it's happening!!!

oh, don't mind me. just sitting here, waiting for movers to take everything we own and put it in storage.

hey belongings, see you in LA!

our (long!) weekend was...

...warm and fuzzy
thursday night, we had a big going-away party and i was blown away by the number of people who stopped by to wish us well on our new adventures. knowing that we have such an amazing network of friends in this city is one of the hardest things to leave, but any opportunity to see what kind of influence you've had on others' lives is a powerful experience. also, it was just downright fun! we hung out at a bar in the east village, and then ended the night with some terrible mexican food. so lucky to be riding off into the sunset with this guy!

...full of boxes

the movers come on thursday morning, and save for our sheets and towels and some kitchen basics, we're ready for them. not gonna lie, growing up moving every two years has made me an incredible packer. see those boxes down there? those were all packed in three hours. and labeled, and entered into our inventory so we know what's in every box. hell yeah. this ain't my first rodeo.

...upside-down

the best thing about nyc on holiday weekends is how empty and quiet it can feel. until you walk over the central park and realize that everyone is hanging out there! on sunday, to reward ourselves for packing, we wandered around and lounged on the great lawn for a bit. by lounged, i mean, did some yoga. 

... the end of an era

we had our last family dinner with friends coming over for a taco feast on monday night, and we pre-gamed on our balcony (aka our favorite "room" in our apartment). love having this little slice of outdoor space and sitting across from this guy. sigh.

what did you get up to this weekend?

keep it/switch it ("dining room")

now that you've seen the living room and the bedroom, here's the final "room". oh the joys of nyc real estate... to call this area a dining room is a stretch, but it still deserves some love! it's actually so small that we tried to put a 5x8 rug underneath the table to separate the space a little bit, and the rug was too big. oh well. anyways, here's our dining "area"? is that more accurate?

keep it

• check out that custom lighting set-up! our apartment was woefully devoid of any built-in lights, so blake and his dad put together this awesome DIY chandelier from scratch. the lights are attached to pulleys, so you can change up the height of each one. we love it, and of course, so does the new tenant in our apartment. being the exceptionally kind people we are, we're leaving it behind for her. maybe our next place will have an actual lamp or two, but i do love the idea of recreating it!
• we got the mirror at this awesome flea market in virginia, while visiting a friend's hometown. it was quite the trek to get it home, but worth it, since it has just the right amount of aging and character to it. it also does wonders in terms of making the space feel a little bigger. 

switch it

• see the back of the couch there right up against the chairs? yeah. a little more room would not be turned down.

keep it

• our table!!!! swoon. our prized piece of furniture. we got it custom made from this guy on etsy, and it's all reclaimed wood from brooklyn. it is the best. honestly, it's the only reason that we're not just selling all of our stuff and starting fresh in LA. we had to bring the table with us, and i hope we have it for many years to come.
• the chairs are from restoration hardware and perfectly match the hairpin legs on the table. it's all just such a delight. 

switch it

• nope. none of it. keeping it all. sorry, you can't have the table or chairs. 

one more angle. love having the pass-through from the kitchen to the table, and it's always fun to have a pop of le creuset color. ugh, what kind of yuppie sentence is that? sorry. 

well, that's our sweet little apartment! about to be dismantled and packed up and mostly recreated 3,000 miles from here. pretty sure i'll miss it. a lot.

keep it/switch it (bedroom!)

ah yes, the only other room in our itty bitty NYC abode! what do i want to recreate in our new LA apartment? to be honest, our bedroom has been the victim of some overzealous "pinspiration" on my part (that's a real diagnosis, btw) before landing on how it looks today. and i do really love it in this current iteration. but first, a little throwback thursday action:

oh yeah! the stripes! i've never felt more accomplished in my life than i did after we finished painting these stripes one sunday afternoon. i was determined to have a striped wall in this apartment, and they had to be navy blue. no room for negotiation. and they turned out SO WELL! i mean look at that wall. but. the issue is, what do you do with the rest of the room when on wall is striped? we kept the rest white, and that combined with the white sheets was just too boring for me. i'd lay in bed and all i could see was plain white. and that grew really old really fast. but then what's next after you paint navy blue stripes on a wall?

we went straight up navy blue, and i absolutely love it. the room is small, and the dark color makes it feel oh so cozy. plus it gives us more to work with when it comes to fun, patterned duvet covers (hello more stripes!) and overall, makes the room feel more put together. here's what i'd like to keep and switch in our new abode:

keep it

• i will absolutely be on the navy blue train again. i am so all about the coziness factor. 
• our headboard is one of my favorite things that makes the room feel like a real grown-up bedroom.
• ironically, those photographs are of santa monica, which we chose long before we decided to move out west! they're so fun and beachy, and i love looking at the ocean right before going to sleep.
• in more boring adult things i never pictured myself saying, i absolutely love our mattress. yes, it's from ikea, however it's like memory foam but BETTER. i can't bring myself to type any more about a mattress, i'm bored already. sorry about that.

switch it

• our nightstands are actually ottomans from west elm that are useful because of the storage, but i'd love to get something like these from CB2, and then do some fun styling with actual matching lamps. 
• speaking of lamps, we've really got to up our lamp game next time.
• our sheets are really nice, but getting a new duvet cover is such a fun and easy way to switch things up! pretty much anything from west elm is good to go in my book. 

keep it

• on the wall across from the bed is this fun instagram display! credit to the waspy redhead, who posted this awesome instructional post and provided the inspiration. i'd definitely reinstall this in our new place, it's a really easy way to add some color and cool pics from our ever-expanding instagram libraries. 

switch it

• originally, our idea was to rotate pics in and out of here, but we never got around to it and have looked at the same pics for six months. i'd love to order more on a regular basis to keep it fresh!

the room is so small, it's hard to get pics of everything, but we also have sad little ikea dresser on its last legs in the closet, so a new dresser is on the list of furniture buys. and it would be great to have a room that's big enough for a chair or a bench at the foot of the bed! a girl can dream. 

check out our living room keep it/switch it here!

keep it/switch it (living room!)

what's the best part about moving? well, for me, it's the chance to find a brand new, totally blank canvas to decorate and make our own. to be totally honest, when we moved into this apartment two years ago, i really thought we'd be staying for much longer than two years. so we put quite a bit of effort into making it feel like a home, and did the big adult furniture upgrade (so long ikea, hello west elm!).

so lately, i've been thinking a lot about what i love about this place and what i'm excited to do over. let's start with the living room!

keep it

• i really, really love our gallery wall! will definitely be redoing it in the new place.
• the paint color is coventry gray by benjamin moore, and it's just the right kind of gray - not too blue, not too brown.

switch it

• our couch is the blake sectional from west elm (yep, guess who picked it out?) in stone, and it is incredibly comfortable and resilient. but it's going to cost $500 to move just that one piece of furniture, and then it'll start to add up in storage. i think we're going to go ahead and sell it and just get a new one in LA. i kind of like the idea of getting a different color, as this one is a little more beige-y than gray. maybe something a little darker, since i hope we'll be getting a pup once we're settled! anyone in the market for a couch?
• the coffee table situation is pretty terrible. we've had this old leather ottoman as a placeholder for, oh, two years now? would love to upgrade to something wooden and industrial, like this one or this cool tufted one (love me some tufting!). 
• the throw pillows i can take or leave. i am thinking we'll move away from all of the color we have and go a little more neutral, so maybe replace those with less bright patterns. we'll see. 
• the rug is this west elm dhurrie, and i love the color and pattern, but think we can use it somewhere else. it's always been a little too small for this space. 

keep it

• um, this whole tv situation is kind of sad. 

switch it

• how about a new tv that we could mount to the wall? 
• this poor little ikea bookcase is ever so durable and flexible, but i'd love to get an actual media console. and maybe one that isn't smaller than the tv? sigh. 
• yep, let's just switch all of it.

keep it

• directly across from the sofa are our bookshelves. we have managed to amass quite a collection of objets (i believe that's french for 'stuff') to display on our bookcases. our white porcelain animals are 100% making the move with us. 

switch it

• i was really going through a colorful phase when we moved in. the green is a little much, so i'm thinking we will probably keep these guys (they will pack flat once we disassemble them), but i'd love to get either some white or wood shelves in the new place. 

what do you wish you could re-do in your apartment or house?