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.

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So I did what I did before with the flower painting, I decided to paint over it.

Only this time I wanted to test out a new style: abstract.

I’ve been a longtime fan of Jen Ramo’s work, and have been adoring Danielle’s piece in her apartment for several months.

But since I don’t have the budget for a piece like that for my guest room, I decided to try my own take on abstract in a cheerful palette.

… However, the first attempt was unsuccessful.

While I was going for, “cheerful abstract,” Mr. Lively aptly coined this piece, “Clown Vomit.”

Though the name stung a bit, I knew he had a point.

So this weekend I attempted to resurrect the piece and make it slightly less… vomit-like.

This was the end result.

As you can imagine, I was quite keen to hear what Mr. Lively’s art critique would be this time.

He first assessed that this new version looked like “Bird Footprints on Clown Vomit.”

Again, not good.

But then he took another look, and felt there could be an alternative title; “Abstract Tulip Fields.”

Much better. 

So that’s what I’m sticking with.

“Abstract Tulip Fields.”

Though it might not be everyone’s cup of tea – and I know that I’m meant to keep my day job - I kinda like it.

It makes me happy and it feels right at home in the guest room.

Which is really what it’s all about.

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 roof deck for our own vegetable garden, for now we are making the most of our current patio.

As you might recall from our home tour, the patio looked like this during the fall.

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Very cute, but lacking plants.

But after a little work this weekend, it now looks like this.

Same chair, rug, and vintage cooler, but now with a flower box full of color and a pup looking for his next treat.

On the left side of the flower box, we also have a new little friend.

Gus, the Garden Gnome, hails from the land of Target and now sports a gold-painted hat (of course).

In addition to the flower box in the center, we have a box filled with basil and cilantro, our favorite herbs, on the left side of the patio.

We also added a big pot filled with all the shade loving flowers we could find, as another “garden” element.

Because Franklin is fond of eating everything, we currently have it resting on a chair, out of the pup’s reach, until we can find the perfect perch.

While buying flowers for the pot, we overestimated how many plants we would need.

So the remaining plants made their way into a few empty vessels on the patio dining table.

Here’s a wide shot to give you the full effect.

Overall, we are really happy with how it all came together.

Though the space is rather small (5′x12′), it has everything we need for dinners and drinks outside during the warmer months to come.

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 on my mind.

However, while scouting for my client home and hotel lobby project, I started hitting the CL pretty hard. I love a good bargain and the chance to give something unique a new life.

One piece that immediately caught my eye was a black and gold dresser. It has great lines and I was thinking that it could be a great addition to the hotel… at first.

I pined for the dresser for a few weeks. But I eventually realized that the decor elements for the hotel will not be considered for the next six to eight months. And this little guy sitting on Craigslist was going to be long gone by then.

So I did what any designer would do: I talked my husband into letting me get it for our own home instead.

(Do other designers do this? I’m not sure. But I’m glad I did.)

Fortunately, he was game. He asked where it was going to go in our somewhat finished apartment. For that I had a quick reply, “It can go in the hallway.”

Which meant that on Sunday morning we drove in the rain to pick up the lovely little chest.

We then we plopped him in the hallway, according to plan.

But as you can see in this quick iPhone shot, he was looking rather sad there. His proportions were not well suited to the art above and he just kinda felt… odd.

That’s when my wheels got turning.

You see, we had already dressed up our bedroom’s black Ikea dresser with some modern brass knobs, making the Dorothy Draper dresser a good companion for the theme.

So we moved more furniture around. We swapped out the cute white side table (found on the street, which I painted white a few years back) for the black beauty.

The white nightstand was pretty, especially in this professional shot taken by Daniel. But it was deep and boxy in our tiny 9’9″x12′ master bedroom. The dimensions didn’t allow us the storage or square footage the black dresser provided.

Though my photo quality is not quite as nice as Daniel’s, you can see that it utilizes a bit more of the corner of the room and offers 30% more storage for clothing. The narrower depth also allows me a few extra inches of floor space near my side of the bed.

Meanwhile, the white side table needed a new home, too. So we sent it to the guest bedroom.

Originally, we had a tiny little campaign-style wicker chest there.

Cute, but too tiny and random for the space. I may one day paint the wood sides white and give him a new life in a future home, but for now he’s adding extra storage to the closet.

Voila. The white side table pairs perfectly with our other recent Craigslist makeover, the white desk.

As I prepared to write this post, I did a quick search online and just found out that these Dorothy Draper style dressers actually sell for thousands of dollars. Holy moly. Though ours is in need of some painting, I’m glad I saw the potential in the piece at just 4% of the originals in mint condition.

And if you are loving the look but can’t find a Dorothy Draper dresser on your local CL, no need to fear! I found this cute Ikea hack that creates a similar look with a $35 dresser.

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 with the look we wanted, but the price was so high we decided keeping the base and customizing the top would give us the look for a lot less.

Once we decided to keep the base and donate the top, we researched wood workers to get a custom-sized wood surface. This wasn’t as easy as we initially expected. We found a few local places that did great work, but didn’t have the style we desired. Then we searched online.

Many inquires later, we chose Union Furnishings on Etsy.

The Union team was amazing and offered us a great price. They also made sure that we had our top in time for our family party over Thanksgiving (which we greatly appreciated!).

Overall the experience of creating a semi-custom piece was pretty incredible. It isn’t always the cheapest option, but in our case we got the (more expensive) look we wanted, enjoyed supporting the craftsmen, and retained a base we already had.

So the next time you designing a space, keep in mind that you may be able to get unique look by altering an existing piece or commissioning a craftsman to do something just for you.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend!

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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 be photographed for the blog challenge in the back hallway.

Which means that for the past few weeks this eyesore has been whispering, “You have to photograph me before you can donate, recycle, or throw me away…” in a really creepy and annoying voice each time I walk back to the bedroom or the back door.

However, looking at my consulting schedule, upcoming workshops, design project, and Alt Summit trip over the next two weeks, the reality is that my time is better spent focused on those endeavors. So I’m ditching the traditional 100 Things photoshoot and simply recycling, donating, or throwing away these items now.

Quite honestly, Franklin is relieved.

He was concerned about how much longer I was going to leave all these awesome “toys” just out of his reach.

This also means my January wish is that you imagine how nice the 100 Things Challenge photoshoot would have looked with these items laid out precisely and documented properly, like past challenges.

That way I can get this stuff outta my house!

* The awesome brass trunk is not a part of the actual exfoliation. It’s in the photo because it became a perch for the exfoliations themselves.

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 with someone else.

If you live in Chicago and are interested in buying them, please email me at jess(at)jesslc.com.

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 families visited for Thanksgiving I spent three days in and out of the same paint splotted sweatpants and shirt working on my masterpiece.

Maybe masterpiece might be a bit of an overstatement, but it did consume much of my time and was worth the effort in the end.

A coat of primer, two coats of white semi-gloss, two coats of Polycrlic, and a coat of Liquid Leaf later… I was left with this.

Swoon.

Thanks to Kim’s painting tutorial and my friend Stacia who helped recover recovered the seat for me in my new favorite color and fabric (cerulean blue velvet) I was all done just before the folks arrived.

I cannot wait to start consulting at this desk from time to time. The guest room turned out to be one of my favorite places in the apartment. Well, that and the bedroom. And the master bath. And the living room… Okay, I love it all but the guest room has a special place in my heart.

Oh, and there is one last surprise…

I lined the drawers with leftover wallpaper from the master bedroom.

Done and done.

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 for Franklin’s puppy coat, scarves, leashes, and keys. The shelf at the top also adds a place for plastic bags, a lint roller, and treats.

Plus, the hanging items add some nice interest and color to the otherwise neutral nook.

Overall, we spent $29 West Elm bath rug and $34 on the Ikea stainless organizer. Not bad for a cute little space that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.

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 marble topped chest from Chic Antique. It adds a sense of history to the otherwise new and modern space. Mr. Lively was the one that gravitated towards it first due to the rough, worn paint and I was sold on the white marble top.

The drawers contain receipts, to-do lists, small tools, and puppy stuff.

On the top of the table we have two DIY bulletin boards, a tray for my keys, candle jars for pens and mailing supplies, a metal tray for Mr. Lively’s things, and a little bowl with coins and two clickers for the puppy (we get him on Saturday!).

To the side of the entry table we have a ceramic umbrella stand I received as a gift a few years ago (from Z Gallerie) filled with scarves and my rain boots.

One cheap trick I love is my key chain holder. I used the leather tassel from my K.Slademade clutch as a key chain.

The cool part about the key chain design is that it’s super simple to open and close. Which means the car keys Mr. Lively and I share are easy to add or remove from my key ring whenever needed.

Of course any keyring with a simple closure like this would do the trick.

My other favorite little cheap trick in the entry is my mail station.

In the black candle jar we have stashed a few key essentials for outgoing mail.

Stamps, ink, and a custom rubber return address stamp I made via Photoshop and Rubberstamps.net with our new address (I obscured it for privacy). The total came to just $15.90 with shipping for the rubber stamp. And it would have been even cheaper if I went for a smaller size stamp. I chose the 3.5″ x 1.5″ format for $11.95.

All in all, it’s a cute and simple way for us to send mail out without having to write our address or use return address stickers.

I can’t wait to reveal the entry when it’s in it’s final state. But until then I hope you like the progress so far!

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 apartments can be found here on my Nate Show segment last year.

And my most recent project is hung directly across from the bed in my new bedroom. As a surprise gift for Mr. Lively, I took our song’s title and turned it into a piece of art to wake up to each morning.

But really, this is the third life that this canvas has had. It first looked like this from Bed, Bath, and Beyond.

Not too bad, but I definitely tired of it.

So I painted it with gold paint and hung it in my next apartment’s living room.

And now it’s black with white letters. To make the letters, I simply traced around cut out letters from my printer and filled them in with white paint.

A $10 project which just required printer paper, an old makeup brush (I didn’t have the correct painting brush so I simply used an old makeup brush to get the crisp lines), and some black and white paint.

In other bedroom art news, I framed a photo of our shoes from our wedding above the dresser. I love the pop of blue and the subtle reference to the wedding. (Please don’t mind the floral wallpaper reflections on the frame’s glass.)

The bedroom is almost complete. Next on the list are curtains and a new light fixture!

On the organizing front in the new place we’ve been making progress! A few weeks ago I shared Phase One of the tiny 4′x5′ master closet Mr. Lively and I share.

As you may recall, it looked like this.

Not too bad, but definitely not taking advantage of all the vertical space on the back and right walls.

So we went to Ikea and got four Grundtal rails and several packs of S hooks for about $55 total.

Installing them (with our own screws, they don’t come with them) was pretty simple with a drill.

Then it was the fun part, putting the accessories in place.

The back rail is for Mr. Lively’s belts and ties. While the lowest rail, near the laundry basket, is a spot to hang damp clothes or extra running gear.

The top rail on the right is for my long scarves.

And the middle right rail is for my silk scarves and skinny belts.

Overall, I like how the scarves and accessories add a hit of color and pattern in the tiny space.

It helps make the space cheery and organized all at once.

Talk about form and function.

Yesterday Mr. Lively and I worked a bit more on the apartment. Not a lot because I totally needed a break, but we did finish the gallery wall in the back hall.

As you may recall, the hall to our bedroom first looked like this before we moved in.

Long, white, and kinda boring.

To spice it up and display the pieces of art we had left over from our past apartments which had yet to find a home in the new space, we made a gallery wall.

But this is not one of those super curated walls with matching frames or anything like that. This is simply the artwork we had on hand in the frames we put them in originally, once upon a time.

First, we anchored the space with the largest canvas – which also covers the switch breaker panel on the left.

Then, I traced the artwork on craft paper and loosely drew or marked frame colors on the papers before placing them on the wall.

With the largest piece in place first, it made the rest of the positioning much easier. Things kinda fell into place from the left to the right.

Once Mr. Lively approved the configuration, he got to work hanging the pieces. To make things simpler for him, I marked (on some of them) exactly where the nail needed to go.

Here’s how it all turned out.

We have a mix of canvases, wood, black frames, white shadow boxes, and an ornate gold mirror. The overall effect is cohesive despite the random assortment of pieces.

One tiny detail I dig is how the mirror reflects the brick wall.

Turns out you guys were right, I am digging the brick after all.

And our walk to the bedroom is way more interesting now.

While Mr. Lively and I worked on the living room curtains I thought that I came up with a killer trick to share with you all. I really believed in a random stroke of genius, I had come up with something new and fresh to offer the design world.

But recently on a trip to Kim’s blog to find her tutorial on how to make your own pipe curtain rods for our bedroom, I discovered she and others had already beat me to the punch.

Though I know that the trick has already circulated the web, I still think it is worth sharing for others who might want to “luxe up” their curtains with inexpensive clip rings.

All you need to do is clip the fabric from a few inches down at the base of the hem rather than clipping right from the top.

This mimics much more expensive drapery techniques, costs very little, and takes almost no time at all.

For our curtains in this room we doubled up the panels (they are from West Elm, but I couldn’t find them on the site) on each side of the sliding doors and used 16 rings on each rod for a fuller look.

I hope this helps all those out there, like me, who didn’t already know about this little design trick!

Over the weekend in Ann Arbor I took Mr. Lively to my second favorite thrifting shop, The Treasure Mart.*

Right before we accidentally spilled coffee on a blanket I was convincing talking Mr. Lively into**, he spotted a steal of a deal.

Clocking in at just $60 for a well-sized oval white marble top, this coffee table was a no brainer.

It was so good that Mr. Lively had already decided to buy it before he even showed it to me.

Swoon. That’s my kind of romance.

Anyways, when we got him home he didn’t really play well with our other pieces.

The chrome chairs are all like, “We’re cool and modern.”

The rug is like, “I’m punchy and graphic.”

And the coffee table is like, “I’m froufy and look like I belong in Beauty and the Beast.”

One of these things is not like the other…

Mr. Lively and I initially debated about finding another base to go below the table top. Something metal to look more modern like the other lines in the space.

But having gone through issue after issue trying to find the perfect reclaimed wood top for our chrome dining table, I knew that it would be a decent challenge to find the perfectly sized/priced item to compliment the top.

So instead of replacing it, I painted it.

Ahhhhh, so much better.

Now Belle is looking a little more like the Beast. (In a good way.)

Here’s another angle.

Such great semi-gloss paint with built-in primer. It was $15 for a quart from Behr called Evening Hush. It took just two coats and about 45 minutes of actual work.

Mr. Lively doesn’t even mind the flowers anymore.

Let’s take a peek at the before and after one more time.

Before.

After.

Amazing what a few coats of paint can do to combine three totally unrelated styles.

*My favorite shop used to be the White Elephant in Chicago, may it rest in peace. 

** Fortunately for me, the coffee stains meant we had to buy the blanket after all. He’s now freshly laundered and may serve as a cover for the guest room headboard.

There is definitely progress happening on the home front. I’ve honored my birthday by treating myself to some home design time. Here is one of the recent updates which makes me so, so happy.

Mr. Lively’s bachelor dresser (hailing from the land of Swedish meatballs) is looking a bit spiffier in his new digs.

Here he was in his natural state.

A bit blah for my taste. So we upped the ante with new knobs (first spotted in Kim’s studio).

I mean, common. For those who love gold, like me, this guy is looking like a million bucks without the price tag.

Sure we coulda gone with a whole new dresser but this one was perfectly fine and had great oversize drawers and an exaggerated height which this tiny bedroom desperately needed. So for just 60 bucks we had a five minute makeover worth every penny.

He had good bones before, now he has good jewelry.

As we’ve been decorating our home (or at least starting to decorate our home) we have been using Craigslist to find pieces that have a bit of character with a great price tag.

The Craigslist app has been my constant companion lately as I’ve hunted for the perfect mirror, guest room furniture, etc.

Here are our recent scores.

These vintage vinyl and chrome chairs are perfect compliments to the new modern couch. Mr. Lively wanted some leather in our space and these puppies look like baseball glove leather for a fraction of the price. We got the pair for $150.

This antique mirror was a major steal at just $40. The price was so good that the lady we bought it from couldn’t believe she priced it so low.

This will soon be mounted above our mini bar in the main room.

And this little guy has definitely stolen my heart, especially priced at $125. Though it’s not Mr. Lively’s cup of tea, he agreed to let me have it in the guest room to use as a possible future vanity or consulting station.

He is definitely cute dressed in yellow but he looks a bit too Palm Springs for my taste.

I plan to paint him white, make a new velvet cushion, and paint those drawer pulls… you guessed it, gold.

And last but not least, we have Mr. Lively’s favorite thing in the whole apartment: the patio coffee table. This cooler is from the 1920′s and is perfect for outdoor storage or actually acting as a cooler for future patio parties. At $60 he adds way more character to the space than anything we could have bought from a store.

Now I just have a one more Craigslist find to hunt down… a hallway mirror.

I am happy to report that after my post on feeling scared earlier this week, I am feeling much better!

I really started to feel less scared once I went back to work. Being dropped back into a normal routine, as many of you suggested in the comments in the scared post, was really what I needed all along.

The home itself has also started to feel much more comfortable as it has taken shape. Getting some art on the walls and little accessories on display does a world of difference for me. I am very affected by my environment (especially since I live and work in the same space all day). So seeing things look more organized and finished has also calmed me down mentally.

Right now my favorite art project that is bringing me the most joy is the photo collage I created from our elopement and honeymoon Instax Mini photos.

While Mr. Lively and I were exploring Paris and London, I planned to modify Kim and Scott’s photo booth bathroom art with Instax images. I also found out about the camera and instant film from Kim, too.

So we made sure to snap photos of some of our favorite sights and moments with the Instax.

Then on a recent Ikea trip, I spotted this frame which was beyond perfect for the project.

I loved that it was the right size for two rows of photos and already had a black background.

With the black background ready, I just needed a bit of my new bestie, yellow Frog Tape.

The tape was easy to reposition and attach the photos to the black background.

And voila!

The perfect addition to our Parisian themed mater bathroom. Though I’m not normally a “theme” girl, I think I struck a subtle and sophisticated tone in the space overall… but more on that later.

The collage is the first thing I see when getting ready in the morning and the last thing I see before getting ready for bed. Which is exactly the right place to be reminded of such a special – and relaxed – time in our lives.

Thanks for reading this week, have a great weekend!

For the last few weeks I have been looking forward to sharing how to hang permanent wallpaper in a temporary way. I did a lot of research, considered the options, and decided upon the best plan of action that would not only allow us to easily remove the wallpaper, but also reuse it in a future home.

We even brought in the professionals, Kim and Scott, to help us with our mission. (No, they are not actually professionals, but they are as close as you come.)

After combing through dozens of (mostly) half baked ideas on how to hang wallpaper in a rental, we came upon the most sane solution that didn’t require us to wallpaper an entire wall of foam boards/plywood or nail it in place. 

I know that many of you might also be scratching your heads wondering why I didn’t just pick a sticky, temporary wallpaper to begin with. The truth is that I have been in love with Oh Joy’s Hygge & West Petal Pusher in my all-time favorite color combo, white and gold, for years. In fact, my canvas art that got me on the Nate Show was inspired by her wallpaper.

And the idea of turning our ho-hum 9’9″x12′ master bedroom into something other than a white, bland box was irresistible. Seriously, it was looking a bit blah.

The room is so small I have a hard time capturing the wall we wallpapered without a wide angle lens. But this gives you a pretty good idea of how boring the space was originally.

The best temporary tape to use with wallpaper, that would also not show through the paper, and was most likely to not stick to the wall permanently was Frog Tape’s Delicate Surface. It’s light yellow, made to remove from wallpaper easily, and is the lightest stickiness level of painters tape.

I even told the team at Frog Tape about my plan and they were so excited to see the results they sent us a few boxes of the tape to use for the project.

Things were looking good.

Last Saturday Mr. Lively, Kim, Scott, and I assembled as a team. We had our game plan set, and our supplies ready.

Kim and I measured each piece of wallpaper to line up with the next (a tricky business with the bold flower outlines). We decided on a vertical stripe pattern.

While we worked on the papers, the guys worked on outlining the wall in Frog Tape, too.

Once they had the tape stripes in place, they layered on the double sided tape (we got ours from Uline).

Though this looks simple, this took us hours to do.

After trying the vertical stripes, we realized smoothing was going to be a major problem.

So we switched to a horizontal repeat instead.

This meant we had to remove the tape on the wallpaper and the wall. Thank goodness we had the yellow Frog Tape, it stuck when we needed it to, and peeled easily away when we needed to start over.

And after five hours of hard work we had two strips in place.

But as you can tell, no matter how hard we tried to smooth the paper down perfectly on the tape, bubbles inevitably popped up.

Someone even mentioned that the installation made it look like cheap wrapping paper.

Which was devastating after getting so pumped to ‘finally crack the code’ to hanging permanent wallpaper temporarily.

So we took it all down and lived with it for a few days.

Yuck.

And found a really, really great husband and wife team that hang wallpaper beautifully. The traditional way. (Email me if you’d like their Chicago info!)

It turns out that removing this wallpaper is as simple as heating the wallpaper with a blowdryer and slowly removing the strips.

Who knew it would be that easy all along.

So I really am sorry, guys. I thought I would be able to share an easy way to hang wallpaper temporarily, but at least I’ve tried a way that I would not recommend for large walls or reflective wallpaper. I suppose that’s a win, right?

Plus, the end result is still beautiful, regardless of our failed attempts. And that’s really all that matters.

I’d like to thank Hygge & West for their support and Frog Tape for donating their tape for this endeavor! 

First of all, thank you all so much for your feel better wishes. I’m feeling much better today and think that in a few more days I’ll be back to 100%.

Yesterday I had a few bursts of energy and made a surprising amount of progress.

One of the first areas I was keen to complete was the bedroom. Decorating aside, the room is mostly in it’s finished state. Clothes are put away, the shower curtain is up, and the dresser is filled.

Today I’m excited to share the area where I made the most progress: the closet. It is now Phase One complete. (Phase Two involves a drill and Mr. Lively’s handiwork.)

Because I cannot find my camera lenses tucked away in a box somewhere, these photos are all from an iPhone. So please ignore the fuzziness and so forth.

To start, I shall share the closet in it’s raw state.

To be honest, the closet didn’t come with a best friend and her fiance. It was empty. And this is the guest bedroom closet, which is actually a bit bigger than the master closet. But you get the idea, right?

It has nice bars and shelves, but still pretty bare.

Because our bedroom is a bit on the small side (9’9″ x 12″) we can only fit one dresser, one nightstand, and the bed in the room. Which means this 4′x5′ closet has a lot of storaging (yes, I just made that up) to do.

We debated about using the guest room’s closet as my closet or Mr. Lively’s. But it isn’t a super short walk between the rooms. And I don’t like the idea of putting on my pajamas in the guest room, or walking between the guest room and master to get ready for bed.

So we are maxing out the master closet as much as we possibly can.

Mr. Lively elected to have more dresser space so that I could have more of the closet storage. But even with this arrangement in place, I still have my pajamas in the nightstand drawer (I know, so weird), and I had no place for my t-shirts, tanks, and workout gear.

So I decided in my loopy/sick state yesterday to drag a big shelving unit into the closet.

Obviously, this was a fail. But the win here was that I dragged this all the away from the living room around two dozen boxes and managed it all by myself. In my sick state, that was a big win.

Then I tried a smaller shelving unit.

Better… but still blocking my pants and skirts.

At this point I tried it under my shirts and dresses.

It was looking good.

My short dresses are a bit bunched up on top of the shelf. But overall, it’s not so bad.

At this point I tested some baskets for the workout gear storage. Though I am fairly confident I can keep straight piles for the t-shirts and tanks, I don’t have much hope for the workout gear which is pretty much on the floor.

The workout gear looked pretty good in the baskets. But they were much smaller than the shelf size and were getting filled pretty quickly.

Then I remembered these guys…

The white metal bins were $18 from World Market a few years back and have served as cute Jess LC bins.

Success.

They are pretty, still allow for easy access, and don’t have any basket-y bits that could end up attached to my workout pants. Plus, they are larger and can hold more than the original baskets.

Other than the bins and shelves, we added a corner laundry basket that Mr. Lively picked out at Target. Since he is in charge of washing the clothes, he got to pick the container.

And there you have it. We have found a way to keep almost all of our clothes in a nightstand, dresser, and smallish walk-in closet.

Next up for this “little closet that could”… accessory storage.

After three days of moving we are unpacked and settled in beautifully.

Not. 

The patio which you see in the picture above was actually complete in the first 45 minutes of our move on Friday. Our car had become our last resort storage facility in the final weeks, and all our patio furniture was just waiting to be unleashed.

We were off to a strong start, that’s for sure.

But over the rest of that day “a little itch in the back of my throat” became an all out cold through the afternoon and worsened on Saturday and Sunday.

Apparently my normally ironclad immune system thought moving weekend might be a good time to shut down.

This drastically affected our moving and unpacking pace. Here the a current state of our living room.

And the guest room is even worse.

Though I naively thought we could have everything done by today so the girls can come in for Jess LC tomorrow… the current outlook is unlikely at best.

I may have bit off more than I can chew in three days with Kleenex in hand.

Sometimes even the best intentions don’t work out and you just gotta take things one step (or sneeze) at a time.

As I tell Mr. Lively (frequently) we are just four sleeps away from moving things to our new apartment.

At this point I am pretty much consumed by preparations for the new apartment and the only way I can contain myself is by staying busy. Or sleeping. The level of excitement I feel rivals my nine-year-old self awaiting Christmas.

Or maybe this is how Gabrielle Douglass felt leading up to the London Games this summer.

This is my Olympics.

Over the next few weeks I’ll share how I used the makeunder process to help me decorate our apartment home. But before I get into details, I thought I’d share some personal intentions that have helped me with moving and decorating the new space.

Though some people prefer wait until they have moved to the new space to begin decorating. I am not in this camp. The minute I know where I am moving next I begin to envision what I’d like the space to look like and how I want to decorate to mesh with the style of the space itself.

I think this is in part because I am a designer, because this is my favorite passion of all time, and because I’m so excited to decorate that I cannot wait until I’m actually moved to start doing as much as possible.

The result of this enthusiasm is hope chests. Like those women of yesteryear who used to save home goods for her marriage and new home in a big trunk, I start creating piles of things that belong in the new space. Again, to reference my Christmas-like enthusiasm for moving, I am gathering the new home presents under… anything but a tree.

This year I’ve reached a new high (or low, depending on how you look at it) when it comes to hope chests. The entire apartment at this point is one giant hope apartment.

There is stuff on the floor.

Behind the furniture.

And even on the top of the refrigerator.

Some of these new online orders haven’t even been opened yet. I will view for the first time in person when we are in the new space.

So exciting. 

As you might be able to tell already, I did a lot pre-shopping for the new space. Armed with a vision of what I wanted the new space to look like thanks to tons of daydreaming, a floor plan, and measurements, I picked what new pieces we wanted and started ordering.

For this new space and most of my apartments in the past, I generally choose a few items to splurge on and many less expensive objects to balance it all out.

Because we eloped rather than had a wedding, we have had a bit more money to invest in the space than we otherwise would have. Which was an overall intention all along.

We have chosen to really splurge on three main pieces for the new space. A new couch, headboard, and entry table.

Though the entry table’s luxe-ness wasn’t quite a necessity, the couch and headboard got a good chunk of our budget because they are things that we will use every single day. I believe that well-crafted furniture is worthwhile. Plus, investing in these areas means the resale value of the items is generally higher than less expensive options. So though we splurged on a new couch, we had $500 from selling the old couch to go towards the bill.

Due to the added luxury of shopping ahead of time, I was also able to snag many of our items as they went on sale. So far I think we’ve saved about $400 due to sale purchases.

I also spent a lot of time searching for deals on rugs, accessories, patio furniture, and shelving.

We found counter stools and rugs on Overstock.com. Our patio furniture is entirely from Ikea, and our shelving is almost all from the Ikea Lack collection.

As for accessories, this is where I hit the thrift stores and Craigslist (did you know they have an iPhone/iPad app!?!).

We scored this awesome cedar-lined brass trunk shown above at The White Elephant (now closed, RIP) for just $35 this summer. We also found another similar side table/brass trunk for $35 at the Randolph Market as well. These guys are great because they are table surfaces and storage at the same time.

On Craigslist so far I’ve found two vintage chrome chairs ($150 for the pair), an awesome little bamboo detailed desk and chair ($125), and a vintage soda pop cooler to use as a coffee table on the patio ($60) which again has table surface/storage capacity.

And there are a few other items I’m still on the hunt for:

• Entry mirror
• Vanity mirror
• Dining table wood top
• Bedroom curtains/rods

Over the next few months I’ll be looking to round out the space with these items. Once these are in place the space will be about 85% complete. Sure there will be fun things to add here and there, but I love that we will get to start enjoying our home in a largely finished state pretty quickly.

This also means we can welcome our families into our mostly-complete new home for Thanksgiving and it will be great to get our puppy after the bulk of the decorating is done.

When it comes to a new space, I personally like to only keep the items that really make sense in the new space unless they have major sentimental value.

This is why we sold my old sectional on Craigslist and why we are selling the yellow chair, too.

Some small items that we won’t need I either gave away or donated. And my bedroom furniture which is very dear to me is going to be passed on to Caitlin, a summer Jess LC intern. These pieces were given to me by my childhood best friend, Carol Beth. I had refinished them before moving to Chicago five years ago when I could not afford to buy new furniture. I cherished them and I am so thankful to see them live on in Caitlin’s home as she embarks on her own self-employed journey in Chicago.

Knowing that these pieces will be so loved and serve someone who deserves them makes me happy to pass them on to a new generation. And at the same time it also helps me live with the most useful and well-suited pieces for my new space and life.

So there you have it! These are just a few of the general intentions that I have followed while preparing for the move and designing my new space. Though they may not work for everyone, hopefully they shed a little light on how I have designed my own home with intention.

Since getting back from our elopement I have had one major project on my mind whenever I’m not working: decorating the new apartment.

Decorating and design is literally my favorite thing to do on the planet. And the chance to start with a fresh canvas makes me giddy.

Thankfully, Mr. Lively appreciates my interior style (excluding lucite). So the meshing of our styles has been relatively easy. Not a cakewalk, but definitely pretty peaceful. He also has listened to me talk on, and on, and on about the new apartment and how we will decorate it.

God bless him. He is a patient man.

But you know what’s funny? As much as I’ve been prepping, planning, and preparing, I haven’t given you a tour yet!

So today, I’m giving you a tour of the soon-to-be Lively home.

But first, a bit about the building and apartment itself. We found the apartment building just three blocks from where we live now by talking to a local apartment building company. Though we could hardly believe it, they were in the process of renovating an old building which had new units available the day my lease ended. So though we planned to break my lease in July when Mr. Lively’s lease ended, we decided to stay put in my place until the new units were complete.

The building seems to have been built around the 1930′s and is a three story walk-up. Which, after living in high rises for five years, has the homey condo feel we were looking for. However, since they were completely gutting and building re-doing the inside from scratch, we also got the brand-new feel and amenities that a high rise offers. Plus, it is one block from the lake and a few blocks from the dog park for our future puppy (who was born on Labor Day!).

It really was a match made in heaven for us. And compared to the tiny studio apartment I lived in when I moved to the city five years ago… it blows me away. 

I will also be honest and say that without my business being at home, an apartment like this would not be an option for us. But since I have intentionally chosen to work from home instead of rent or lease a separate office space, we are able to splurge on a nicer home/studio. This is a trade off I’ve made all five years of my full-time business. Because my home is so important to me, I could not be happier working in it as well.

So without further ado, on to the tour!

When you walk into the apartment you find yourself in the main room. Looking to your left you see the (gas) fireplace and patio. As you can see there is an exposed brick wall which runs the entire length of the open concept space.

I dearly wish we could paint the brick white, but since that’s not allowed, I’m working with the brick instead of against it in the decor to follow.

Here is a view of the back wall of the living room, which is on the same wall as the entry door. The coat closet is that door on the left. I’m hoping that my desk will work in this sunken in space on the right.

When you walk out onto the patio you see in this photo they had not divided the shared outdoor space just yet. There will be a divider where I drew the white line to separate our patio space from our neighbors next door.

The view from here is north-facing north and looks onto some rather unsightly buildings… but considering we’ve never had our own outdoor space in the city before we are still thrilled.

The right side of the main space opens up to the kitchen. It is everything that Mr. Lively (the cook) could ask for. That island is literally the size of my first apartment. I kid you not. It’s about nine feet long. We plan to have some counter stools there for a breakfast bar. And the empty space on the right is for the future refrigerator.

Again, here’s another view, when standing with my back to the fireplace. The coat closet is on the right, then the entry door, and finally the back hallway which leads to the bathrooms and bedrooms.

This is a view of the hallway from the guest room and guest bath looking down to the master bedroom. As you can see there is more exposed brick and a long white wall perfect for art.

A gallery wall is definitely in order.

The first hallway stop is the guest bathroom. It’s pretty basic, but nice. And there is…. wait for it… a real shower stall!

In Chicago that it is extremely rare to find an apartment with a shower stall instead of the bathtub/shower combo. In fact, we are planning on using that guest shower more than the bathtub combo we have in our master bath.

For all of the space we get in the front half of the apartment, we lose it in the bedrooms. This is the guest room (as best I can shoot it). It measures 10′x12′. But it does have a little walk-in closet which is nice.

And if we thought the guest room was a bit on the small side, the master bedroom all the way in the back is even smaller at just 9’9″x12′. It also has just one window which looks into another unit and gets pretty poor natural light.

But despite the design challenges, I’m determined to make this little guy a jewel box. I have big plans for this space. Big plans in a tiny footprint.

So there you have it! A quick little peek at the space as it continues to be completed. We get our keys for the new space next Friday(!!!!!!). This leaves us until Sunday to have ourselves completely transplanted to the new home.

I can’t wait to share how I’ve been designing these rooms with intention… and actually see it come to life!

As with a lot of new builds, this space is very nice, but lacks unique character apart from the brick. So I’ve been working to create personality and style in the decor to fill these rooms and make the space our home.