We Have Furniture!

Rather than coming up with a clever title, I figured I'd just cut to the chase: we. have. furniture. And some accessories. It's an exciting day.

We moved the fridge back into its spot in the kitchen which was a huge step towards making it feel more livable. There's just something about having your fridge in the middle of the living room that screams reno. We also picked up a little kitchen cart from Craigslist. It's originally from Ikea, but the guy we got it from had it way discounted and had taken amazing care of it. He even talked to us about oiling it often, haha. The reason we got it is because I didn't want our microwave to take up such a large percentage of our counter space, and there was really nowhere else to put it unless we stuck it in the laundry room. Getting a cart lets us keep it in the kitchen and also frees up our counters. As a bonus, I'm planning to put our toaster on there, too.

The living room is far more exciting. Our sectional arrived in back in December, but since we had nowhere to put it, we had to just leave it in the warehouse. This was a huge test of my patience, which John can tell you I have none of. After we got the fridge back in the kitchen, we went and got our couch! We miraculously got all three pieces in just one trip with John's truck and his dad's hatchback SUV. We also put in a rug I got from Overstock for 60% off and a side table from Craigslist :) I'm planning on putting another end table on the left as well as a chair on either side, plus some floor lamps.

It's like we're actually real people! With a room that makes sense! The couch is a lot more purple-ish brown than I planned on it being (I thought it was going to be more of a charcoal grey), but I think it works well. I'm just glad it doesn't blend into the walls which is something I've been worried about since we ordered it.

We've also made some really awesome progress in the master bedroom. First, we moved in the blue chair I got at an estate sale, as well as a vanity I got on craigslist. The vanity is still a little sad looking, but with new knobs and upholstery, I think it'll look fantastic. We also put in a rug I got for 70% off at RugsUSA that's been waiting to be unrolled for about two months.

John's mom bought us our mattress as a wedding/housewarming gift, so we spent Sunday moving it in. Having such an open stairway was certainly on our side... but me having weak arms was not. Once we got the mattress up, I ran home and washed our linens. We got our duvet cover (which we'll actually use as more of a quilt cover) from West Elm a while back when it was on a mega sale. It was complete luck because I fell in love with it, so the price was just a bonus. What I didn't realize until last weekend was that our bedding totally foreshadowed our entire house's color palette. It's white, navy, yellow, grey, and teal, which are the exact colors we're using on the walls and/or accessories!

The bed looks really lonely without a headboard or pillows with shams on them, but it's progress!

A huge and simple improvement was hanging a shower curtain. After the painters finished, the new, crisp wall colors made the shower tile look even worse than it did before. Against the grey, the tile looked really yellow and dirty even though it's as clean as can be.

I hung a curtain I received at a bridal shower and it completely hides the tile! 

The only down side is that this room is totally monochromatic. My plan down the line is to paint horizontal stripes in the same grey that's in the living room & loft to add some contrast. As far as color, I'm going to hang some watercolor animals I got from an amazing artist on Etsy. Hopefully I'll get around to that this weekend. Since there are no good storage options in the shower, I went and picked up a little corner organizer for our shower necessities.

We also put up the shower curtain in the guest bathroom, which took us from ugly tile...

To no ugly tile...

We carried our desk up to the loft, but that's all we have so far. Hopefully our couch will be recovered soon and we can put that in, too.

We also moved a bed into the guest room, and my arms are still sore from it 3 days later. Sadly the bedding on it is just old stuff I had lying around, so I apologize for the totally lumpy and lackluster picture. We're registered for a duvet cover with a pattern/some texture and cute sheets, so once we get those on I'll share the bed's facelift :)

One thing I'm really starting to worry about is the lack of art we're going to have. I have some and I can make some, but I'm worried we're going to have empty walls. Do you have any suggestions for inexpensive things to hang up?