I need your design help!!

As I have mentioned before, we are moving into a new apartment on April 2nd {wow...that's soon} so I have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out what to do with the new place. It is my personality to want to have everything done the weekend we move in so, I have been racking my brain over what colors to paint the walls, where to put the furniture, what to hang on the walls, etc!! Here is where I need your help. Besides adding my furniture and painting the walls, there are just some things about the apartment that I cannot change because we are renting.....the kitchen and bathroom!

The layout of the apartment is very strange, but I am not too worried about it from a furniture standpoint. The living room and kitchen are an open to one another....this is why I am really having trouble deciding on a paint color for the space. A color that would look great with our sofa and furniture looks weird with the apartment-grade cabinetry. Here is where I am going to share a horrible {very horrible} picture that was used in the apartment ad. This is not our furniture and the person living there now is a single guy so everything is definitely mix-matched.

{ugh...the lighting is just horrible}

{the kitchen is directly opposite in this picture and

the huge master bedroom is down those stairs}

Here is a picture our our living room right now so you can get an idea of the furniture we have. This is the picture from right when we moved in so, I have made a few minor changes from this picture but you get the idea.

I would love to here any advice you can give as far as paint colors or any updates you have made to apartment kitchen or bathrooms.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Where does all of my time go?? / Top 2 Tuesday

Sometimes I ask myself that too. I feel like I don't have time for anything....and I hate it!! The newest task that is taking up ALL of my time is moving. We have officially found a new apartment, and I love it!! We are staying in the same neighborhood {which I am super excited about}but the new place is in a more trendy area of the neighborhood. Want to hear the best part about the new place....it is on the FIRST FLOOR!! Coming from a 5th floor walk-up apartment to a first floor is going to be amazing. Other positive things: the laundromat is next door, it's on the first floor, my favorite grocery is down the street, did I mention it is on the first floor, but most importantly the apartment gives us some room to grow...wink, wink! I am not going to lie. I am going to really miss the amazing view of Manhattan from our living room...that is the main benefit of the 5th floor.

The hardest part about looking at apartments is imagining your stuff in it. It seemed like all of the apartments that we looked at just didn't seem right. I kept thinking about how awesome our current apartment. The hubbs had to remind me that we made the apartment awesome...we definitely did not move into it like that. When he told me that it really opened up my eyes, and we wound up choosing the next place we went in. It does need some work, but I am definitely up for the challenge....and that is also taking up a lot of my time. All I want to do is plan for the new apartment!! Get ready for LOTS of home decor, DIY, and Ikea post!

I need to try and remember to take pictures before we move the stuff in so, that I can give you good before and after pictures. We have already decided that we are going to do something that we have never done in any of our apartments before....PAINT! I am so excited to pick out paint colors that I am about to burst!! I do need your help in picking one of the main paint colors. Our couch and my husband's man chair are both tan.....what color should we paint the living room??

The master bedroom doesn't have a great closet so, I have really been eyeing up some of Ikea's closet ideas. I am loving these!

{Life Begins At Thirty, Right? If you don't already follow this blog you should...it is awesome!}

{Ikea}

I would love to hear any of your thoughts on creating a closet or paint colors or anything helpful about moving into a new place!

Top 2 Tuesday - Random Facts about You

I am finally back to participating in Taylor's Top 2 Tuesday!! I am determined to get back into blogging...I have really been missing it. This week's topic is Top 2 Random Facts about you....easy, right?? Not really I have had a really hard time with this one because there are so many random facts about me.

1. My all-time favorite foods are BBQ and Mexican, which is why I loved living in Austin so much. There is the best BBQ and Mexican there.....ok, I am drooling just thinking about it!

2. I love to sleep....probably too much! I especially love when both the hubbs and I can sleep in together. It seems like recently we haven't had much time for this :(

Have a great week!

Weekend Photo Project!

I had the urge to do a crafty photo project today with items that I already had around the apartment. There is the blank white wall in our living room that really needed some TLC so, it was my inspiration. In my search for some items to inspire my creation, I found a roll of natural twine.....then my mind went running! I decided to make it simple with only 4 items needed: twine, B&W photos, paper clips, and clear thumb tacks.

Here is the before:

The next step was to decide how to hang the twine. I was torn between having 2 seperate rows or just one piece of twine draped side-to-side twice. The hubbs chimed in with his opinion and this is what we decided on.

The hardest part was deciding what pictures to use. I tried to use mostly family pictures, but a few friends made the cut too! I have this thing for black and white photos so, I printed them all out in B&W. Lastly, paper clip the picture on the twine , and you're DONE!

{hi hubbs}

The hubbs made fun of me for doing this especially since we are move into a new apartment in a month {which we haven't even started looking for yet, whoops}. But I will enjoy looking at it for the next month and maybe we will have a wall in the next place to do this with too.

Anyways, just a little weekend project...I hope you like it!

Have a great week everyone! Eeeekkk...my parents are coming in town this weekend and I am so excited because I haven't seen them since Christmas!