Our home is a work in progress right now, as I would imagine is almost everyone's, but I love the way it's coming together. Upon moving into our first place, Josh and I received lots of second-time-around furniture, along with some house-warming money. (Thanks everyone!) You can't go wrong with a combination like that! One of the pieces that we received was a nice, warm brown, wooden buffet that had a bit of wear-and-tear on it: some discoloration, scratches, and children's stickers that seemed like they had been super-glued on. This piece of furniture is very functional for us in our living room as a TV stand with tons of storage, so I looked at it as a challenge. With a little bit of sandpaper and black wood stain, I attempted give this buffet another life.
My original goal was to paint it black, so I did the obvious thing and trekked to Home Depot and asked the paint department sale's associate which paint would be best for furniture. She suggested that I use a black stain instead of paint because it would last longer. It was also cheaper, so I thought I might as well try it. Well... I have never sanded or stained a piece of furniture in my life, so my mission was not entirely successful. It definitely looks better, but when the daylight hits the facade in the right way, you see all of the black drips down the front! But hey, it was a learning experience at least, and it will make my future staining endeavors better.
As for the design of the living room itself, I really want to create a space that will inspire creativity and motivation. With Josh and I both basing our lives and careers (future career, in my case) in creative fields, it's important that the places where we spend our time are giving us something to feel and think about. Inspiration for me comes in bold statements. The landlord gave us permission to paint, so I ran to get a gallon of red paint almost immediately. Can you get more bold than red? With red accents all over the room and an eclectic variety of artwork, inspiration can be found on literally every wall! Some of the artwork was done by me, but not all of it. I'm going to start hanging all of my favorite artwork up, though. This way, I can be inspired by the things I've already done in the past and can have a constant reminder to work towards making them better. And, as one of the best quotes I've seen online says, "Art doesn't have to match the couch."
Here are some photos of what's going on in our living room, thanks to upcycling, two weeks off, and a little stimmy! (the Arrested Development fans know all about a little stimmy):
There is, of course, more to come with this. I still have 3/4 of the bucket of red paint that I used for the trim... Focal wall? We'll see! I'll have to move on to giving the rest of the apartment some creative loving soon, too.
Stay tuned!
Committed only to creativity...
-Amber