In May of 2006 was when we decided to jazz up the living room from its formally drab and blue existence. It was going to be one of our first normal-ish rooms to re-do together, as at this point the W-town house was in full one renovation mode.
Without the aid of design magazines or blogs we plunged right into the big chain hardware stores and made choices based on what we liked. Which is how we ended up with neutral walls covered in a sea salt and pale sand colors. The border ended up being a necessity, as when the poorly done chair rail was pulled off, off came decent chunk of drywall cause someone had used glue as well as nails in the installation of the rail. In order to cover that boo-boo up with what we had available to us, and a wallpaper border was our cheapest best bet.
Pete and his friend Steve ripped out the blue carpet one warm May morning. While they did that and installed the new laminate wood flooring, I went out shopping at the outlets. In my defense the condo can get very small very fast with three full sized adults working on the same area, with getting in each others way. Plus, this was before I became magically handy and really into DIY. Funny how the memory works as I remember all the mundane details of that day. Down to what I was wearing, driving and what I bought as an early birthday present to myself.
The table was a hand me down from Pete's parents, even though it was too big for the space it ended up a nice place holder for a few years. The large size of it gave a us a good dumping ground for things coming into the condo. The rest of the living room re-do was rounded out with a craiglisted sofa sleeper, ikea chair and rug from Marshall's.
After a year or so of the living room looking one way, we changed a few things up in the winter of 2008. Mainly the lame vertical blinds. I hated those freaking things. So a nice and simple rod from Ikea was added and we popped on the curtains that used to be in front of our bedroom closets. I love a good multi-tasking home item!
You'll noticed that we significantly upgraded the TV as well. The big screen was Pete's old college tv, and had been previously residing in our bedroom at home before we brought it on over the beach condo. Three floors. A million pounds. The TV would not have gotten up to the condo had it not been for an extremely kind neighbor who offered to help in the parking lot.
Enter May of 2010. The red couch from craigslist was dead. Super duper dead. As in it would limp down in a weird and broken angle. We had planned for this and brought over our craiglisted Ikea sectional that had lived at our house for a year and half. The Ikea sectional sleeper was purchased with the intention of living out its final years down the beach. I love it for there, the bed is super spacious and makes for awesome naps.
The curtains are a great pair from Ikea, $15 and they do a fantastic job of blocking the light while adding privacy. They are a really heavy, beachy knit that looks a little like a soft burlap. We also decided it was time to down-size the table, having gotten feedback from renters that the table was a little bit too large for their needs. Which is how we ended up with this table from Sears. After buying we did a little comparison shopping and this set really suited our needs and budget best. The tv was a great deal that we couldn't pass up, as we've been looking for a LONG time for a low profile for this place since the downstairs is tight on space I also always worried about the old tv falling off the stand and hurting someone since it was so heavy, despite the fact that we strapped it to the wall. The new tv was $400 for 40"! It is an LCD that we found on clearance at Sears and thought would be perfect for the beach condo.
Now, I know- it looks a little bare down here. That would be for two reasons. One is that we clear the place out in the rental season, keeping the clutter to a minimum helps to keep the place cleaner for the season. The second reason is that this photo was taken mid afternoon after an exuasting long weekend of working on the place and I was the crankiest person alive. I'm pretty sure that I said something along the lines of " Just take the *bleeping* pictures. I don't give a *bleep* that it looks empty." Sigh, I should never ever forgo my morning coffee.
That is the updated, de-blued beach condo downstairs...
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