Living in New York, (and being a budget-conscious, newly married couple) a living room can sometimes be a luxury. In our last apartment, our living room doubled as our bedroom which left us with hardly any furniture when we moved into the bigger space. But because we hardly had anything, that left me with a "blank canvas" which was fun to work with.
The walls were painted beige, (not a fan!) but since we were already doing a whole lot of painting in every other room of the apartment we decided to cut some costs by just working with it!
I'm pretty happy that we did.
Before:
First things first, we had to buy some sofas.
Originally I wanted this super cool, corner sofa from Ikea, but after taking some measurements we realised it was too big to fit into our space. So on Black Friday last year, we headed to Bob's discount furniture and picked up a brown leather sofa and love seat combo for only $699!
The walls were painted beige, (not a fan!) but since we were already doing a whole lot of painting in every other room of the apartment we decided to cut some costs by just working with it!
I'm pretty happy that we did.
Before:
First things first, we had to buy some sofas.
Originally I wanted this super cool, corner sofa from Ikea, but after taking some measurements we realised it was too big to fit into our space. So on Black Friday last year, we headed to Bob's discount furniture and picked up a brown leather sofa and love seat combo for only $699!
After:
See that photo canvas hanging over the sofa? That was a little DIY project of mine which I'll be sharing with you tomorrow.
The turquoise side table in the corner is from Target and is just begging for a lamp or a pot plant.
The coffee table was something we used in our old apartment but originally from Target too.
Here are some more before and afters. (I blurred out the kitchen since I'll be revealing that mini-makeover with you next week)
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
We picked up the rug at Ikea (it was on sale for $35, can you believe it?) We needed something to break up the floor space and it ties in the beige walls and dark brown sofas perfectly.
I had loved this bookcase from Ikea for a while and we finally picked it up on our latest trip along with some mix and match woven baskets.
I found this hand-carved wooden Africa plaque at the Durban Market on our recent trip to South Africa.
These 2 colourful cushions are probably my favourite feature of the whole room! They are from Mr Price Home in South Africa and after my mom saw them in the store and sent me a picture I just HAD to have them!
I'm so happy with the way that the it has turned out so far. The other side of the room needs a little work (and a huge flat screen TV in my husband's opinion...haha!) but for now we are loving having this space to relax in.
