Home Improvements

As many of you know, my dear sister Bailey Janna bought an apartment in New York City last week - mazel tov to Bay!

This process has been long and drawn out and she has basically spent the summer preparing for her new place - ie, emailing me picture after picture and link after link of furniture and home decor ideas for my approval and consideration (mostly because she knows I am the home decor MAVEN of the Silverman clan). I am not shy about expressing my opinion and have sent her back too many strongly-worded text messages and emails to mention... mostly expressing my disapproval at her inclination towards $3,000 couches and neon colored rugs.

ANYWAY. All this talk of home decor and new furniture has given ME the itch to redecorate, much to my mother’s chagrin. I have lived in the same apartment - which I ADORE - for nearly three years now and though for the most part I am surrounded by things I love, occasionally a girl wants something new, you know? So... here are a couple small changes I have made to my apartment recently...

I convinced my friend Stevie - aka, the Mensch with a Wrench - to come over and help me hang some new art on my walls (remember what a great job he did hanging my enormous painting above the couch?) He works in construction so I knew he’d do a great job, and he did - the prints are perfectly lined up and look fabulous!

Isn’t he adorable? Sorry ladies... he’s taken by my beautiful friend Ashley :) The prints above are reproductions of famous chairs, done by Anne Harwell of Annechovie, and these below are super tiny (4x4) squares of fireworks done by an artist originally from Poland - here’s the link to her Etsy site.

I have a gorgeous wooden table and matching beautiful dining room chairs, but I’m not crazy about the seats - they’re covered in a brown suede that I personally think needs a little “punching up.” I am expecting this fabric to be shipped to me any day now - it’s a little kooky, but considering it matches my turquoise rug, brown furniture, and pink accent pillows, I think it’ll make an awesome touch when I recover my dining room chair seats!

After seriously MONTHS of research and web comparisons and dragging my poor mother around to various furniture stores around the greater Los Angeles area and NEARLY pulling the trigger on this Crate & Barrel set (which WILL be mine one day), I randomly came across this coffee table and side table set from WALMART of all places. They fit all my criteria - large but not too large, black frame with a glass top, extra shelving... and they were less than $150 for the set! Insanity. They arrived a couple days ago and I’m going to set them up soon. In the meantime, if you are looking for a super cheap fancy modern coffee table/side table set, I’m selling my current one! Email me for pictures :)

And finally... I can’t BELIEVE I’ve never blogged about my bedding obsession but suffice it to say I have a problem. At least three or four times a year, I buy an entire new bedding set and keep it in my room, in its packaging, for about six weeks before I decide I hate it and return it, unopened and unused. This year, I had purchased and returned sets from Crate & Barrel, Amazon, Urban Outfitters, and was about to bite the bullet on a new Anthropologie quilt when my mom came across this beauty in a catalogue. The moment I saw it, I knew this was the one:

She ordered it for me a few days ago and I CANNOT WAIT!!!! It’s everything I ever wanted... pink, a little Moroccan-inspired, simple but pretty... my bedroom is going to look GORGEOUS!!!!

So there are my home improvements. Nothing drastic, but it’s a start! Will keep you posted on my progress... I have my eye on a new rug and I just bought a tiny vintage table I want to update. Stay tuned!

(But before I go, let’s pay tribute to the REAL Home Improvement star :) still so dreamy!)