Jess Lively

  Since moving to the new apartment, I have grown bored of the floral painting I made for my old bedroom, which is now housed in our guest room. Though it looked great in my last apartment (bel0w), it felt a bit too literal in its new home.   taken by   So I did [...]

As long as I’ve known Mr. Lively, I have known that he dreams of having a garden. His mom is a prolific gardener, and while living as a bachelor before moving to Chicago, Mr. Lively had his own vegetable garden as well. And though we one day hope to have a home with yard or [...]

  Today I’ve got a little update to share on the house front. It’s been a while since I talked about the home because I honestly didn’t think about it for the last two months. After we got things ready for the Thanksgiving festivities and it was shared on Design*Sponge, decorating the apartment was not [...]

  When it came to decorating our home, Mr. Lively was willing to go with my design aesthetic except for one major demand: No glass topped furniture. Which meant my bachelorette dining table top didn’t stand a chance. We first considered selling the Ikea table entirely and ordering a new, rustic table. Room and Board has a table [...]

For any and all Croatian fans reading the blog… my home was featured in the Croatian newspaper, Jutarnji List. { Pretty crazy! }

  As I mentioned in December, I did my annual “What I don’t want for Christmas” exfoliation after the holidays. While exfoliating the apartment from top to bottom before New Years, I realized that I might actually have a “Throw Out” 100 Things Challenge on my hands. Along the way, I piled the exfoliations to [...]

  Exciting news! The apartment is finished and is featured in today’s Design*Sponge Sneak Peek. I’m so honored and grateful that Grace and Anne shared our home. It’s a dream come true! Feel free to hop over and see the full tour.  

  Once upon a time I did a little DIY project which turned out to be pretty popular on Pinterest. Though I’ve enjoyed having them in my apartments for the past three years, they don’t have a proper place in my current apartment. So alas, it’s time to say goodbye and give them a new life [...]

  When Mr. Lively and I moved, I was hitting the CL pretty hard. One of my scores was a yellow and green bamboo desk for the guest room. As you can see it had great bones but the color story wasn’t quite my jam. So I went to town with paint. Which meant last week before our [...]

  When it came to decorating the back hallway I knew it needed to be practical. With the back door right across from our bedroom we would eventually be taking Franklin out that way often. To add quick access storage I turned an Ikea bathroom towel rack into a coat organizer. We now have hooks [...]

  Our entry way is coming along. There is still one important change that needs to take place… but until then I’d like to share how I’m currently using the area and a few cheap tricks I’ve come up with that look cute and keep things organized. You’ll notice that we scored a beautiful 1880′s [...]

When it comes to art for my home, I am all about making it when possible. It saves money and gives me the exact look and scale I’m going for. Though I definitely have a knack for coming up with new ideas, I don’t take on super complicated projects. A few of my projects for past [...]