January 16, 2009

Jazzin' it up!

A year and a half ago, Taft and I moved to Chicago with one suitcase, a guitar, and about 100 dollars in our bank account. We had never seen the apartment we were moving into, and had no idea what our neighborhood was going to be like. Luckily we were only in that first apartment for a month. . . but we think we hit the jackpot moving to Goldcoast. The second apartment we moved was definitely nothing fancy. It is often described as 'charmingly vintage' which I guess you could liken to character. I could never bring myself to buy the nice furniture I actually wanted. Why? First, we had no idea if we would be here any longer than a year, and I would rather get rid of any furniture we had than pay to move it. Second, after we moved into this apartment (with no furniture) we realized that the coat closet juts out in front of the door, making a normal couch impossible to fit through. Lastly, and MOST importantly, we wanted to pay off any debt we had. Good news! After living frugally and making the most of what we have, we are going into 2009 debt free!

Anyways, this is a longer post than I'm used to writing- gosh I'm liking all this time on my hands! Well with all this time I've been busting out the sewing machine and getting a little crafty.

This is what our old computer desk/chair from costco used to look like. Drumroll please. . .


Ta Dahhh! Yea still nothing too fancy, but maybe when it's not -14 outside I will do some spraypainting of some sort.


Yikes! Just looking at the old pictures of these brings back bad memories! Just look at those stains. . .



The best part? This wasn't just a mere staple gun feat, that fabric is tightly wrapped with an elastic hem on the bottom. So next time you come over for dinner and you happen to spill on the chair, don't sweat it! I can pop it off and throw it in the washer!


My next project is a bed. In that one suitcase of ours was a rolled up air mattress that we slept on for almost the whole first year. Then my parents were kind enough to trade us our dead car that had been sitting in their driveway this whole time, for a bed of our choice. Now I'm in love with our memory foam mattress, but would like to get it off the floor. Stay tuned for before and after pictures!





17 comments:

Alex said...

Awesome post! I loved your writing. I hope this is a posting trend that continues. Your chairs look amazing!! You have a real talent for it. I can't wait to see what you do with the bed.

Heidi said...

Ok, now you must come over for lunch and to show me how you made your coscto chairs to hip. We used those chairs as our "dining set" until about 6 months ago. If only I had known...

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