new apartment projects: before & after

 just thought i'd share some projects i've worked on since marty and i moved into our new apartment. to start, i wanted to minimize the amount of different types of wood we have in our apartment, since the floors, moldings and door jambs are all covered in it. so, i repainted my old bedroom dresser, added new hardware and put it in the dining room as a buffet (here are some images i used for two-tone inspiration)

 we scooped up this amazing kroehler chair at an estate sale for $25! all it needed was fresh upholstering on the bottom and a new throw pillow (its final resting place in our apartment is still tbd). for now, it will serve as extra seating for book club and saints games.

 since we can't afford new nightstands right now (which are surprisingly expensive for such insignificant pieces of furniture!), i decided to take the existing, mismatched ones we had and paint them a uniform color, so they would at least match for the time being. here's one of them:

 finally, a few weeks ago becky and i went exploring in her creepy new [old] basement and we found an adorable, but grimy, little fan that had been hidden in the bowels of her garden district house for who knows how long. the only "before" picture i have is this one becky took of me discovering old documents and letters from the early 1960s. because the fan was in such bad shape (i'm inclined to blame katrina?), it desperately needed a steel wool-scrubbing and a paint job, so we went with a sexy black. 

yes, we're from new orleans

don't worry, natives. by "from" i only mean that am a resident, am employed, pay taxes and generally fulfill all the more mundane requirements of being "from" a place (i.e., grocery shopping at breaux mart, enjoying coffee from cc's, listening to wwoz, decorating my house with throws, etc) - AND i eat crawfish on newspaper (the gambit, to be exact) in my living room (while watching anthony bourdain's "no reservations" in new orleans, no less) on tuesdays with my roommate.

AND we suck the heads.

but don't worry, i know where i'm from.

carnage.

ps - speaking of crawfish, remember this?!

art nook

b's head nearly exploded from joy when i told her i had an easel at my disposal. it was the first thing standing in our apartment and continues to be one of the only things we own with legs (fyi - this is a poorly shielded cheap shot at the fact that we still do not own a table and i do not foresee us owning one in the immediate future). my old work bench (formally seen here) serves as a great base for the vintage trunk we use to store art supplies.

cocktail nook

i've been a terrible blogger and haven't bragged with pictures of my adorable new orleans apartment (well, except for here). so, over the next couple of days, i'll share some of the "nooks" becky and i have carved out of our little place. our apartment being as little as it is naturally lends itself to the creation of nooks, since there isn't enough space to really create separate areas; that, and we don't have enough furniture for that sort of thing. after i saw this post on a cup of jo, i knew we would need to have a fully stocked, old school bar (um, hello?). becky came up with the idea of mad men-inspired crystal decanters (which we have yet to fill with booze), and i obliged by seeking them out not surprisingly in my parents' basement. my parents also had this amazing bar cart, which happens to have been one of their first purchases in the united states. how cool!? from chicago in the 1980s to new orleans today, it is now adorned with some select libations and a traditional albeit slightly scary-looking mask.

jolie & elizabeth

roomie's been modeling for new orleans designers jolie & elizabeth for a few months now (check them out here and here). a few weeks ago we decided to join forces and play around town with my camera and photograph some new, mardi gras-inspired designs. this past weekend the sun came out and the weather was relatively agreeable so we got to finally collaborate and have some fun. we ended up shooting some photos by the new orleans school of ballet, the milan lounge, and on marty's roof and front porch (of all places!). i don't know what it is that made jolie think i was qualified to take pictures of her beautiful designs, but here we are. not bad for my first time, right?

oh, christmas tree

this being my first christmas in new orleans, i decided to go with a non-traditional tree to compliment my collection of blown-glass ornaments. and by tree, i mean trees. given that there is no snow, few leaves on the ground (after all, palm trees don't go bare for the winter) and temperatures holding pretty steadily in the 60s, i figured that the only way to properly get into the christmas spirit would be to turn my apartment into the north pole. so, i bought two trees, the largest, longest strands of lights i could find, and a rustic wreath that becky covered in glittery cupcakes. we settled into our north faces (this continues to excite becky, the floridian), brewed some tea and caramel hot chocolate, and blasted n'sync's christmas album while we decorated our little home.