Accent Chair

I want to get a beige neutral couch for our livingroom, but I want to jazz it up with a cute accent chair. Unfortunately, accent chairs are a rip off! I found this chair at Target and this chair from overstock.com. And they are ... well okay! They are also slightly expensive.

I was thinking I could reupholster a chair that I can pick up from a thrift store or craigslist. If I'm able to do that I can save us tons of money.

Check out these great chair makeovers:

Chair #1 Chair #2 Chair #3 Chair #4 Chair #5 Chair #6

See look how good those look! Nice right? You'd never know it was a ugly old chair. So doing this will keep a chair from the landfill and keep money in my pocket. Hopefully I find the right chair(s) and have the right skill to pull this off!

My Ikea Shopping List...

It's always good to have a shopping list. It keeps you from spending money on things you don't have in your budget.

1. I want a sofa. My sister and her husband just purchased one in the kivik line at Ikea and I'm totally digging it and it's within a reasonable price range. I'm thinking a chase with love seat or a chase with sofa. I guess Paul and I will need to discuss the exact size but I think we won't have a problem agreeing on one.
   
   
2. This $3 loaf pan. I want to try and make some bread but don't have a loaf pan. Why not get one for $3?
   
   
3. Funnels. I will need these to fill jars and to fill my cleaning bottles (obviously I won't use the same one). They are really cheap at Ikea.
   
   
4. A citrus juicer
   
   
5. A new chopping board with wood treatment oil.
   
   
6. Pillows... we desperately need new pillows. Ours are pretty gross. So I'm hoping to pick up at least 4 new pillows.
   
   
7. Curtains... I actually really like these curtains for the bedroom and maybe even in the living room, but I'm unsure. Either these or a plain sheer, but I'd definitely like to see these in person.
   
   
8. Coat Stand. If we decide there is even a proper place for it. If not maybe some hooks.
   
   
9. Recycle system... I'd like 2 bins, 1 for paper and 1 for cans/bottles/plastic
   
   
10. Lighting.... I think that there are going to be dark areas on the room... I'd like to remedy that with some lamps but I don't really know what I'm looking for until I get started.
    
11. Jars... I always can use jars
    
    

We will likely not get all of this in 1 trip. The couch and maybe the bins will come 1st followed by the other less important stuff. But we shall see how it goes.

I guess some of these selections are ... well bland but sometimes bland is good b/c we can move those items with us instead of having to replace them because they don't match. I'm hoping to jazz things up with accent pillows, accent arm chairs and art work.

Packing...

In 6 days, Paul & I will be on the move between NY and Boston. In the mean time we've been packing. I'd say we are about 2/3 done. We still have furniture to take apart but we are at least mostly parked. This is what we've got into boxes so far....
I know... it's a crappy phone picture. Sorry. We still have at least 1 more large suitcase of clothing to pack. Our everyday plates, glasses, etc... and the remaining stuff in the bedroom. I'd imagine it's at least another 5 boxes and 2 suitcases. Then we need to take apart the wardrobe, the bed frame, and we should be good to go.

Thank goodness we don't need to take this couch (that I'm currently sitting on).

I won the couch battle

We have a beat up old sectional that Paul wanted to bring to Boston despite it's saggy seats, broken arm rests and the fact that it's gone through 3 separate moves already. Finally, I convinced Paul that it was not worth the effort of moving the 4 large sections of this couch only to have me hate it and want to replace it immediately upon getting to Boston.

Instead we'll go the same route as my sister and buy a smaller sectional (maybe ikea) once we arrive. Paul said he thinks a sofa and a love seat or a sofa and one or 2 armed chairs. I think the chairs would add a nice touch. From a quick search at ikea I thought these might do the trick for this room - and to tie in all the colors of the 2 visible rooms...






I thought the neutral couch in dark or light tan would do the trick and be a nice neutral. Then maybe a fun patterned chair to make the room fun. I thought a chair with greens and or blues would be nice to tie it into the color from the dining room and kitchen. Andy advice?

Blue Room

The blue room... I know, this picture sucks. Paul took it with his phone and we discussed how when a lady takes a picture of a room.... it looks far different from when a man does. None the less, this is all I got so this is all you get.

The room has pannels that have been painted a pale blue. I'm grateful for this. It could have looked like the ugly brown room. Anyway.... we are thinking of making this the master bedroom. We know that the owner suggested the larger front room as the master (it does have a walk in closet) but we thought it was just too much dedicated space for a room to only sleep in. Not to mention it's no where near the bathroom and is adjacent to the livingroom. That being said we thought of making that room into a game room/ office/ craft room.... i.e. fun room! And this blue room got designated the master bedroom... mostly b/c it's not ugly brown. B/C honestly, I think the ugly brown room might be bigger, with more windows. Hmmm, we may need to think all this through. I wish the owner painted BOTH rooms a light color. Oh well.

Moving on. My thoughts for this room are... light & white! So that being said I'd love to have white furniture in the room.... but our furniture is mahogany. So at least we can throw on some white/light bedding. And this is what I had in mind.

I like the bright blue in this quilt set. It's fresh and fun but it may be too green for the room. What do you think? I like it but it's hard to tell without being in the room with the bedding in person.

This bedding has a similar pattern to the one before it but with a darker more muted blue. It's still beautiful and ... I don't know why but I just love quilts. I think they are classic. I mean, there are some bad quilts out there but these to me are beautiful.
Or we can avoid the whole wrong blue fiasco in it's entirety by going completely white. I like white, but I'm scared of it too. I'm scared of yellowing shams and bedding.

In addition to the bedding, I want to add curtain panels. I'm thinking plain & I'm thinking sheer... oh and I'm thinking white!


The bedding is from overstock.com & curtain is from walmart.com - click on the image for website

I'm not on the Costco bandwagon....

....yet.

I've gone to Costco tons of times with my Mom or Grandma. They are both members and buy certain things at Costco religiously (toilet paper). Anyway... I never found the need. Living solo or with just Paul has never given us the need to join a bulk buy store. I did join BJs 2 years ago b/c I thought I'd go more, but I didn't. It was a hassle and Paul moved out of the house. I found little need for that much of anything.

But now we are moving and we are thinking Costco might not be a bad idea... at least for a year. The annual membership is $50 which isn't too bad if we make good use of it and there are already a few things that we want to get before we even leave NY!

We want to get these window fans my Mom bought. They are great and will help us avoid the dreaded AC that is still not in our window. Last night we nearly cooked alive and we decided it's not worth the wait to be in Boston to buy these fans. We will use them in NY and then just bring them with us.

The 2nd is tires... we may need those sooner rather than later. Hey why not get them from Costco!

Eventually I want this tent... and no, I don't care where we buy it from.

And I love that they carry lines of eco friendly products in bulk. We don't buy a lot of paper towel but when we do, we buy 100% recycled/ 80% from post consumer. We buy far more toilet paper but use the same standard. At least most of the time. They even carry a line of eco friendly disposable products for BBQs and Parties. I don't usually use disposable, but with people in town, we may not have a choice. I don't have service for even my own entire family, let alone Paul and mine combined.

So yeah... we are jumping on the bandwagon.

Coat Closet

Do you know... after all my wanting to create a coat closet organizer I realized (or more like Paul did) that we have NO coat closet in our new apartment.

The front door enters directly into the dining space. I'd like to minimize clutter as much as possible but not at the total expense of convenience. So as much as I hate these things, we may need a coat rack.

They sell for about $25+ at places like Ikea, Target, Walmart, etc... so it's a thrifty solution... but is it really a solution?
It may give the appearance of ... clutter! On the plus it's something we can put away (read as hide) in the warmer non jacket wearing months.

Another option is to hang some hooks behind the door.

This one is a few in a row and would hold up quite a few coats, but do we want it to?



This might be a better option. We can hang 2 - 4 of them in a diamond or a diagonal spaced fairly far apart. That way we can even hang our coat on a hanger then place the hanger on the hook.
Or we can find a space (maybe by the back door leading onto the enclosed deck) to hang a hat rack with cubbies. We can put a basket with keys in 1 cubby and another with some frequently used mittens, hats and scarves.
You can kinda see the area I'm talking about here. That's the back door. You can just fit a rack back there without REALLY being in the way. There is a tiny radiator there too... maybe it will dry things out quickly... or burn them. Who knows.



(all rack photos from ikea. click photo for link)

Yogurt

We love the stuff. Paul takes it in drink form pretty often and I like it with a spoon. I like plain yogurt blended with fresh herbs and lemon juice to top fish or spicy chicken. I like using yogurt with sour cream to make dips. Yogurt is yummy!

I've been buying less and less of it though. I mean really... $1.00 for one small serving... get out of town!

Then today I came across this blog -> www.thefrugalgirl.com

And get this, this chick makes her own yogurt and it looks SUPER SIMPLE. It's definitely time consuming in the sense that you have to be home for a bit. But it's not exactly like you need to be home slaving over a hot stove. Throw a timer own and sit down and relax... or get other chores done while you wait.

Check out how she makes this here:

I definitely want to try this during my time of relaxation (i.e. unemployment)