NYC Industrial Loft

What do you know about concrete walls in a home? Is it hard to hang art? Are they always cold? I just wondered, because I think I'm ready to call this New York City industrial loft my dream home. Seriously, look at those crazy high ceilings. And skylights! So calm, and yet so complete.

{Via Home Adore}

Sofa Search 2013(/2014)

Nine years ago, Rand and I picked out our first sofa together. It wasn't special or stylish, but it was leather (ooh la la!), inexpensive, and it came with a matching loveseat. Well, fast forward to today, when I have no more money than I did back then, but at least now I have some opinions about furniture. I know I like sofas with a clean, modern, sort of mid-century look. I like sofas with legs and since I have two cats, I still like leather. 

I've gathered up five of my favorite sofas to give you an idea of what I'm looking for:

1. Crate & Barrel Petrie Sofa

The Petrie Sofa is definitely the sofa of my dreams.  The shape, the leather, the legs, the tufting, and the color are absolutely perfect, but $3999 price tag will not work for me. 

2. Ikea Karlstad Sofa

The Karlstad is a top contender here.  Only $899, and it comes in white leather!! The legs can be switched out, and it's tufted. Maybe this is my dream sofa. However, this sofa has one big obstacle-it's from Ikea.  I live in Missouri, where the closest Ikea is seven hours away in Dallas (and their shipping fees are outrageous). This sofa, even though it is perfect in every other way, will probably not be happening for me.

3. JCPenney Darrin Sofa

Wow.  This looks just like the Petrie Sofa.  $2700 is definitely better than $4000, but not good enough for this poor girl. Also, I wonder if those little round pillows come off.

4. Urban Outfitters Night and Day Convertible Sofa

5. Urban Outfitters Either/Or Convertible Sofa

These two sofas probably shouldn't be on the list, since they are not available in leather and would be covered in cat hair in my home.  But aren't they nice?  They're both convertible into beds and kind of small, which I like, and the prices are awesome, but no can do.  Bummer.

So I guess my conclusion is that I can't afford a sofa. What?! Rumor has it that Ikea is adding a location in Kansas City next summer, so I could wait until then. But where do people around here (poor people with cats in Missouri, like me) buy modern, inexpensive home furnishings?!  

Other than Target, of course.

Living Room Tour

In a way, I'm a little late to the house blog party, since a lot of my rooms were redone before I started this blog. But since my house is still a work in progress, I still want to add some posts with before and after pictures, since the sweat and tears that went into these projects were no less important, even if they happened years ago.  

My living room was one of the most controversial rooms of my marriage when I finally painted it in June 2012. I thought the wood trim throughout our house was dark, dreary, and in bad shape anyway.  My husband was convinced that we had some sort of obligation to preserve the unpainted wood trim, and that painting it would be a horrible crime against home design history. I painted the trim white anyway, and now he loves it. It's easier to ask forgiveness...  

The wall color is Moonlight White, the trim is Simply White, and the fireplace in Onyx, all by Benjamin Moore. This was back when I really had no idea where to start, so I just used the colors that Anna Dorfman used throughout her house. I figured anything she's done would be a safe bet, and sure enough, I am still in love with these colors. Moonlight White reads as white, but with a tiny bit of gray that makes it interesting, and it is so beautiful next to the bright white trim.

The only paint color I'm not sure of is the brown I used to paint the stair runner. I just used some leftover paint I found in the basement. That project must have been in between paychecks.

Painting the trim in our house almost killed me. It was shellacked, so it had to be sanded and deglossed.  I primed all of it only to notice that the wood was bleeding through, so I switched to a heavy duty primer, and still had to apply two more coats of primer. When the wood finally stopped bleeding, I had to apply two full coats of paint to get good coverage over the primer. By the time I was done, I had gone over every inch of that old wood trim seven times. Hands. So. Tired. 

Everything in this room is an item I love, and I've tried to gather and arrange things as carefully and thoughtfully as I can. The camera on the left is the Minolta my dad bought in Japan during the Vietnam War.  My grandfather's WWII foot locker is spray painted gold and serves as an end table next to the chaise lounge. The giant E was a flea market find, and it looks like the E in MOTEL, with holes for light bulbs to stick through. I made the hanging pendent lights (before Pinterest existed, just saying), and the table runner under the TV is handmade from a lady in my hometown.

That fiber wall hanging above the sofa was an incredible find at a flea market. I had seen wall hangings like this before on blogs, in art galleries, and all around Pinterest, so I was so excited to find one buried under a pile of junk in the basement of a flea market for $3. The credenza, saucer chair, and vintage lamps are also from flea markets, while the coffee table and matching end table were purchased on Craigslist.

While I love decorating my home, I'm a little self-conscious about my skills when it comes to photographing my home. I don't have a particularly nice camera or photo-editing software, and I also just don't think I'm very good at it. But I want to get better...so here's my first try.

Disclaimer: I don't love that sofa and loveseat set. That is the cheap set we purchased for our first apartment nine years ago.  I want a new sofa so bad! But my budget says to wait, so that's what I have to do.

Want to see what this room looked like when we first walked through this house?

{Before}

Yes, the fireplace was painted red. And do you see what I mean about the trim being too dark? If you could see it up close, you would also see how it was in terrible shape and had been stained different shades in different sections. I don't regret my decision to paint the trim at all. 

{After}