Outdoor Christmas Apartment Decor

I love LOVE love sitting on my porch. I especially like to sit out there on a warm summer day and drink lemonade and let my dog think the whole apartment complex is her backyard. When it gets cold outside, the sitting on the porch time happens a little less often. Regardless, I wanted to create a little bit of Christmas heaven out there.

I found those presents at HomeGoods for approximately $40. Here is a similar set on Target.com but it's a little more pricey. Those lights on the ledge only took me oh... about 2 hours to hang up. I think it was my first and last time to mess with Christmas lights. :) So worth it though!

DIY Chicken Wire Bulletin Board

I have pictures of my family and friends all over my apartment. I love taking pictures, and I love having them up to look at every day. My brother currently lives in Spain, and lot of my friends live in other cities and states, so seeing their faces in pictures every day makes everyone seem a {little} less farther away.

I found this big white frame in the attic at my parents' house. I went to Lowe's and purchased some chicken wire. The smallest roll of chicken wire I found was about 4ft x 10 ft. Let's just say I have enough left over to make an actual chicken pen. 

I wish I had more pictures for the step by step, but hopefully these finished-product pictures are explanatory enough. 

I laid the chicken wire over the frame and cut it about one inch bigger than the frame. I then nailed half-inch nails every 3-4 inches along the inside of the frame. If one of the pieces of chicken wire was near the nails, I twisted it around the nail. The other pieces of chicken wire are not attached to any nails, they just stay in place.

That's it really!

Fall Decor 2013

Well Christmas has already taken over all of the stores around here, and I am already dreaming about new Christmas decorations! I will probably leave my Fall decorations up until Thanksgiving, but here's a wrap-up of all things Fall.

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the Fall." F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

Clearance Accent Table

There's something about cold weather that makes me really love being home. I'm still in the process of collecting furniture, but my budget doesn't allow for too much shopping, unfortunately.

The good news is, Target has some of my FAVORITE furniture and home decor which I can usually talk myself into buying because of their good prices. I especially love it when I find things on sale! I found this new side table at Target on clearance for $29.99. It has also been marked down online for $56.25 here. I have a Target RedCard, so it was an extra 5% off. 

And how sweet is that puppy in the picture frame? :) I know, I know. 

Here's a wide shot of my living room. By the way, I also purchased almost all of those pillows at Target recently too! Here's a link to their pillows. I'm a big fan of Target Coupons and Cartwheel, so be sure to check those for pillow deals before you buy any! Both of the light blue ruffle pillows are from Pier 1 Imports, but it has been several years since I purchased them. Here's a link to their pillows.

Easy Decor for All Seasons

These hurricane vases were purchased at Target. Here's a link. It's a super easy decoration for each holiday or season by switching the contents. 

DIY Burlap Ruffle Lamp Shade

This lamp was purchased at a garage sale for $4. I bought it knowing I would do something to spice it up a little. I liked the base, colors, and size, and for $4, I couldn't pass it up! I wish I had a before picture of this lamp, but the original shade was a tan color with dark brown swirls on it. 

I found scrap burlap on sale at Hobby Lobby and purchased 2 yards. 

I cut the burlap 1.5 inches wide, and the length was 3x the length of the lamp shade. I folded the strips in half and ironed them so they would be pressed in half. I then put hot glue on the folded edge of the strips, and pressed it onto the lamp shade in different designs.  I didn't really have a pattern, I just pressed them down in randomly swirled designs. 

Honestly, the lamp doesn't produce an extremely bright light because the burlap blocks some of it.. but it actually looks pretty awesome when the light shines through :) 

DIY Bench

Like I've said before, apartments = a lot of big blank walls and spaces. I wanted to make a low bench to take up some space. I also wanted to provide some more seating. I don't usually have a ton of visitors, but my friends and I have a bible study that takes place at my apartment sometimes. A decoration that doubles as optional seating is an A-plus in my book!

The only tools I needed to make this bench were a screwdriver and scissors. That's a good thing, because those are pretty much the only tools I know how to use :) The total cost was around $40. Here's how I did it: 

I bought 4 pre-made screw-top legs from Lowe's for $6 each. I then bought wood that was pre-cut to 12''x48", this cost around $10. This is a pretty narrow bench, by the way. So if you are bigger than me and my 5'2" friends, you might want to get one that's a little wider than 12". 

I purchased the fabric and quilt batting from Hobby Lobby. The home decor fabric seems to always be 30% off. When I am in the check out lanes at Hobby Lobby, I always google search on my phone for "Hobby Lobby coupon." The Hobby Lobby website has a weekly "40% off one item" coupon that you can use on anything in the store. Great deal!

I used a staple gun to secure the batting and fabric to the wood.

Then I used a screwdriver to screw these plates into the wood. I then put a light coat of antique white paint on the legs... and screwed the legs right into the plates. 

Kitchen Recipe Decor

I love thinking of ways to remember my mom... so this project is extra special to me. I found two of my favorite hand-written recipes from my mom's recipe box. I scanned and enlarged these recipes to fit in my 8 x 10 frames. I love how it turned out :) 

Coffee Station

I knew as soon as I moved into my apartment, I wanted to have a coffee bar. It was the first thing on my list of projects. I had seen pictures of personal coffee bars on Pinterest and I really wanted to make my own version.  My boyfriend built me this table to perfectly fit this short wall in my apartment. I love everything about it :) 

The inside contents:  

I love having all my coffee supplies in one little area. Like most things in life, the more organized and accessible things are, the more likely we are to use them. I can testify that this little coffee bar has lead to consuming much more coffee than I previously did! :) 

A Pocketful of Sweet Dreams

Well I noticed that apartments usually have windows along one whole wall... and ZERO windows on all the other walls. That leaves a lot of big blank (white!) walls. I'm constantly attempting to find cost-effective ways to decorate my big blank walls. Unfortunately, a lot of wall decorations that take up a lot of space are also very expensive. I figured that a wall collage would be a perfect way to take up some space, while not spending toooo much money.

This is result of the 2 hours I spent daydreaming at Hobby Lobby... For some reason when I shop there, the time just flies by. It's my happy place. 

These frames can be purchased for $2.99 each here. They are real wood too. What a great deal! I purchased some scrap book paper in coordinating prints, and some big stickers with sweet phrases. 

I kind of just guessed on the size when I cut the first piece of scrap book paper to fit in the frame. I then traced that first piece onto the other 3 pages and cut them all out. 

The "Love" design is actually part of the top right damask scrapbook paper, so I used 2 sheets to make each of those. The back of that paper is the red polka-dot paper on the top left. Don't forget to look on the back of the papers when you're at the store! They usually coordinate and would be perfect for projects like this.

Here's the finished product! That's a pretty big space on the wall that used to be so bare. I really like how it turned out. I removed the glass because I didn't like the glare from my ceiling light (apartment lighting struggles...). 

This one is my very favorite :) What a sweet phrase! I love having encouraging phrases around my apartment. I really believe it makes a difference to be physically surrounded by encouraging, positive, phrases. 

It's Fall Y'all!

Home sweet home at my little apartment! Wow there's just something about fall that makes me love being home. In my sweatpants. Drinking coffee (with extra creamer). This new door decor especially makes me love coming home each day. I absolutely love it! 

Living in an apartment makes it a little more difficult to feel "home." But creating a home feeling is something I am constantly trying to do. Decorating makes my apartment feel warm, and keeping everything clean makes it feel calm and relaxing. Those are some very "homey" words. Don't you think?

Thanks to my sweet little sister for buying me that doormat as a housewarming gift :) She's the kind of sister who knows I want something before I even know I want it. Gifts are her love language and she's so good at picking out thoughtful gifts that make people feel loved. Lucky lucky me! 

Doormat: Garnet Hill (sold out) 

Wreath: Hobby Lobby (wreath & flowers purchased separately)