moving!

Tomorrow is the day - we're moving. Just 10 blocks from our current Park Slope digs, thankfully. Our apartment is a total mess - but that's just how it goes. It always gets REALLY bad before it gets better. It's been fun and challenging for me and Brooklyn Boy to really nail down the look for the next apartment. We had the stoop sale so we could refresh some of our current pieces and supplement with new stuff. Now we're in the 'don't buy anything else until we're in the apartment' phase. I'll share our current mood board tomorrow - but as of now we have a black Persian rug, 2 French leather club chairs, a leather sofa, a vintage bakers rack and a desk. We've got really solid basics taken care of. Next big challenge - curtains. 

Currently, this picture (photo cred unknown, except it's ALL over pinterest) is providing some welcomed inspiration! Lovely ikat that is interesting and large scaled but not too much. An animal / antler element. Pattern. Not too he or she. I just really like it. So thanks unknown photo - I welcome you to my day!

west village apartment recap

Finally! Our West Village Apartment Refresh before and afters :)

Bet you thought you'd never see these! 

Here we go. Disclaimer to this project is that it's a REFRESH. No demo. No architectural designing. Our assignment was to use the existing good bones in the current apartment, heavily supplement with intentional and interesting pieces, and tie the apartment together in a cohesive, warm and styled way.

Lets start with the bathroom. Here's the BEFORE -

Hey Brooklyn Boy!

And here's the AFTER. Using a pint of paint, new storage and towels - the bathroom took quite a turn towards clean and simple! Ignore the missing light bulb :) 

Onto the upstairs bedroom! This apartment is super interesting - it's 3 levels. So the bedroom is actually a massive sleeping loft. We change the orientation of the room completely to make it much more functional and adult feeling. 

Bedroom BEFORE -

Bedroom / Desk AFTER!

As you can see, we moved the bed and placed a new desk and chair here. You'll understand the context of the room more by taking a look at the next picture - originally, she had a desk in a nook toward the back of the room. 

Bedroom BEFORE -

We instead, put the bed snuggly in the nook. We used a West Elm headboard, Home Depot chandelier and most of the bedding she already owned. (We just flipped the duvet over!) 

Here's the full bedroom! Feels much more grown up. 

Now, onto my favorite part. Her MASSIVE living room space. This was technically the 2nd floor and housed huge windows, a living space, bar area and dining spot. Here's the living room BEFORE - 

One more before shot. But hold on. Just want to FYI you that the AFTER is definitely a change, but at a first glance you'll think "Wait, what's different?". We left almost all the furniture where it was. We felt the current spacial arrangement served the space best. Keep that in mind as you move to the AFTER - 

Ta Da! Living Room After! 

We brought curtains to all the windows, an appropriately sized area rug, pillows, recovered the wingback (more on that in a sec), decked out the dining area and consolidated a lot of the 'stuff' around the place.

Oops. Iphone picture. But I wanted you to see the cofee table!

FYI Hannah's Dream Job - Producing reupholstery projects! I love pairing fabric with furniture. Gosh so fun.

Anyways, our client had a wing back chair that had been passed down in her family. This was a perfect reupholstery project. Chair before - 

Testing out our fabric from Mood - it's a map!!

And the finished product! So happy with how it turned out. 

Brooklyn Boy and I get such a kick out of styling the bar area. We knew this was an area we wanted to spruce up for our client.

We found this crate + singer base as an antique/flea/thrift store in Connecticut. Doesn't feel as clunky and heavy as the prior piece, and I think the signer sewing base is interesting! 

Next Up - The dining table. If you remember from the picture below, our client had a round wood table and 4 wood chairs. WHAT an opportunity to do something different. So we did . . .

4 vintage metal chairs, an oversized hanging pendant shade and a cowhide rug made for quite a change! I love when one space can contain multiple areas and environments. This is a great example of exactly that.
 

This West Elm pendant was on sale - it has such a modern / tribal look. 

Love these chairs :) 

 That about wraps it up! I have a few kitchen pictures to share later on! Hope you like the refresh!

details

• Brooklyn Boy found this cowhide off of Craigslist for $100. It's a beaut. She's going to live in the kitchen of our new apartment!
• I'm addicted to depositing checks through my BOA app on my phone. It is SO easy. Thank you Bank of America! 
• Also loving the Live Chat function on most retail sites. Sister introduced this to me and it is so helpful when you work a corporate job! You usually have to fight for tiny pockets of time to handle life admin at work and doing it online, but with an actual person, makes it so much easier! For instance - today a West Elm consultant via Live Chat honored the 20% Rug Sale that was going on last week, so I could purchase the rug we wanted! All through a little chat box! So cool.
• It's freaking cold in New York. Like the coldest weather I have ever experienced. Brr Rabbit.

the nest

I did some blogging over at the nest yesterday! 

the nest

I talk about a few basic ways to make that Dating to Engaged to Newlywed transition a little less painful for your home! Check it out when you have a moment :)

PS. It's so friggggggin cold here. I'm still thawing out and I've been sitting at my desk drinking coffee for an hour. Goodness!

stoop sale recap

A funny thing I've learned about Manhattan and Brooklyn apartments, is that you buy furniture specific to your current apartment.  There isn't much Oh, I love this oversized leather sofa, I'll have it forever! Not to be a Negative Nancy, but it probably won't fit in your next apartment. It's just the reality of our small charming city apartments.  

Brooklyn Boy and I are experiencing this reality right now as we're prepping to move in a little over a week! There are things that fit perfectly in our current apartment but will have no room in the new space. Likewise our current living room is SUPER slender so we don't even have a coffee table! Needless to say, we had some gaps to fill and decided to have Stoop Sale. This way we could recycle the Stoop Sale profits into the new apartment! 

Thankfully, the weather warmed up on Saturday and it was a beautiful day! When you're selling stuff on the sidewalk in front of your apartment, weather matters! We kept the coffee pot brewing all morning and sweet neighbors and friends kept swinging by. It felt wonderfully small town!

Here a few pictures of the day -

This baby is still for sale!

Sweet Norma. She practically ran the show on Saturday! She thought everyone was there to see her, it was hilarious. Once everything was wrapped up, she collapsed onto the floor and napped the rest of the day. Exhausted apparently!