As I said in my last remodel post, our ten year old furniture was showing its age. Timing was on my side since we began the remodel in October, it was close to Black Friday sale time. I am the self proclaimed queen of shopping on a budget. Our biggest purchase was a new sectional sofa but I couldn’t find one that came with a washable slipcover. I finally ended up buying a custom couch from the same place I bought our first couch ten years ago, Sofa U Love. Olivia was happy to test all the couches out for us and was completely satisfied with our selection.

We ordered this comfy, custom, L-shaped sectional with a washable slipcover in aqua blue and white linen denim. I love that we now have a backup slipcover so our couch doesn’t end up with as much wear and tear as our last one. It was going to take six weeks for the couch to be built which was perfect since we were knee-deep in construction. Since we replaced our old black and white striped throw blanket three times, I found the perfect throw in navy from Anthropologie. It may have cost more than the Ikea blanket but it’s such higher quality that it shouldn’t get ruined in the laundry like the old one always did. We mixed our old pillows with few cute ones I bought from Target.

Next on my furniture list was replacing our Ikea coffee table and our old, clunky bar. I came this close to buying a vintage steamer trunk from Rejuvenation but it was pricey and wasn’t the best storage solution to hold all of our scrapbooks and photo boxes. I gotta say, I didn’t have a huge budget to work with at this point (thanks to our new HVAC!) Isn’t World Market is the most underrated store? I find their furniture to be better quality than Ikea and totally affordable. I not only got all of my pieces on sale, but because of Black Friday sales, they practically gave it away! I bought our coffee table, bar and hanging light fixture all under budget. So you know what that means…?

Splurge time! I had to splurge on an early Christmas present for our family. I spent weeks putting together this gorgeous photo book from our trip to Iceland and ordered museum quality photo prints from Artifact Uprising. I have wanted a photo book from them for years but I knew they were expensive. I gotta say, the quality is so worth it. That book is one of my most prized possessions. Their customer service is excellent. I plan on making a photo book from their site for every trip we take from now on.

We bought a new rug for the dining room and an eucalyptus wreath for our front door from West Elm on sale. We found a comfy armchair in the as-is department at Ikea for 60% off that fit the space perfectly. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, just a floor model. I had a mini shopaholic spree buying a new rad doormat, and a beautiful vintage French flag from Etsy. I wanted to splurge on a new doorknob set too but our furniture and accessories budget were already stretched. I just polished our old doorknob and it looked awesome against the bright yellow.

I was so happy to finally have shelves to display my knickknacks and books I’ve had in storage over the years. At first, I put my nice things away because we had a wild toddler on the loose but over time, we didn’t have the space to display them. It was like Christmas unwrapping our toys and books.

Speaking of Christmas, by the time our house was finished it was mid December which is why some of these photos have Christmas decoration in them.

As we made progress putting together our living room, Antz wanted to leave the walls stark white and clutter-free but I had a strong opinion about that…

As much as I agree with him the walls needed some dressing up. I guess I am forever a thirteen year old girl at heart because I’m a sucker for all thing cute and colorful. The last element for decorating our space was hanging artwork and family photos. We chose a mix of classic white frames, an elaborate vintage frame Antz found at a thrift store and some gold frames I bought from Anthropologie. I am hunting for an enormous frame for a poster I want to hang. I am also saving for a piece of art I have my eye on.

Here’s the room as a blank space. You can see the before and after of our refinished floors!

And here’s our newly remodeled house. Ta-dah!

We are so happy with the new paint color! What a relief we didn’t stick with that ridiculous Smurf blue. The paint is Behr Premium. Since we had to mix our original color choice it’s a hybrid of Tidal and Dark Denim.

The door color is English Daisy. I bought the ceramic bonjour plate months before the remodel from…you guessed it, Anthro. Our rocking chairs are from Lowes.

Let’s look inside.

We got rid of the old blue desk and moved a small desk we had in the bedroom in the corner. We had to find a new space for my sewing machine and our crafts. It’s tricky working with a small house (remember it’s under 900 square feet) but the white walls and higher ceiling makes the space feel more open.

 

I love our new workspace. It’s compact and efficient and best part, clutter-free! We used to keep our printer across the room from our desk which was always inconvenient. I somehow purged all of our files and office supplies to fit into this West Elm file cabinet. After having no luck in finding an affordable frame for my vintage Björk poster, Antz took it to Aaron Bros to be vacuum-formed to a piece of foam board. Then he made this frame with leftover wood. He is so resourceful! The total cost of this project was $51 bucks. I love finally being able to display this rad poster after it was in a tube for 15 years.

The bonus on top of the remodel was we finally upgraded from a queen size bed to a king! I spent a lot of money on our W Hotel mattress but after buying cheap spring mattresses over the years, but I think it is worth the investment. Antz spent eight frustrated hours building our last storage bed frame so this time we paid our workers to build the new king frame. It only took two of them five hours but our bedroom is almost the same size as our new bed. The king bed takes up so much space that we had to remove our old bedside tables because they didn’t fit. I found a new one that matched the walnut frame and just fit by an inch. By upgrading to a larger storage bed frame all of our bedding fit under the bed. Let me tell you, having the mattress shipped from New York was expensive and full of drama (that I do not want to relive) but every night when we roll around on our huge bed we are super happy. I sleep like a baby now. Liv can sleep with us (she does most weekends) and we don’t feel cramped. It was a bummer to have to get rid of all our old bedding and start from scratch but I saved $300 using coupons from Bed, Bath & Beyond.

We are pinching ourselves that we were able to create a space with so much of our personality reflected. We stayed positive during the stress of a remodel, the dumb election, Antz moving into a new office at work and constantly making compromises due to our budget. Thanks for checking it out, let me know what you think!