Old Apartment: Fall Home Tour

I thought I'd share a "Fall Home Tour" of my old apartment. These were taken in September 2009, to be exact!

Looking back, I have the fondest memories of this apartment. We moved into this home in August 2008, right after getting married.  It was my first "grown up" apartment. I had been living at home through grad school in order to save money, so believe me I couldn't wait to move in with Evan and have our very own place to decorate!

The funny thing is, at the time we were living here, I remember that I just could not WAIT to get the heck out of here and move into a house! When we first got married, we didn't have two nickels to our name and we spent several years putting every last dollar into paying off our student loans. So glad we did, but I would seriously just count our pennies, stare at our budget, and plan our income out to the last dollar and it was HARD! Time seriously c-r-a-w-l-e-d until the day Sallie Mae was paid off and we could start saving for a house! I absolutely could not wait.

We may not have had a lot of money, but looking back I'm so proud of the decisions we made and the home we created even though we didn't have a lot of disposable income at the time. Most of the furniture in our place was hand-me-downs that we refurbished, stuff we made, or things we bought at the Pottery Barn Outlet using numerous gift cards we got as wedding gifts. The dining room chairs and white shelves in the bedroom were the only new pieces we bought. We bought them from Value City Furniture (super affordable and have held up extremely well!)

 I loved this bedroom... It is still one of my favorite bedrooms I ever had!

I know I couldn't wait to leave this place and the time period when we lived here wasn't the easiest, but I look back at this time with nothing but the most amazing memories! It made us so close and we accomplished some major, major goals. It is a really good lesson to just appreciate where you are at! You may be making amazing memories and not even be aware of it! Try to enjoy the season of life that you are in, even while working toward a bigger dream for the future.  

Summer 2015 Home Tour

Really loving the house right now :)

TFH Designs: The Bachelor Pad

I am so excited to share this incredible bachelor pad with you! My friend Matt is renting this awesome 1,200 square foot apartment space above a dry cleaners, and enlisted me to help him transform it into a industrial chic, loft-like apartment. It has been in the works for quite some time, but the space has finally come together and looks great! There are still a handful of things we are working on - drapes, artwork, bedding, a bar, and some accessorizing.. but the major things are in place at this point and I couldn't wait to share the progress!

The dining room is definitely my favorite area. This space has so much natural light, and I just love how all the textures of the table, chairs, rug and light fixture work together.

And this light fixture! Do you love it as much as I do, because I am obsessed. It is amazing how it transforms the room. I don't think many people think about changing out light fixtures when renting, but its really not that hard as long as you get the okay from the landlord and save the fixture that was originally in its place so you can swap it out again when you move out.  A little bit of hassle goes a really long way!

And here of course are the guys hanging out in the family room area watching March Madness. I love all of the touches of wood and metal, even though it is clearly still a warm and inviting space. 

The brown accent wall is where we are going to install a custom bar. We are in the process of designing it now!

Since Matt didn't really need two eating areas, we made the space off of the kitchen a den/reading area. This oversized chair is super comfortable and I'm pretty much obsessed with the custom mirror Matt ordered. It is HUGE and reflects a lot of light into this back corner.

There are two rooms off of the main living space - the bedroom and the office. We decided to make these spaces a little brighter and went with grayish/blue walls and some lighter furniture. Still have some work to do here, but I'm loving the foundation of these rooms!

Matt's place spans the whole top of this storefront. It has a beautiful view and is walking distance to my favorite town in Ohio.

PAINT COLORS:

Outer Gray Walls - Martha Stewart"Flagstone"
Brown Accent Wall - Behr "Aging Barrel"
Bedroom - Martha Stewart "Mariner"
Kitchen & Office- Behr "Pencil Point"
Bathrooms - Sherwin Williams "Raging River"

And of course, here are the before pictures:

I will continue to keep you posted as we continue to make changes!

Matt thank you for sharing and for trusting me w/designing your space! It's been a blast!

Painted Brick Home Tour

One of my favorite things to do every year is attend the BIA Parade of Homes in Columbus. This was from MANY years ago in Dublin, but was one of my favorite homes. I love the painted prick, copper details, landscaping, vertical siding, and window boxes. This is seriously my ideal home, friends!

Unfortunately as much as I love the exterior of this house, the kitchen is not my favorite! Boo! Just have to let my imagination run with what I would do instead...

This built in desk is in the second floor hallway overlooking the stairway.
 I love the idea of using the void space for something useful, but you have to be sure you don't drop anything over the edge (Yikes!)

AND last but not least, gotta live a wine cellar! :)