Pulling It Together: The Living Room

Now that we have lived in our apartment for about two months, we actually want to invite people over and have visitors. Chris' parents came to Milwaukee for Memorial Day, and we are planning for some weekends with friends a bit later. Which means that it was about time to whip our apartment into shape. I thought I would share some updated apartment pictures, one room at a time! Let's start with the living room.

The place was unpacked, but was still slightly unfinished looking. We were in need of a rug to hide some of the wear on our hardwood floors, and to pull the seating area together. The room is one long rectangle with a giant cutout in the middle, and so the furniture doesn't exactly line up in a logical way. We were hoping a rug might hide some of that. We also needed a larger coffee table that was not a small storage ottoman. I would love to eventually get a giant square tufted ottoman rather than a coffee table, but our current funds were not going to support that, nor would it fit in the space. We also wanted to add some seating. At least one more chair. This necessitated a trip to Ikea. We came back with a very full car load. After some assembly... TA DA!

We ended up getting a second end table, a coffee table, and this new rug. I am loving the rug, except we cannot get the edge to lay flat. I keep tripping over the darn thing!

We also got a second chair and an ottoman, and a new set of matching cushions. I am loving the red! Chris found the little side table at Walmart earlier this week. Gotta have somewhere to put your drink down. 

You might be able to see that we moved the storage ottoman under the window in the corner. Our own little nook! The cats are loving having another place to watch birds, cars, the kids next door. Little snoops. 

  

We also finally removed the cardboard box from in front of the fireplace that was keeping the cats out. Our solution? I don't know if you can see, but Chris took a piece of clear plastic from a poster frame and put it behind the sliding screen. It fit perfectly, without being a big eyesore like the cardboard box. And it means that they cannot roll around in the soot or use the place as a litter box. 

One of my favorite purchases for the apartment were these little red bird votives that I found on clearance from Crate and Barrel. They have a nice home on the mantel right now. It will be even nicer when we get around to hanging our new round mirror. It will have to stay in the box until we can find the right hardware. 

We also finally found baskets to hold all of the dvds in the media center. After taking measurements and looking at Ikea, Walmart, and Target (twice), I finally bought these. Glad they have a home. We have so many dvds that they are in every storage basket in the room!

Well, except for these. I found two red ones for each of the end tables. (Don't mind the dirty floor or the posters waiting to be hung). 

One of the other little details that I love is this red honeycomb vase that I found at Target. I may or may not have broken one of these while I was at the store. The crash was loud enough to bring over the sales associates pretty quickly. How embarrassing! I know they cannot make you pay for something you break, but I felt like I should definitely still buy one. Good thing it is so pretty.

So that's the living room. We still have lots of items to hang up, and I'm sure we will continue to change things as we live here longer. But I am really loving the place!