Home Improvement (Layout and The Beginning of "Girly")

It is a complete understatement to say that I am excited to move into Swann Street.  Never having lived by myself has definitely had it's perks, but this is really the first time I'll have total control over my space.  I have loved interior design and styling for a long time, but have always had hiccups in creating the space I truly want to live in.  That's not to say I don't have some hiccups now (ahem, budget), but that's where I am stoked to use my crafting skills to get the look I want for a price within reason.

My family has been wonderful during this difficult time in my life.  My parents, in particular, have been happy to help find the apartment and plan out the space once we did find it.  Mami is always asking for craigslist links, and Dad even asked me to stop by the apartment last week to get precise measurements so he could put the layout into his CAD program so we could mess around with furniture arrangements.

So may I present to you...

(Of course, since we drew this on Monday night, I measured more pieces of furniture and sent the figures to Dad, so he's assured me the drawing is now more to scale.)

I'd like to start by saying that I've lived with guys for a long time now.  It started in college, living with Frank, and went on until a couple of months ago.  So not only is Swann Street a place for just me, it's a place for just me and all my girly ideas for interior design (well...and Dixie, of course, but she's cool with it).  Finally...no boy can tell me not to have a hot pink throw in the living room because it's tacky or horrible.  Because it isn't.  It's awesome.  Exhibit A.

the most awesome jonathan adler

(Hey boys: this throw is so awesome it's sold out!)

Annnyway...

Here's sort of what I'm thinking:

The colors on some images are off.  For example, the sofa is much more sea foam than the blue shade, and the rug is a much more natural brown than this honey color.  See.

Not exactly right (the sofa isn't that dark), but you get the gist!  Overall, I want the room to feel soft, natural with some pops of shiny brassy-gold to keep things extra light!

Directly across from the "living room" will be the dining area.  In every place I've lived since graduating college, I've always had a dining table of some sort.  It's just a priority for me.   There may be a few exceptions (super sick days, super drunk nights), but really I never eat in bed and I usually don't eat on the sofa either, as I just am not a big fan of that.

Given that it's all one room, actually, they need to "go together" but still be different.  They call that "coordinating"!  Sorry...I'm a loon. 

So I decided to keep the "natural" theme, but add in some navy colored pieces including these darlings, which I ordered today!  (And that gold rim!  Ugh -- Love it!)

From C. Wonder

I already have this cute hutch that I've kept stemware, bar glassware and booze in before, and figure I'll do the same again here.  It is currently painted a gray color, but I plan to get similar blue to the dinnerware and paint it in a semi-gloss finish.  I need the pieces to arrive so I can see the color in person, but I'm leaning towards:

Old Navy by Benjamin Moore

I am worried it's a little dark for the space considering it won't be next to any windows, but I don't know.  It's looking pretty perfect to me right now.  Let's see if I can be so bold!

All together, here is the basic layout.

I still need to figure out some accent pieces/colors, but I'm happy with how this has started to come together so far!