There are still a ton of projects that are underway currently, but I'm going to start in more or less where I left off after this post about removing our cat-pee carpets. So here goes.
When we moved in I needed at least one space to feel done. I prioritized the living room to feel like an actual living space and not a construction zone.
For the most part, getting there included cleaning the wood floors as well as possible, removing all the nails and staples, and painting all the woodwork and walls. I went with bright white for the woodwork, and the same medium gray I had in the living room of my last apartment. I had really liked the color in my last place, and thought it looked nice with my furniture, so it was an obvious choice.
The living room in my new house has great natural light (hello giant south-facing windows!) so the gray tone appears softer in this space (of course the only time of day I used to take pictures of my old livingroom was in the late morning when there was actually good light through my northeastern facing living room window)
See how I stuck to what worked in my last home and even arranged the pictures on the wall almost the same?
(taken before I replaced my harvest gold couch with a...harvest gold couch)
The living room in my new house in Montavilla-
Of course, this living room is much larger than the last one, so I realized I was going to have room for more furniture. Specifically, I had the whole other side of the room along the window to decide what to do with. As a reminder, here is the side of the room I am talking about, as it looked when I first got the keys. Ugh.
And here it is with fresh primed white walls, ceilings and woodwork, and all of the signs of living in a construction zone:
I already had a pretty strong feeling of what I wanted. I was hoping to find a nice long credenza to sit in front of that window, in which I could store my records, and on top of which I would probably arrange plants, stacks of books, etc, as I just can't help myself.
I hunted the internet for a picture of the type of furniture piece I'd ideally like to find for that spot. I texted Evan this inspiration photo from Design Sponge:
It's just a screenshot from my phone, from the website www.designsponge.com, whose blog I've been reading for 7 years now. But I liked stumbling upon it because the walls, trim and floors are very similar in tone and finish to mine, and I loved the plant stand and that midcentury modern credenza/dresser was just the kind of thing I had in mind. I actually sent this picture to Evan specifically to see if he could weld me a plant stand like that someday. He says he can, so I guess now we wait and see.
But anyways.
I was looking for a long, low dresser or cabinet for that wall. I checked goodwill daily, and walked into the vintage stores on Hawthorne regularly to check, I looked online at target, overstock, world market and a lot of other sources. But my budget just couldn't take the hit of buying a big piece of furniture, even if it was relatively inexpensive comparatively. All of the home improvements we bought materials for, never mind the work I had to have contractors do- replacing the roof, updating the electrical panel, buying and installing a hot water tank and furnace- meant that spending around two hundred dollars (a likely minimum estimate if I could find a piece of furniture like that either in a vintage store or a knock off from somewhere like target) on something that wasn't entirely necessary was out of the question.
Luckily, wandering on my lunch break one day, I found a great piece for only $25. It was at City Liquidators, an office liquidation warehouse near my work, where I occasionally visit just to see if there are any really amazing pieces.
The place is like a maze, and the open warehouse feel and winding layout always makes me feel a bit anxious and lost as I explore the 5 floors of randomly scattered office furniture, much of which are in varying states of broken-ness. But there is also something strangely wonderful about wandering each floor alone, seeing not even a single other shopper (maybe because it is a weekday lunch hour, or maybe that is just always how it is there) as I try to find my way back to the main stairwell that seemingly keeps disappearing right when I think I'm getting near where an exit door should be.
Scenes from City Liquidators, Building 2:
In a corner on the second floor, on its side, and jammed between other furniture, I spotted this guy:
The condition this was in was pretty rough, but the quality was good. In fact, from looking inside, it seems to have been built by hand, with pencil markings and measurements sketched out softly on the insides of the cabinets and drawers.
I got a little hint to how long ago it was in use when I found this piece of paper inside one of the drawers:
There was also a lot of discoloration and some veneer chipping on the drawer fronts.
I put Evan to work figuring out a good way to re-secure the top. Thanks, Babe!
I also took the time, while Evan worked on fastening the top, to wipe the front down with two coats of Walnut Restore-a-finish, my magic bullet product for disguising the kind of discoloration this piece had. There was nothing to be done for the veneer chips, but overall I think it turned out to still look pretty handsome.
See how well the size works to anchor that whole wall and make it look like part of the space? Obviously this piece of furniture is not as charming as my screenshotted example, but I liked its warm-wood-meets-industrial and the center cabinet is big enough to hold all 200-something of my vinyl records, so there you go.
At the very least that corner is looking cuter than it was when I first moved in ;-)
If you've been viewing my pictures on Instagram, you may have noticed that there are other improvements in this space that have happened since this picture- like the new front door, updates to the fireplace etc. I guess the good news is, I have a lot more to write about!
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