Summer goals

I officially finished up at my job on June 1, and have spent the last week futzing around catching up on things that I'd let slide the previous few months (laundry...email correspondence...figuring out how to finance graduate school...). I also accomplished a few DIY to-dos, none of which are ready to share since they were more on the "supplies collecting" side of things, but which set me up for some exciting projects in the next week. Once school starts in mid-August I think I'll be quite busy for the next, errrr, two years, so I want to be sure I tackle as many projects as I can between now and July 25 (after that, it's upstate New York with Sam and his family for a week, Chicago for a weekend, Alaska for a week, and then a week of r&r (from all that vacationing) before starting classes). I've been putting together my to-do list (which also has non-design stuff on it, like "pass accounting tutorial," "get meningitis vaccine booster," and "run half marathon"), and I thought I'd take the opportunity to share what's on the list as far as the apartment is concerned. Below is the list, and then some pictures!

kitchen:

make a floor cloth (like the one in the hallway, but bigger)

paint! not sure yet what color...

sew a curtain for the back door (which we can hang up during the winter, to help make things less drafty)

new light fixture

living room:

new* tv stand, with more storage and color!

be on the lookout for a new coffee table

bedroom:

upholster headboard

replace ceiling fan light fixture

lengthen bedroom curtains

expand gallery wall

add some more color somehow?

hallway:

new light fixture (chandelier or pendant style)

console table

organize hall closets

study:

paint built-in cabinet

remove defunct ethernet outlets

organize my new filing cabinet! (most people might find this one boring, but I looooove to organize paperwork)

* Note: every time I say "new," I really mean "new to me" -- I plan on making/refurbishing basically everything, so this isn't just a big shopping spree.

Below are some pictures for your delectation (I found most via Pinterest -- my go-to when I'm searching for some inspiration -- but I tried to provide original sources where possible):

After months of searching, I finally found this guy on craigslist -- the right shape, price, and location. It came home with us this morning! With some love and paint, it's poised to make a great new tv stand!

(source: my apartment!)

In the vein of this one, but guess what? I already have a color picked out, and it isn't turquoise. It isn't even in the blue family. Shocking, I know.

 (The Married Life Diaries)

 New paint for the kitchen! Must look good with our medium brown cabinets, though.... Something colorful, or maybe a light gray? A lot of options would be a step up from the mint green/hunter green two-tone thing that's going on in there now....

 

(clockwise: Design Sponge, Apartment Therapy, EGI Home Interior, unknown origin on Pinterest)

And maybe a patterned floor cloth, but in a color like charcoal, to jazz up the old linoleum floor? I can smell the polyurethane already.

(Just About Home and Homedecorators.com)

As for the bedroom, I'm already in the process of replacing the ceiling fan light fixture. I know it's a nice ceiling fan, but the room is small and feels even smaller with a dark fixture lurking overhead.

 

Plus I'd like to expand the gallery wall -- here it is in its current state. I like it a lot, but think it will pack even more of a punch -- which is exactly what you want on the bedroom wall you stare at while sitting in bed... :) -- if it gets a few more frames.

To finish up the hallway makeover, I'd love to add a simple console table

(The Sweet Beast)

(I'm looooving the two-tone look, plus the coral color, but I think simple wood is probably best for this space since the hallway itself is kind of supposed to be the star of the show)

To replace the current light fixture (just a standard hum drum overhead light), I'd like to DIY a chandelier or pendant of some sort, and there are a few styles I've been thinking about:

This one says: welcome to my lighthouse! (Home Depot)

(bored & crafty and dollar store crafts)

For the built-in cabinet, how about something colorful and bold?

(Martha Stewart)

Or maybe a bit more muted, you know I'm a sucker for robin's egg blue

(Remodelaholic)

So stay tuned, hopefully these projects and more will be unfolding over the summer! (And by "unfolding," I mean as a result of many hours spent pinteresting, priming, painting, craigslisting, crouching, cursing, and alliterating!)