New Apartment: Living Room and Bedroom

what my bed usually looks like after Charlie has gotten comfortable

Finally, dear readers, we're picking up the house tour again! I'm glad we waited because, in the two weeks since my last post from the tour, my mother brought over a chair from her house and I bought a vacuum. Charlie seems to produce a new dog in shed fur every week - which was the inspiration for Charlie Lives Here - so I feel like I'm in a brand new home all over again after this weekend's clean! (By the way, if you want an inexpensive but totally functional vacuum that deals well with pet hair, I recommend this one from Eureka that we got at Sears.) But, as I noted in part two of the tour, this apartment is still in progress. I've lived here for nearly six weeks now, and every detail still isn't in place; one drawer of the dresser is missing its knobs because of a problem with the drill, artwork isn't yet hung, I haven't figured out what to do the disguise/hide all of the wires under the TV stand... you get the idea. Obviously I'd like to have moved into a finished apartment, but that's just not how it happens in real life, even when you're working with a small space. So let's explore the way things really are, shall we? Welcome back to my home!

If you stand in my dining room with your back to the clock, you'll be facing into the living room with the wall of windows to your right.  The living room and bedroom are technically two halves of the same space, but I've put a real effort to making them feel distinct.  So let's start, shall we?

(By the way, this is the part where I apologize again for my photos. When I figure out how to do lighting and editing and other mad photography skillz, you'll be the first to know.)

As I go through these photos and identify each piece, I'm actually surprised by how few of them I bought.  I felt like I've been hemorrhaging money for the past two months, but it seems I owe my parents (ad my late grandmother) a bigger thank-you for their generosity than I realized!  The mission chair next to the couch came from my parents' house and used to be in their bedroom, the end table in the corner was in my father's study, and the standing lamp lived in the basement for years.  The ottoman came from my grandmother's apartment; the couch was a hand-me-down from Little B.  (Charlie and I appreciate it very much!)  You can see Charlie's bed to the left of the couch as you're facing it - his toys are never not scattered around the whole place, but I piled them together for these photos - and, if you come into the living room and turn around, you'll be facing the TV which, along with the cart it's on and the two chairs on either side, all came from Grandma's apartment.

The rug seems to have been your favorite piece in my apartment!  (No one told me that new rugs pill like crazy when you first get them, so heads up...)  It's the Keno Linked Trellis Slate Rug from RugsUSA and I bought it for $190.62 at 60% off.  The pillows on the couch are from Target and were $25 each on clearance; they're no longer available but I was also thinking about getting two of this style.  The tray is Threshold from Target, too, and was also on clearance and isn't on the website anymore.  Can you tell I have a serious crush on this new line?  I'd go trawl through the aisles every other weekend when I was getting ready to move, looking for rogue pieces on clearance.  (Fortunately for my wallet, I've stopped this habit.)

If you still have your back to the couch and you turn to the right, you'll find the bookcase in front of you and, beyond that, the bedroom.  My first instinct was to buy a 4x4 Expedit to serve as the divider, but I'm glad I found this one, which is actually two $39.89 ClosetMaid Cubeicals from Target, before I went to Ikea.  (The two cloth boxes in the Cubeicals, $5.99 each, are from the same line and come in lots of different colors.) I wanted the Expedit because I liked how you could see straight through the shelves, which would allow light into the bedroom from the living room windows and make everything seem much more open and airy while still partitioning off the bedroom, but I like the ClosetMaid bookshelves because they have the same effect while being much less bulky.

So, on to the bedroom!

You've probably seen a million Instagrams similar to that top photo but with a squishy dog demonstrating how comfortable the bed is!  It really is unbelievably comfortable, which was a gamble because I bought it all - the mattress, box spring, and frame - for $150 off Craigslist.  (Nana, it's fine.  The bed is safe.  It's the best bed I've ever slept in.)  The duvet and pillow cases are the Alvine Kvist set from Ikea that all the cool kids have, apparently, and cost $29.99 and my mom made the knitted blue pillow.  Both "nightstands" are from my parents' attic; the one next to my side of the bed, with the door, is perfect for hiding a trash can, which Charlie would get into if it weren't shut away.  I do plan on replacing them eventually but they're ideal for now!  The two bedside lamps are also from Ikea and cost $19.99 each; I like their simplicity anyway but I also chose them because they match the standing lamp in the ling room.  And that adorable blue rug next to the bed is the Raquel Rug from The New Preppy, $29.99 on Joss and Main back in April.  The paint color of the accent wall, if you're wondering, is Benjamin Moore Grand Rapids 835.

Now, with your back to the bed you have the closet door on the right and, directly in front of you on right hand side of the wall, a chest that had lived in my childhood bedroom but was relegated to the basement a few years ago.  The dresser, on the left hand side of the wall in front of you, was a $40 Craigslist find that I spray painted with two cans of Rust-Oleum in Stone Gray.  I also added knobs from World Market that cost $3 each, but I had to get new screws for them because the ones they came with weren't long enough for the depth of the front of the drawers, proving that the dresser is not from Ikea!  The mirror on top of the dresser was also from my childhood bedroom.  Finally, the rug at the foot of the bed was $34.99 from Bed Bath and Beyond and matches the long rug in the hallway.

And there we have it!  You've now been through my whole house; if you missed them before, you can see the first and second parts of the tour here.  I'll be asking you for some decor help in the next week or so, if you don't mind - start thinking about the walls above the couch and to the left of the bed as you're facing it, if you want a jumpstart, as well as the entire entry room - but for now, welcome.  I hope you feel at home!

(By the way, Eliza's giving us a tour of her living room today, too, over at Case Study, so go check it out!)