No More Bedsheets as Curtains

So now that J and I are finished traveling until at least April we have time to work on making the apartment look nice and work on projects we’ve decided sound like fun.  When we got back from Italy we finally received the remaining part of our couch (we had 2 out of 3 pieces), only it was not delivered on the day we were promised, instead a whole week later.  Our experience with the store and staff in which we bought our couch from was frustrating and if we weren’t both in love with the couch we would seriously consider returning it.

I forgot to put away the iron before taking this!

On a positive note, having our couch finally has allowed us to determine what color scheme we want the room to be.  We won’t be painting the walls of our apartment because it is a hassle since we don’t know what will happen in the next year and whether we will renew our lease or not (if I get a teaching position in another area we would consider moving).  I wanted something that would make the room pop! against  the plain off-white walls.  Originally I wanted to go for a chocolate brown, cream, and coral color scheme, but it has proven really difficult to find décor that not only contains these colors but also has a pattern I like. 

I used the Sherwin-Williams Color visualizer to create this mock room, pretty cool tool!

Frustrated I gave up that search and decided that a better route to go was chocolate brown, tan/cream, and red.  We already have placemats that are those colors that I like and finding curtains to go with the room was so ridiculously easy.  The curtains still need a little work as they are too long for the window, but I’m working on hemming them.

The tabs on the ends of the curtain rod are actually for daytime use, when you can pull the curtains together and tie them with the pieces of fabric.

Currently I’m in the search for additional pillows for our couch.  I thought about making them myself and who knows, maybe I will still make one or two, but for the time being I found some at Target I may purchase.

Also, I found this idea for wall art on pinterest.  J agreed to help me try to make one for our living room/dining room.  When I get my next paycheck the supplies for this project will be the first thing I purchase.

We also ordered pictures from our trip.  I ordered seven 12x18 poster prints from Snapfish (I had a great coupon) so we could play around with six of them and the seventh is going in a different spot.  I taped them all to the wall temporarily so we could see which ones we liked best (I haven’t purchased frames yet), but now I kind of like the idea of all six images on the wall.  What do you think?  Too much?

Now that I finally know the color scheme, but I have no money to spend I feel like I'm constantly seeing things I'd love to try out in the apartment.  It may be a while before the entire room is finished, but I'll be sure to share our improvements with you along the way.