Guys, I am now a grown up. No big deal.

I now live all by myself. It's crazy. No roommates. I'm pretty sure this makes me a grown up. Living alone most importantly means: I never have to wear pants. Also, I can do whatever I want to my apartment without having to worry about the wishes of other people who also live there.

Mostly this means painting eveeeeerything gray. Gray Gray Gray. I love the color gray. Ok, and some blue.

When I first moved into my new place, a cozy little one bedroom in Portland's Hawthorne neighborhood, I was totally charmed by it's thick crown mouldings, multiple closets and hardwood floors.

I was less charmed by the taupe paint covering every wall (I have heard it described as "pukey" by more than one visitor) and the pervasive smell of cat pee.

Firstly let's talk about the cat pee.

When I viewed the apartment, I am not sure if I noticed it. I was euphoric with the hope that I might have actually found a one bedroom I could afford that was in a desireable neighborhood and larger than a shoe box. Also, maybe I assumed the smell was from the furniture of the previous tenant, which was still in the space at the time.

When I returned to sign my lease, the old occupant's belongings having been removed, and the cleaning person already having visited, I noticed the smell. I did not mention it to my landlord, I think I was still convinced something would fall through and they would pick someone else. I didn't want to complain about anything until that lease was signed. Anyone who has experienced the rental market in Portland in the last few years will likely understand my weird paranoia.

My landlord pointed out to me a stain on the wood floor in the hallway, noting that it was probably from wet boots. It was definitely from cat pee.

The combination of the slight cat urine aroma and the "pukey" color on every wall was...horrifying. But  the apartment was otherwise so darn cute. And it was mine!

Well anyway, white vinegar is pretty amazing. I soaked the stained part of the floor with it several times, and aired out the apartment for a few days, and soon the smell was gone. Thank goodness.

This only left the paint to deal with.

Full disclosure, I did not get permission to paint from landlords. Don't tell them.  Also, Cecile and Patrick, if you are reading this- I'm sorry. But I promise I did a good job and I didn't get any paint on the wood floors.

So cute, yet so taupe.

I swear the color looked worse in person than in these pictures.

And then the painting began!

The painting tripod. Everyone knows this is the most efficient way to paint.

I wasn't painting the bedroom, so it became the receptacle for everything I own. All this.

This is how I feel about my newly painted walls. Like dancing, if you can't tell. I think it was the Charleston.

And the finished product?

Gray > Taupe

Also, I got a new rug since this picture was shot...update to come.

I mentioned there was also blue, right?

So...here ends the first post about my grown up apartment. Which no longer smells like cat pee.

When is a door not a door?

When it's ajar. I don't know, for some reason my parents used to tell that joke a lot. Especially in the car.

Ok, now that I clearly have your roaring in laughter, let's get to the actual point of this post. I recently posted new pictures of my repainted room, and was so proud to get so much nice feedback! I really love it, and of course that is what matters the most, since I am the one who lives in this space, but I still love so much hearing that my friends and family love it, too!

But there was something a few of you may have noticed in the pictures... Why didn't I paint the closet door? The trim around it is painted bright white, but the door itself is a dingy off white. Not a great look!

Well, I didn't bother painting that door for 2 reasons:
1. Painting doors is a task I find particularly annoying for some reason.
2. I was considering removing it all together.

Why remove the door?

Well, it went to a closet, so a sound and privacy barrier between my room and the closet wasn't much of a concern. Also, in such a small room (can you tell from the pictures that this room is SMALL?) the door really got in the way. It couldn't open all the way without hitting the dresser, and when it was left open (which I would do occasionally when I was in the process of getting ready for the day and needed to go in and out of the closet a bunch- the closet is not only where I keep my clothes but also my jewlery and make up) it constantly seemed to be in my way!

So I took it out. On my own (why am I bragging about this?). And hid it behind the BILLY bookshelf from ikea that I use in my closet to organize my shoes, make up, and jewlery. Bye bye, door.


Hello pretty, geometric curtain.

I really love the pattern on the curtain on its own, but I am not 100% sure it belongs in the room- too busy?
Either way I do really like no longer having a door there to get in my way...

I am considering taking down some pictures (they will maybe find new homes in another room?) and removing some of the cute stuff that starts to look like clutter. I am thinking if I make the rest of the room a bit more minimal, the pattern on the curtain won't overwhelm. It sure is hard having a small space like this to myself- given that the rest of the house was already decorated by my roommates before I moved in, much of the stuff I love ends up crammed in here!

What do you think- should I declutter (even the things I really like) to make the curtain I love work better? Or should I save the curtain for a future project and buy one with a more simple look to not overwhelm the space? Maybe just replacing the night stand with something plain and white that would draw very little attention to itself would do the trick? HELP ME!

In case you are wondering, the curtain is from Urban outfitters, and is currently on clearance.

A fresh coat of paint

 When I first moved in, I painted my room a shade of green I thought would look fun and bright. The truth? As much as I tried, I never quite liked how the shade came out.

Luckily, paint color is pretty easy to change over and over...You just need to buy some paint and set aside some time.

So now my room is a soothing light grey that I like a lot more!

As you can see in the picture above, I also painted the bedframe (which was an upcoming project I mentioned in a previous post) and moved around some art work. 

Additionally, I settled for a color to paint my "hello" sign that was previously above the bed- it was one of the items that ended up getting switched around, and ended up on the wall opposite the bed, above my record player.

I love how the colorful items in the room now really stand out against the soothing neutral background. Success!

Oh, and by the way, did anyone notice the arrival of yet another terrarium on my desk? I'm telling you I have a problem. 

I made that one recently with a fish bowl found at goodwill (for about $3), some gravel and soil I had left over from my last potting project, and some native plants I grabbed up from my driveway.  Then I added a couple plastic dinosaurs (I have a bunch hanging around since my local bar puts them in their cocktails!)

I also made this little one for our living room. It's full of moss and other local greenery, once again picked straight off the cement of my driveway, and once again inhabited by some plastic toys from the bar. Portland's wet weather means there is no lack of moss and greenery anywhere you look- including right on the cement of the driveway!

I really do have a problem, don't I? I may have already bought several more glass containers that are just waiting for their shot at terrarium status...Do you have a terrarium problem like I do? Can we start a support group?

Also, what do you think of the new paint color? Have you ever painted a room in a color you thought you would like, but ultimately couldn't stand? What did you do about it? 

Hey, good looking.

Hey, good looking. Hey.

Sorry, you know, just crooning in the general direction of my sweet new vintage dresser. It's totally normal behavior. Maybe.

This was a craigslist find. I love finding just the thing on craigslist, it is bound to be such an adventure. So, after I saw this guy on the furniture classifieds on craigslist, I immediately messaged its owner, asking for dimensions and subtly hinting at my deep, deep love for the vintage, chippy dresser she posted. 

Craigslit can be daunting, I have to admit probably 4 times of out 5 when I have messaged about an item I saw posted there, I learn that the item is already gone/arranged for. It's always a bummer.

But this time, I lucked out! And the dimensions were just right to fit in my space. 

The only problem? It was located out in Vancouver, Washington, and was um, a little large to take home on my bike. :)

But, I got help. 

Hey there.

Ok, that's all. 

Hello!

Occasionally, especially when I have a paper I really should be writing, I remember that I have a blog. A sad, abandoned blog. I wonder if it is silly to swing by and update a blog that has been abandoned now for months. Surely no one will think to check here. Oh well. Hello, again!

You may recognize from one of the few stray posts I have made since moving to portland, that this picture is actually taken in my bedroom at my new shared house in pretty, green, (and ok, trendy) Northeast Portland.
I just bought that fabulous wood sign from etsy, after filing it away in my favoirtes about two years ago.

*PSSST* Mom and Laura, this is where those etsy gift cards you gave me went! Thank you! I love it!

The seller who made it, Oh Deir Living, offered it in many colors, and I picked "Saffron" hoping that a pop of coral-y orange would really look cheerful there above my bed. The color came a little darker than I imagined, (sometimes its hard when you can't see things in person!) so to make it fit, I am planning on repainting it. I am testing out some colors to see what I like best with my grellow-y avacado walls.

Opinions, anyone? This photo does an imperfect job of showing the colors accurately, they are truer in the picture below. I like the pink more than I thought I would. Also digging the light orange tone I made by mixing the pink with a little of that yellow. I just bought a few color samples from the hardware store, and am planning to mix up the perfect tone.

There are a few other things I should mention about this particular part of my room pictured.

The first, is that a bigger project I am planning to attend to is painting that metal headboard. The ivory tone is just too similar to my wal color. I am thinking a light blue, possibly Krylon's Blue Ocean Breeze, which I have a few cans of.

The next thing I want to point out is my little night stand. I needed something tiny. For a long time I could find nothing that would fit that little space. A lucky day at the thrift shops (and a suggestion from a friend) helped on that front.

 In order not to block the closet door I had to find a night stand no wider than 13", which proved to be a really hard feat! Luckily, one day I recieved a text from a friend with a picture of these 3 little end tables at a thrift shop:

They were 12" square, with really pretty wood. Sold as a set, for $40. It was 3 times as many little tables as I needed at the time, but I decided it was worth it.  So I picked them up. On its own, one of those tables was just too low to make a useful bedside table. And it lacked any sort of little drawer- where would I stash my emergency chocolate?

Luckily, the thirft store next door to the one where I purchased the tables held a good solution. A discontinued box of drawers from ikea. exactly as wide as the table.

I liked that the box was not as deep as the table, so it creates a ledge to place a couple things like glasses or my cell phone. But obiously the two drastically different wood tones didn't look quite right. I wanted the box to look integrated into the table, creating the look of one piece of furniture. 

I love wood stain.

Not perfect, but I think it looks pretty good. And it fits that tiny space! And my emergency chocolate!

Well since I abandoned this blog for so long (but didn't abandon my hobbies I usually blog about!) I have a lot of little changes and projects still to share here. I even took the pictures already. But to keep this from turning novel length, I'll end this post here. You can look forward to future posts that show: what I did with the two remaining end tables, my awesome vintage dresser craigslist score, some new etsy artwork, and how I organized all my jewlery. 

Anyways...Any color suggestions for me for my awesome "Hello" sign? I know blue or sea foam may seem like the obvious choices, but I am planning to paint the headboard below it that color. Of the swatches I painted, do any stand out to you? Other ideas?

The First "Before"

While going through some old emails, I stumbled upon the photos I took when first viewing my current apartment. When my roommates and I saw this apartment we knew it was the one for us, but clearly we had an imagination. We saw how great this apartment could be, even if it looked pretty bad at that time.

How bad was it? Well each wall was painted a different pastel color, the floors in the kitchen were ancient peeling linoleum, and every surface was just about as dirty as imaginable. The landlord agreed to put in a new floor in the kitchen before we moved in,  and paint everything back to white. Things did look a lot better when we moved in, but it was still pretty dirty, and needed some cheerful updates.

I thought you guys might want to see a couple of these before shots next to how the rooms look now...
Lots of pictures, so come check them out behind the cut:





the living room:

Of curtains and chairs, and function over form

Have you seen these curtains from ikea?

ikea stockholm blad panels

I can't help but think these would look pretty nice in my living room, replacing the solid colored gold panels there currently. I am hesitant only because of the not so nice $60 per pair price tag, so for now I am looking for similar cheaper alternatives. I love the idea of something patterned, though.

Also, you may notice that the chair on the right in that picture is new. I found it on a great sale from Target, and bought it even though I wasn't (and still am not) quite sure what I think about the fabric. I may recover it at some point. It replaced an old wicker chair I picked up at a yard sale a few years ago, and gave a coat of burgundy spray paint.

Before:

Currently:

sorry for the slightly different angle!

So as you probably noticed I changed out both the chair and the lamp shade, and found a new home for the tissue box. Next up are a few more changes to this area- when my current roommate Sam moves out in September she will be taking the tan slip-covered ottoman with her, and I am considering buying another chair to math that one, especially since once again they are on sale (though still $15 more than I got that one for originally, I think I lucked out.) I am also planning on replacing the framed poster on that wall (Sam may take that too), perhaps with something handmade from Etsy, to make things more personal.

The layout of the living room I think will always feel a bit cluttered to me. The big, dark furniture, our need for a lot of seating, bird cage and table by the window is a lot in a not very large space. But here is the reality: this room really works well for the way the inhabitants of my apartment live. It is comfortable and cozy, with enough seating for us all to sit around and chat after work, or watch a movie, the table by the window is a great place to do some work, and the layout works quite nicely for entertaining. I may change little things over time, curtains art work, a chair here or there, but it is hard to argue with a space that truly works with our lifestyles.

A Few Recent Additions To My Kitchen, Plus-- A Tea Kettle Dilemma

The print I ordered from Etsy arrived recently, which I framed and hung on that empty wall above the kitchen table.

I love it even more than I thought I would! Check out the print I ordered, and the etsy shop I bought it from here.

I took the above picture the night it arrived. I had been stashing a frame I picked up from goodwill in anticipation of its arrival, so as soon as I saw that cardboard poster tube on my doorstep I framed it and hung it right away. I waited to post this until I had a chance to rephotograph it in proper sunlight. Sadly our kitchen doesn't get that much sun even on bright days, since it is in the back of the apartment, facing another part of the building. I always hope for bright sunny pictures in the kitchen, like I get in my bedroom. Another room that does get that kind of beautiful streaming bright sunshine, however, is the pantry.

Why can't my kitchen get this kind of light?

Other new additions to kitchen include a new fruit bowl  and a new bread box to keep things tidy.

anxiously waiting for fruit

My new Fiestaware pitcher is home now, and looking bright and fun on my kitchen counter. the color of the pitcher has sparked a bit of controversy, though, as I was not originally intending to buy it in the "tangerine" color (I was thinking to go with sunflower) but Kohls was out of stock when my mother and her friend Patti tracked this down for me. I actually love it in tangerine, but... It sits right next to my darker orange tea pot (a remnant from the days of my orange kitchen...) and the two don't work very well together in my opinion. I have been playing around with this a bit, where exactly to set this item so that it is not right next to the tea kettle. I am in love with my new pitcher, it is not a question. The question becomes do I love my tea kettle enough to be OK with those two shades of orange sitting next to each other. If the answer is no, this is an easy thing to fix,  as we have a second tea kettle, sitting on a shelf in our pantry. Its stainless steel finish actually matches a few stainless items we have in the kitchen already. But upon asking one of my roommates her opinion, I am now even more confused! She pointed out how much cuter the shape of the orange kettle is, and how much easier its enamel exterior is to clean should it get spatters of oil on it (which it does, as it sits on the stove at all times- we make tea far too often to justify putting it away!).

The first way I had the two orange objects:

A slightly better arrangement:

The stainless steel option:

Any thoughts? I am thinking I may keep an eye out for an inexpensive tea kettle like the orange one we have now,  in either apple green or pale yellow. I see them from time to time at Marshall's and the price isn't bad. But is that just insane? To buy a third tea kettle? Am I just obsessing over something no one will notice? Probably! Occasionally I need someone to sit me down, tell me I am being obsessive, and  remind me to breathe- it's only a tea kettle!

So anyway, I am very happy with the additions  to my kitchen, everything is coming right along. I think the real dilemma is what to do now? Nearly every space in my apartment is how I want it to be, at least within my means. Maybe fixating on a tea kettle is just proof that once I don't have a big overhaul project to do, my mind doesn't know what to focus on!

Look What I Found

A while ago this caught my eye (and the eyes of quite a few bloggers and decor magazines I read):

I have seen it for sale at urban outfitters and around the internet including Amazon.com from $120-$140. The first time I saw it I swooned a bit, I admit I have a thing for birds and owls in decor (just like everyone else it seems, put a bird on it!), They are sort of all over my room.Especially in white ceramic forms.

Well, look what I found today at TJmax on clearance for $16.99?

quite a resemblance, right?



I think he fits right in, though I am contemplating if the branches look too much like weird spiky hair coming out of his head, what do you think?

And shall we take a moment and notice the other birds in the room? Well there's Wednesday, who is hanging out on the corner of the bed in this picture, she had followed me into the room and I put her up there so I wouldn't step on her by accident while moving around to take pictures.

This little painted metal bird on my desk helps me stay on top of my school work (and yes, on that little dish where I charge my phone there are 2 painted sparrows)

There's another on the other side of the desk, next to my reading lamp. And there are a total of 4 little birds on my bookcase:

And birds on my jewelery stand:

And can you find the 6 birds in this picture?: (click the image to make it larger)

This probably seems a bit out of control, doesn't it? Being a bird lover myself (and a bird owner) and given that birds in decor are so "in" right now, I see so many sweet little bird items in stores, and just can't resist. I am hoping after the publicity Portlandia gave to the issue, someone will start a support group I can join.