The After's...So Far.

I don't think we'll ever be completely done with this Duplex.  

There's always a new project or redesign we find ourselves thinking about or actually getting into. 

So far, I think we've come a very long way!

Without further ado, here are the after's of the last 

2 months worth of work we've accomplished

Game room:

Kitchen:

 The Living Room:

 

Welcome to our Nest

Welcome Friends!

I'd like to start my update with a little mini tour of the Duplex!

Keep in mind, however, that it's still a major work in progress and I've been very naughty when it comes to getting before and after's taken.

I'm doing my best!

This is what you saw when entering the front door. 

Our soon to be game room in MINT. Blech.

This lady seriously had horrible taste in color!

Here's a shot of the game room from the stairs. Notice the lovely mint colored radiator! :(

I could not paint these radiators fast enough!

I apologize for the blurry shot.

This is the view when you enter the back door. 

 It's almost as though you're walking through a berry patch.

IN HELL

Even the bathroom couldn't escape from the creeping berries from Hell.

On to the kitchen. A lovely color of turquoise that only a grandmother in 

Palm Beach could appreciate

  

Notice the lovely painted border circling the entire kitchen!

And finally, the living room. Mint, just like the game room. .

 Still hideous.

So there, you have it.  These are all the before's I have.  The upstairs was just as bad.  

Our bedroom was sickeningly yellow,

 Jay's room was mint 

and my craft room was the only room we didn't paint because

 it was a fairly nice shade of blue. 

I 

NEVER 

want to paint again!

EVER!

Six Month Sprint!

Hello All!

I can't believe it's already been six whole months since I last posted here!

 It's been a crazy six months so forgive me for my lack of updates. 

 I do, however, have a lot to tell and show you! 

 We have been busy little bees for the past few months getting settled in our new nest!

To start, we've only been living in the Duplex since April.  

There was a bit of an issue with the former tenants living here and it took a whole month after their original eviction date for us to get them to finally leave!

Thankfully, they left the place pretty spotless, minus their hideous choice of 

paint colors in each room.

Since April we've been thrifting, garage sale-ing and picking and it's a great feeling

 to see all our plans and ideas coming together!  

I've also got a new job as a Teacher's Aide and I LOVE it!

As much as I love my new job it does mean that I have even fewer hours in the day to 

get all my projects (and cleaning!) done.  

But that's what weekends are for right?!

In the next few posts I'll try to get you all up to date on what we've been up to these past few months.

Thanks for being patient with us while we get our 

nest feathered!

I'm Green with....LOVE!

Fact:

I'm obsessed with anything vintage.

So when I saw this beauty rolling into the sales floor of the Salvation Army I literally put a death grip on Josh's arm and gasped.

Have you ever seen something so magnificent?! So Majestic?! Ahhh!

Sorry, I'm still swooning over the serendipity of this thrift store find.  I guess I was in the right place at the right time because I didn't even let them get a sales ticket on this bad boy before I told them to slap a SOLD ticket on!  As soon as it came out of the back room I knew it was mine.

As I previously stated I love vintage stuff.  My "thing" for the past few years has been mid-century modern pieces and basically anything funky from the mid 1950's to mid 1960's.  This gem fits that bill perfectly.  On top of it, it's my favorite color- Green.  

Generally, most thrift stores have a few pieces similar to this- some vintage color, velvet, well loved, plain. But this, folks, is the find of the century.  Not only is it in like new condition (I swear no one ever sat on the thing), it's comfortable as heck and we snagged it for $40.  Yup, you read that right. $40! I have to add that my mom actually bought this for us for a housewarming gift, so I can't take all the credit (she even talked them down from $50).

I know right!? How lucky are we?!  Of course, Josh wasn't as thrilled about it the way I was, but bless his heart, he's trying.  I think he's starting to warm up to it a bit and I know once he sees the finished room he'll love it.  He's already raved about how comfy it is (and long, so he can actually lay down), so I know he'll eventually love the color.

There were two really minor issues with the couch.  The first being the legs looking a bit worn.  Probably from vacuuming, but nevertheless, they don't match the pristine nature of the rest of the couch.  When it gets to be a bit warmer and dryer I'd like to take the legs off and paint or refinish them to make the piece really shine.  

The second issue is the 6 "pancake pillows" that came with it.  

It's hard to really see the extent of the flatness of the pillows in this picture, but trust me, they kind of sank into the crease of the couch when they laid up against it.  

FEAR NOT!

Being handy and crafty, I came up with a simple and free solution!

I ripped the stuffing out of 3 ugly old pillows that were a similar size!

You can't tell from this shot, but the stuffing is foam wrapped in batting.

Well, the couch pillows were flat, but not flat enough that they would need an entire pillow's worth of stuffing, so I split the batting and foam from the three pillows to give me enough "stuff" to fill all 6 pillows.  two of the pillows were slightly larger than the other 4 so I made sure to stuff batting into those seeing as that was slightly wider than the foam.  The rest got foam or batting.

As you can see, I used a seam ripper to open the green pillows, making sure not to rip the fabric as I did it.  I also made sure to open the seam that had been originally left open to stuff the pillows so it would be unnoticeable once I was finished.

Also, notice the fact that the inside of the seam is the same color as the outside of the pillow! You know what that means? This bad boy hasn't even faded in the last 50-60 years! I'd like to see today's furniture stand up to that test.  

Once I adjusted the stuffing, making sure it reaches to all four corners and isn't lumpy I used a pretty large needle (6 inches) to stitch these bad boys up by hand.  It's a labor of love and I only had the energy to finish 4 tonight, but once I have the rest finished I'll post more photos.  I can't wait to see how they look on the couch and I REALLY can't wait to see how the couch looks in the duplex! 

The walls of the living room will be grey- probably something close to Revere Pewter by Benjamin Moore (but cheaper), with white crown molding. For accent colors I'm thinking black or a sort of cornflower/robin's egg blue:

Let me know what you think!

Let the Games Begin!

Hello Friends.

Welcome to the Northside!  

I'd like to begin with a little bit about myself and my amazing boyfriend.  We're two twenty-somethings living in Upstate NY trying to carve out a spot for ourselves in the the universe.  I'm Rachel, and the hunk on my left is my amazing, super supportive and totally gorgeous boyfriend Josh, the love of my life.

Here's our rambunctious puppy Betty- She drives us crazy, in a good way

We've been living together for about 6 months and while it's been the happiest 6 months of my life, it is definitely not because of the apartment we live in.  I also have to mention that we live with Josh's twin brother, which is awesome because Josh gets to live with his built in best friend and I get the brother I never had.  

But back to the apartment. Or should I say tenement.  Yeah, remember learning about those slums that immigrants lived in at the turn of the century in New York City?  

Ours isn't much better.  

I'm pretty sure this place is a code enforcement officer's nightmare, not to mention a gangsta's paradise (our neighbors have been known to deal all sorts of fun little goodies).  I digress. While it's been a fun run we definitely are ready to move on to greener pastures.

I'm lucky enough to have a grandmother who owns a duplex (the house I grew up in until age 14).  When my family moved out my grandparents rented it out to tenants, but now I'm finally coming home!  We are absolutely over the moon that we will have somewhere safe and welcoming that we can actually be proud of.  Ever since we found out the news that we were going to be moving we've done nothing but talk non-stop about our plans to revamp and re-decorate the place.  

Josh and I are both avid thrifters, repurposers, and antiquers, so much of what you'll find on this site are DIY projects that we've gotten ourselves into.  We might not have a lot of money but what we lack in that department we more than make up for with creativity and elbow grease.  

It's January now, and we won't be moving until the beginning of March, so over the next few months check back to see the progress we've made with the place.  In the mean time I'll try to post mini projects, the packing and moving process and any helpful or interesting tips I find.  I'd love this page to serve as a scrapbook and how-to guide all rolled up in one.  

I'm a self-proclaimed Pinterest junkie so many of the projects I've found on there and have just been waiting to have a place of my own to try them out in (I've already got an entire pin board dedicated to the duplex and projects we would like to try!).  

I welcome your thoughts, tips and insight, so don't be shy, we love comments!  The internet is a great resource for inspiration and I fully intend on sowing as much information as I glean!

I hope you like our little corner of the world!