Christmas Open House {part 2}

Today I am sharing our Korean apartment part two, here’s part one in case you missed it. I am always proud of showing off my apartment, as this has been a long time coming. What this process of moving will remind me of is how at the same month, a friend of mine told me how she was look to buy a home in st. albert. She had been offered her dream job and was willing to do anything to fulfil her career. Obviously I miss her because I was so used to seeing her a lot, but I’m glad both of us are happy where we are in life.
Moving into a new house is exciting and it feels like you have a fresh start. Although I am happy with everything now, the process was quite stressful for me. I thought I could do it on my own, before I looked into a company like elite realty to assist me in finding the right property. If you are thinking about relocating or moving house, you should do your research. You don’t always have to do things like this on your own. Overall, the finished product is something I am proud of.

I’m starting in the entry way again,

BUT this time we are turning right (thrilling right? 🙂 ) To the right in our apartment, is the living/dining area, the family-room, and the kitchen. I decided that yesterday’s post was insanely long, so I am going to just focus on the living/dining room today and catch the family room/kitchen tomorrow. The plates on the wall in this picture were some Paul and I got in Spain on our last trip, and I totally LOVE them. (The clock above the fireplace is from Pottery Barn.) We have sort of a stag theme in our house because it’s Paul’s favorite animal, and fits in with the French Country Chateau feel that we like.

Sorry this picture is a little blurry, it is the only one I took of this angle into the room.

Here’s the living room from the kitchen, the couch is one we got at a thrift store, and had recovered. We also built the legs for the couch because it was freakishly low! All of the side tables in this room are from estate sales, and the lamps are from Lowe’s on clearance. We wanted to find some lamps that would fit in with our room decor. But finding the right types of lamps was no easy feat, as you can order table lamps online or from local shops and so as you can imagine, there was plenty to choose from. Eventually, we managed to settle on the ones from Lowe’s and I think it was a good decision. The antlers were bought from an antique store, and all of the art (that aren’t our diplomas or photographs) in these rooms are from estate sales. We had a lot of fun making our home perfect for us, if you are interested in finding your perfect home check out, Homes For Sale In Davenport FL.

The recliners are our only splurge in the room, they were custom upholstered from Arhaus in a mustard/butterscotch yellow leather with grey legs; they are my babies and I love them!!! The entertainment center is a sideboard I got from a thrift store, and refinished.

The plates are a combination of inexpensive plates from TJ Maxx, and Spanish and Italian Pottery. The coffee table came from “The Dump” a discount furniture store in VA.

I made the linen couch pillows, and the blue velvet one’s are from Ikea. The fireplace is the one I built for So You Think You Are Crafty, and the mirror above it is from Hobby Lobby. The rug in this room is from Sam’s Club forever ago, and the plates above the fireplace are from antique stores.

The blanket basket is from TJ Maxx on clearance forever ago too, and the lantern on the sofa table is from Hobby Lobby. The throw on the sofa table is handwoven and was purchased in Peru on our Inca Trail trip.

The sofa table is one I got on clearance from a furniture store; it was a floor model and had some permanent marker on it, so I was able to buy it for only $50 and a Mr Clean Magic Eraser took care of the marker mark! The barley twist table came from the same furniture store as a floor model too. (I’ve changed out the knobs on everything, I almost never keep original knobs.) The oil painting of a German man is from an estate sale, and the white deer came from a thrift store. (Thrift stores are the best if you can just hunt frequently enough, eventually there will be SOMETHING you can use!)

The dining room is fairly dominated by the white bookshelves; they are from Ikea, and are pretty much as we bought them, except I added bead board wallpaper to the backs and painted them a dusty blue green color, Paul cut the bridging shelf a little shorter so it fit the piano perfectly, and I changed out all the knobs. All of the items above the shelves have a lot of meaning to me; they were either collected on travel, gifts from friends, or have some sort of other significance. We LOVE books, but only keep books we will read again, or rare books that can’t be replaced, since we move so much, we can’t keep the weight of too many.

The buffet on the right matches the one in the living room, and are some I refinished before we moved out here.

I love the valances in this house, they are crewel fabric, with a grain sack striped points on the top with antique buttons. The chandelier was brought from the states, and replaces the ceiling fan that was in the apartment. I had this exact same style of chandelier in our last house, but when we went to move, I found the EXACT same one on clearance at Lowe’s as the display model! (you can see my fake grass porch in this picture too!)

Our Christmas tree is totally my favorite tree ever (I bet everyone feels that way about their tree!) I am not going to go too far into talking about it since I did that last year, but you can just follow the link to see details. The tree skirt is new this year though!

The dining table is one we got at an antique store, and before moving here we had it in it’s original wood color, but the mover’s scratched the snot out of the top, and I had to refinish it after we got to Korea.

I painted the top grey and sanded it back a lot, and the legs were painted in Miss Mustard Seed milk paint.

The chairs are some I got off of ebay (I had seen them in a catalog years before and could never have afforded them, but was able to get them for a STEAL on ebay) The seat covers are pads I got from Ikea. and recovered with a cut pile velvet I got from Hancock’s. (The rug is from Homegoods)

The 17th century tapestry is one of my most prized possessions, the universe delivered it into my lap for only $250, and it makes me happy everyday! The table runner is Korean handwoven linen, and I printed it with thickened dye to look like a huge tape measure.

Anyway, so that’s my living/dining room, I would say about 80% of the room is thrifted or bought on sale, and refinished, and I love that part of it. I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that we didn’t have to spend a lot of money to get something we love, and that I have built a home for my family with just my time rather than money! (not that I HAVE the money to buy what I would have liked!)

If you have any questions or comments I would love to hear them! If I wasn’t clear about anything you would like to know more about just say so, and I will try to clarify my sources etc. I will be back tomorrow with the family room/kitchen!

Edit: here’s the link to the last of the house.