Operation: Get on that!

We've lived in our apartment now for six months, and this past weekend we finally got off our butts and took care of some decorating projects around here. 

We've had a HUGE stack of framed photos in our guestroom this whole time, and a stack of things that needed to be matted & framed in a closet. We recently renewed our lease for a year, so since we still have a good bit of time here, I wanted to make it into a home. 

I don't understand people who live in a rental property, but don't make it their own. When we move we'll have holes to spackle and some repainting to do, but it'll be worth it to have it look like we live here for the next 11 months. 

Our bathroom is pretty big, and very blah. So, this plain little wall was jazzed up a little with more free printables from Young House Love, some Ikea Ribba frames I bought last time we were in Charlotte and had Graham cut some navy blue mats for them. The wall is so much more pleasant & cheerful to look at while I'm relaxing in the tub every night. 

 

My mom bought me this framed print of my alma matter (UNC-Charlotte) in 2004 for Christmas when I decided to go back to school. In Arkansas, and in Charlotte, it's home was on top of a bookcase with my degree. We sold those cheap bookcases before moving to Virginia. This little wall was the perfect new home for this frame!

These colorful framed prints were about to be rehomed to a box in the garage. They were perfect on top of our hutch in Arkansas, but the hutch is also in our garage. It won't fit in the apartment =(

I had planned to hang them with my giant fork & spoon, but I just couldn't make it work.

I refused to give up on them, did some re-arranging on top of the cabinets, and found homes for them there. It isn't ideal, but I'm happy to have them out & not boxed up someplace.

We also hung these four frames I painted last year in our guest room... And while I'm happy to have them off the floor, I miss the way they looked in our old house. The dark gray walls are so much more appealing than the soul sucking beige. Seeing these gold frames on the blah walls makes me want to paint...

We definitely worked on our gallery wall.We bought a few prints while on vacation in New England that needed to be framed and matted, we framed and matted the print Graham got me for Valentines Day and hung a small sentiment Brittany gave me for Christmas. Michael's has their frames 'buy one, get one free' this week, and the first part of the week they were an additional 25% off. So, I bought a few more frames, now I'm just waiting on the prints to come in.

This little wall in the bedroom got the biggest make over. If you remember our last house, I had decorated each room with bold paint colors. I've held off on painting here, because I knew we'd have to repaint and the ceilings here are REALLY high, which makes painting a little more work. Such a huge difference though. I am such an advocate of painting. I've always said that nothing changes a room faster than a fresh coat of paint, and it's one of the cheapest things you can do. I spent $20 on paint and I have over half a gallon left.

And a picture of my painting partner for old times sake =)

The only problem? Now I want to paint everything!