Decorating Nina's First Apartment

 Setting Nina up in her first apartment was a lot of fun for both of us during the first few weeks of the year.  We had this rental that became open and Nina needed to move out to the OC so off she went.  The previous tenant was moving out of state and did not want to take all her furniture so she left a lot of pieces for Nina.  Here is a before shot of the living room.  The blue plaid was not to Nina's liking but truly she would have taken anything.  Lucky for her - the previous owners had a cat or dog creature and there was a little fur so her asthma required me to buy the slipcovers.  I mean I haaaad to!!  And I haaad to toss those floral pillows too!!  I found the little scrolly wood coffee table on Craigslist for $35.

I found the slipcovers on major markdown at Target (hello Red Velvet!)  We bought a quart of Tiffany Blue paint and put it to good use on the coffee table and antiqued it up.  The vintage gold mirror was a major find for $40 at a thrift store - real wood and real old!  The bird decal art was from the sale bin at HomeGoods - love that place!  I splurged on the pillows I think at $20 each.  Matt would not let us paint any of the walls!  I don't know why since we are the landlords, but I did not want to involve him much if you get what I mean so I let that go.  I figure you win some and you lose some.

Two girls are sharing the master bedrom which was dismal and dark.  They had left some little wood side tables painted brown - ugg.  We painted those satin black and added crystal knobs.  The lights they left were cute so we kept them.  Got lucky with the curtain panels that were on markdown.  I found a dresser on Craigslist for $40 and painted it white with a black top and added more crystal knobs.  But what we really had fun with was with the large frame wall art that we painted, we call that installation "I aspire to own art one day."

So funny that Nina's desk lamp matched the curtains!

Yes, that is Nina's baby blanket and Minky her bear that she sleeps with...still.  I love that child!

The loepard "D" and "T" are for Dina & Tina and that would be Nina and Brittany's alter egos - two wild Jersey chics! They break into the characters of Dina & Tina when ever the mood strikes - crazy!

The original bath was dark not so fun and that cabinet had to go! 

 I found the scroll iron shelf unit in my home office and donated it to the cause.  It looks much better here.
Since I was closing my store Nina and the girls benefited from my left over inventory of French canisters and various home decor items. 

The dinning room is so cute and really all the furniture was left by the previous tenant.  We added a swag of black and white fabric we found on sale.  I donated the fruit basket which was approved by Matt as it has space for lots of fruit..it is a Persian thing.

More donated goodies for Nina that were from my store.  Lucky girl.
Please Note:  We detest the Spruce Goose style ceiling fan but could not get Matt to agree to take it down.  Seriously it is ugly and needs to go.  It has a freakin remote and for some reason Matt likes it and will not let us take it down...yet, you know that its coming down sometime soon.  I'll have to work on that.

Nina added her collection of vintage cameras in the back there and I swear there was a full jar of candy when I left!

Nina already had a nice kitchen as Matt had previously replaced the counter tops and appliances, you can not see it in this picture but she has a nice tray ceiling with recessed lights and crown mouldings So we had no work to do there.

Outfitting a new apartment for someone who has nothing was a task but super fun.  We made many trips to the 99 cent store for all sorts of goodies from pot holders to tupperware.  We ran out of money but managed to do all of it for around $400.  I still think she needs some art or something else on her living room wall but we'll get that later, for now she is set and loving her new place and living with her friends.  Most of all we had a blast doing all this together.  I love working on anything creative with Nina!!!

The only problem now is that I miss her and I have to wait until Saturdays to see my girl, I love her so much but I know she is happy and I feel good about where she is.

Now if Bijan would just let me into that Berkley man-cave...just think what I could do!!!

My thoughts today,