Living Room Makeover - Beginning Stages

In honor of moving into my new bachelorette-pad in downtown, I've been going crazy gathering decorating items (and subsequently spent a very unhealthy amount of time in Hobby Lobby).  I've done a lot of shopping and a lot of blog perusing so I've picked up some great bargains and snagged some fab ideas.

I've decided to completely re-do my living room color scheme (and bathroom and eventually my bedroom.  Eventually...) for a couple of reasons.

1) I gave away the couch I had in college when I moved out.  Thus I will be purchasing a new one and thus it will now be exactly what I want.  (I'll be making this big purchase soon so if I skip a few days of blog posting you can assume I've just passed out from the anxiety of spending so much all at once.)

2) I lived with boys all through college (I highly recommend this - they bring zero drama) so our places of residence were always kept very..."gender neutral."  Don't get me wrong, I loved my first college apartment (and my roommate - love you, Zach!).  We tried really hard to make our "house" a "home" and thus decorated as creatively (albeit cheaply) as we could.  Here are a few snapshots of my favorite things in my first apartment:

If you've been reading my blog, you know I'm a huge quote person.  This should pretty much confirm it if you had any doubt.  I loved this quote so much (especially during my college years) that I decided to paint it on the wall under the kitchen bar!

This fancy schmancy wall came about because we couldn't find anything cheap enough, yet large enough, to put on this wall.  Anything in our price range was too small and looked dumb.  And anything large and nice enough was way too pricey.  Alas, we painted...please excuse the blue painters tape - this was taken right before we moved out and painted back over it!

So obviously I love to paint.  And get crafty.  And find DIY projects.  And after living with a color scheme of brown, maroon, and cream (with splashes of army green and mustard yellow) for years, I've decided I needed a change of scenery.  And that I would do most of it myself.  For as cheap as possible!

Now, I'm not really the super girly type - especially when it comes to home decor items.  However, now that I'm living on my own I don't see the harm in bringing some good old-fashioned flowers into the house!  Or some paisley prints.  Or some button flower bouquets (my next DIY).  Or some embroidered throw pillows.  Ok, I think you get the point...

My new color scheme will consist of dark brown furniture (think antique), a white couch (think Pottery Barn classic), with an accent color of seafoam green/blue (think awkward color you love but don't know what to call).  I got a little ancy and wanted to start decorating before I moved in so I went ahead and did my first new-apartment-DIY as part of my living room make-over.  Here are a few snapshots:

I started with this.  Some paint (of course!) and a sheet of scrapbook paper.

I forgot to take an "in between" picture but here's a rough view of the monogram before I cleaned up the edges!  And the color is a little funky in these pictures...its less green, more blue.

And here's the finished product!  It looks much cooler in person because you can see through the paint in some places so it gives it a very rustic/aged feel.  And that's not the frame I'm going to use - I haven't found a brown one that I really like, yet, and had that laying around for another DIY project I'm planning so just popped it in that frame for the time being!

So there you have it!  The beginning stages of my living room make-over.  Check back for what I'm sure will be many more posts on home decorating and my DIY projects!