

I’m not going to lie.  I’ve been a little bit hesitant to create this post.  Sure, I’ve been dying to show my friends what my new living room/office looks like, but showing the entire blogosphere my humble abode?  That’s a different story.  Let me start by saying that I learned early on in our marriage that frugality is paramount.  And as a result, I decided that I never wanted to overspend on rent.  For me, I’d rather spend more on something I own because it’s an investment.  Because of that decision, J and I decided that it was better to live frugally in terms of paying rent in order to save money for a home in the future.  For those who live in Orange County, you know how expensive it is to live here.  And for what we pay each month in rent, we could probably afford a mortgage payment on a 4 bedroom house were we to move elsewhere.  But we both grew up here, and this is likely where we’re going to stay.  And really, you can’t beat the weather here.  Or the beach.  Or Disneyland.  Or South Coast Plaza.

Our current apartment is a decent size one bedroom apartment in terms of apartments in Orange County.  And it’s a heck of a lot bigger than some apartments I’ve seen in NYC.  But nevertheless, it’s small.  And because we’re in the mindset of saving money, we chose to put my office in our living room.  I know, I know.  It’s a bit ghetto fabulous.  But because it’s just the two of us, I don’t necessarily need a separate room for office.  Sure, I’d love a room I could have all to myself, but that will come eventually.  So right now, I make do with what I have.

We’ve been hesitant to do anything remotely permanent to our apartment because we know we won’t be here for a very long period of time.  So paint has always been out of the question.  That is until last weekend.  A friend of mine came over and we started chatting about interior design.  I’ve been really into gray paint for a while now and when I told her about wanting to use that color in our living room/office, she thought it was a great idea.  Then she started talking about adding curtains to the room.  And I got excited.  A friend of our recently blogged about a similar predicament she had when renting.  She said she thought she’d only be there a short period of time, so she never did anything in terms of decorating.  She ended up living there for 3 years and said she regretted it every day.  So last weekend, I decided to pull the trigger and finally add some color and personality to a space that I occupy every single day.

I’m soooo embarrassed to post these before pictures because I can’t believe I ever lived and worked in a space that looks this way, but I did.  And I think it’s going to make the after pictures look even better.  Say hello to my former living room/office/heinous looking space.  And please pardon J simultaneously watching sports on TV and looking at sports websites on the laptop.  Note: all the BEFORE and during construction images were taken with my iPhone

Boring cream colored walls and no separation between our living room and my workspace.

Come Monday afternoon, gray paint samples were chosen.

And by Tuesday, we were painting our gray accent wall.  The color we chose is called Anonymous.

But simply painting an accent wall wasn’t enough to satisfy my need for change.  So I decided I wanted mustard yellow curtains.  And then I stumbled upon a page I pulled out of a Crate and Barrel catalog last year.  Oh how I adore C&B!  These colors just speak to me and I figured since we’d have the gray and the yellow, why not add in something teal?

So we purchased an inexpensive and paintable (that’s my new word) set of drawers and painted them “Cozumel”…

while simultaneously watching sports.  Although I wasn’t watching because I was too busy painting (:

Now for the AFTER images which were taken with a real camera.  These curtains are hands down, my favorite part of my new living room/office.  And they’re linen.  Swoon.  I’m also loving this new lamp.  I love lamp.Here’s my teeny tiny office.  At least it’s now sectioned off so it doesn’t look like part of the living room portion of the room.  The wall is still a work in progress.  I want to hang magnetic metal boards on the wall behind the desk but that’s another project for another day.  Oh and that iMac will be updated as soon as the new ones come out.  It’ll be 27″ of loveliness on my desk.  That is unless they release one with an even bigger screen…dare to dream.     On to the living room.  I’ve changed the arrangement of things on the bookcases about a billion times already.  That’s still a work in progress as well.  We’ll be updating pictures and rearranging in the near future. I only recently realized the concept of accent walls and I’m seriously in love.  I think gray for the entire room might have been too much, but this is just enough for me. Please ignore the couch.  We got it when we first got married and we’re not in love with it.  We want a gray L-shaped couch.  That will be something we update eventually. Here’s a couch that I found in the Crate and Barrel catalog last night.  Wouldn’t this look amazing against that gray wall?  Too bad it’s out of the budget and would look awful with the carpet in our place.  Someday…This pillow on the other hand is much more affordable.  The one on the left is the one I want.  I purposely walk by the aisle when I’m at Target just so I can look at it.  I’m thinking about trying to craft my own.  I’d use a gray pillow and then put one big yellow flower in the middle.  If anyone knows how to make those flowers, let me know!