NAFASI THE BLOG

Happy Leo Season!!! Leo is a very loyal and generous friend who loves the spotlight. This fire sign is ruled by the sun, the center of our solar system - hence Leo's notorious ego! But that same ego helps Leo radiate confidence, warmth, and enthusiasm, and with these traits they can easily inspire and influence the people around them. Just like the lion that symbolizes this sign, Leo is proud and strong - the ruler of the jungle - and also stubborn! They are often creative people who appreciate beauty, anything lushly extravagant, and the dramatically bold. Leo inspires us all to be confident in our self-expression. 

I have been so pumped to finally show the TTPats Home Makeover in completion!! It's been a lot of work, and a lot of fun. Very proud to say we are officially done! ... For now at least. :) Read to the bottom to see the whole story, but for now... Let's finally take a look at the shots!!!!      

  Now that the painting was done, the desk and shelves were up, and the house was almost finished, the Den went into speed mode. We worked on a bunch of different projects. One of my favorites is this project design board. It used to be my ol d r oommate's headboard that I picked up for her at a salvage shop for 10 bucks!

  I love salvaged wood pieces. Shopping at Restoration Hardware however was NOT in our budget. I was driving back home to Rochester, NY for Memorial Day weekend, and I had an idea SET that I. Would. Find. Wood... Old wood... Side of the road, distressed, water damaged beautiful old wood! And I did. :) It was pretty fun actually driving through Amish country in PA and weird small towns, talking to people and asking around. I ended up finding a towing company that was selling firewood by the road, but they had wood planks in the pile. So I asked, and turns out the owner's brother makes big shipping crates, and he had a whole barn-full of old wood from his brother! He gave it to me for free, and even cut it down for me so it would fit in my car. Check it out!

  IKEA hacks.  Who doesn't love them?  You take an IKEA piece - simple, reliable, maybe a little bland - and you spice it up to give it some new life or transform it to meet your new furniture needs.  In our case, we did a little of both.  The best part of these projects is that they're a fun, easy, and cheap way to create your dream furniture all on your own!  All you need is some spray paint, tape, a sheet to paint over, and a nice spot of grass on a sunny day - plus your IKEA piece.  :)

Saying good bye to the old guest room was hard at first. I had a mural in there, I had painted a silver accent wall, it was the most re-designed room in the whole apartment! And it was where all of my last remaining girly decor landed. And my bed that I LOVED. Let's do a tribute to this space, before we show the new paint job! When I first moved in: Then it became my bedroom: (There's that silver accent wall!) Then I switched to the big bedroom, and redecorated this room for my roommate: (Kept the silver accent wall, but painted the other walls white) With the mural and all! Then Patrick moved in, and we made it into our guest room- on a dime : But it wouldn't stay for long!!! While it was sad, now the new Den is in the best shape that room has seen! :) Next week, Sydney will show you how we got a media console out of an old IKEA shelf from Patrick's old apartment!!  Love, Teri

Everything was set. We were good to go. Living Room - check! Bedroom - check! Guest Bedroom- eh! But it got the job done... Yeah, cue the design itch again. It was convenient timing, because my sister was also getting rid of her navy sofa that I happened to LOVE and could not just destine its fate to the Craigslist gods. So we took it. I originally wanted to put the sofa into the guest room to turn it into an office and TV room. That was the original plan , and I was ready to say good bye to my old mattress at this point. The sofa is navy and has nailhead trim, and it's really pretty. But really  big . So big it would never fit through the hallway door. It  would  fit in the Living Room though.... So, to Patrick's dismay, we would have to re-re-decorate the Living Room and use it in there... Yup!...  I just couldn't let that sofa leave the family. But its navy color wouldn't work with the army green and raspberry of our living room! So I guess we were painting ag...

Let's talk Bedroom today. We had a lot of DIY action in the Living Room last week, and there's a little more in the bedroom where we were going for a contemporary boho vibe. Again the color palette was black and white, raspberry and touches of salvaged wood and mixed metals. This room is really fun, and we had a ton of fun doing it!  We had to paint right away. This room started out blue with all of my knick knacks everywhere. We wanted to clean it out and freshen it up. So of course we painted. Here's my old bedroom: We still wanted the crisp white in the bedroom, but not everywhere. We both like color, and the raspberry that we were going for would be a nice contrast with the white walls. The thing was, we were tired of the typical accent wall. It's been done, and even in our own living room! So to add a little flavor, we wrapped the color around the corners, and ombre'ed it into the white! It has a cool almost tie-dye effect. Check out the proces...