Decorating the Apartment

Well hello there, strangers :) I know I have been MIA for way too long now, and I just want to say that I am sorry.  I absolutely love blogging, but honestly- it just takes a lot of time that I don't seem to have.  I also think since I am on my computer alll day long at work, I don't really get on my laptop at home anymore, which in turn means I'm not blogging!  Anyway- enough talking about that...let's get on to the exciting stuff.  I wanted to do a post to show you all some of the decor I have been working on in my apartment.  I change things around pretty much weekly, so nothing is ever the same but I thought I would show you all some of it as it is now!

Decorating to me is an addiction, and like I said, I am always changing around how things look at home.  I also am constantly checking home stores like Marshalls, HomeGoods, Target, etc. to try and find something to add to the madness.  It's just too fun to stop!!  Anyway, I hope you enjoy and get some inspiration from some of the things I've done around here- enjoy :)

Flower arrangement on top of bookshelf

Coffee Table Arrangement

Dining Table- bowl from Ikea, balls are handmade by moi, chairs from Target

Vases on snack bar

Fun new apothecary jars in bathroom- from HomeGoods

Life motto: monogram everything! towel from Ebay :)

Updated Jewelry Storage- Grey table from IKEA lack collection

Watch  Display Case found on Ebay

my messy nightstand, hehe

Another apothecary jar and necklace display from Michael's

Love these girls!  They are drawn by Inslee, I printed them myself and framed them.  They are hung above my jewelry

Paisley print on my quilt (TJ Maxx)

Love my sister!  Vase and flowers from Ikea, frame from Marshall's

Love this space.  Table was found on CraigsList for $20- we painted it ourselves, chairs from Target, bowl from Ikea, mirror from Hobby Lobby.  Wall was painted by moi- just a medium gray color. 

Better picture of coffee table:  Flowers done by me, all supplies bought at Michael's half off.  Book from Amazon, I am a tad bit obsessed with Lauren Conrad.  Tray is from Marshall's.

Love this wall in my living room.  Decal is from WelcomingWalls on Etsy, flowers are Umbra wallflowers (bed bath and beyond) and I just placed them randomly until I was happy with the end result.

Sorry the pictures are not the best quality, the sun was going down as I was taking these so my apartment was getting darker and darker.  Anyway- hopefully you can get some ideas for your own place!  Send me pictures if you all do some decorating of your own :) Until next time...

Catherine

Chic.Classy.Cheap

OOTN: Neon Lights

I wanted to do a quick post and share an outfit from last night since I finally got around to taking some pictures (it's hard to remember to do it before I leave the house!).  Anyway, the weather was amaaaazing here for the first time in a very.long.time so I decided I should maybe try to be social for once. Turns out, I didn't even make it to the bars but it was so good to see my high school girls and dance around with them in their apartment to spring break classics circa 2006. Ya'll know what I'm talking about, a little bit of SOS (Rihanna) and some Lose Control (LL Cool J and J Lo). Anyway, enjoy the outfit and have a good lazy sunday! I know I will, I am currently snuggling with my poodle in bed and don't feel like moving any time soon ;)

Outfit Details:

Mini Bubble necklace: Ebay

Neon Shirt: Forever 21 (recent)

Denim: H&M (only $9.95!)

Shoes: Target 

Watch: Michael Kors

A little instagram fun :) @cboccieri

Catherine

Chic.Classy.Cheap

DIY Post: Wingback Chair Redo

So, I'm sure you all remember me posting about this beauty I got for $40 at a peddler's mall a couple of months ago....

Original Chair

Originally, I was thinking I was going to attempt to reupholster this.  After talking to my mom and thinking for a while, I realized this was going to be really, reallllly hard.  With the tufting, the piping, and everything else- I figured I was going to take on way too much and spend a ton of money on fabric and then end up with a total fail of a project on my hands.  So I did some research on other methods. I realized that there is fabric spray paint but it is about $12 a can and I would have needed at least 6 cans...more than I was going to have to spend on fabric.  So I kept looking and came across this blog post on the Hyphen Interiors about painting the actual fabric of the chair with acrylic/latex paint.  

I'm not going to bore you with a total breakdown of everything I did, because the link above has every detail already mapped out for you. I will, however, let you know the things I may have done a little differently. I had some black latex paint left over from a different project, so I decided to use that up in the first and second coats.  I got the fabric medium from Jo-Ann's.  I bought Craft Smart and Martha Stewart- and honestly I would say they worked about the same.  So go with Craft Smart, because you get 2 oz. more for the same price. (A Jo-Ann's tip- download the iPhone app- you will get a 50% off coupon that reduces it from $8 to only $4 for a bottle).  I bought two bottles of that, one large bottle of black acrylic paint and a couple of cheapo paint brushes.  Don't buy nice ones because they will be destroyed by the end of this project.  I also already had a spray bottle at home, but those cost $1 pretty much anywhere. I actually did not use sandpaper- I wasn't really that worried about how it was going to feel. I probably only spent $20 total for the supplies.

I tested everything on the ottoman first- gave it a couple coats and let it dry overnight.  When I was happy with how that looked, I moved on to the chair. I mixed the paint, fabric medium and water together (all equal parts of 1/4 cup). The pictures below were taken after I had done 1 coat with the latex paint mix.  Obviously, a good amount of pink was still showing through.

After one coat

 

 

Most of the second coat was done using the latex paint still.  I ran out of that about halfway through.  Sorry the picture is pretty terrible, it was dark outside so you can't really tell that there was still a good amount of pink showing through, but it was definitely a big improvement from the first coat.

After 2 coats

 



After I painted the first 2 coats, the chair was a smokey gray color and honestly I didn't really mind it.  So...it sat.  For a while.  I didn't touch it again for about a month and a half.  Because it took a couple hours per coat and it was a pain to get all the materials out, I just didn't really feel like touching it for a few weeks. But FINALLY, last week I had a day off.  I decided my mission for that day was to finish.that.chair. 

The 3rd and final coat of paint was a little thicker, I used equal parts paint/fabric medium but then used less water.  I still sprayed the heck out of the chair while I was actually painting it so it was still plenty wet, but it made for a darker final coat which was exactly what I was hoping for. I let the final coat dry for a little over a day and then was able to put my awesome homemade pillows (let me know if you guys want to know details on those) on it and below is the final result.  I gotta say- I really, really love how it turned out. It's not perfect, and there were definitely some parts of the chair that I couldn't get as black as I wanted, but it's not really noticeable to anyone but me. 

 

 

Close up of my pillows :)

 

 

 

A few final tips:

• Be patient, this project takes some time.
• Reference the Hyphen Interiors tutorial if you have questions about specifics.
• Painting the tufts is obnoxious, but don't worry about messing up your brush and you will be able to get all of those hard to reach crevices.
• Let each coat FULLY dry before you start the next (wait at least a day in between)
• If you aren't super worried about how the fabric is going to feel, no need to worry about sandpapering it in between coats. 
• If you're still unhappy with the color after 3 coats, feel free to touch up with another.  I definitely have some places that I will eventually put a 4th coat on.
• Don't get discouraged! It is a tedious project but if you do it right and are careful, I think you will be happy with the results :)

 

Thanks so much for reading, hopefully it inspires you to get your DIY on!

 

Catherine

Chic.Classy.Cheap

 

 

Instagram love

So I recently joined the Instagram craze and I gotta say...it is verrrry addicting! It's such a good tool to share what I'm doing on an everyday basis and I love editing my photos and making them look oh so pretty. Anyway- I thought it may be fun since I haven't posted in FOREVER to share some of my Instagram pics and maybe do it every once in a while for you all :) hope you all enjoy!

DIY wall art in my living room :)

Update: This wall art has been pretty popular on Pinterest, so I just wanted to mention to you all what I did.  The decal is from Etsy- it was under $20 and there are millions of options to choose from.  I then used my Umbra wall flowers that I bought at bed bath and beyond a few years ago to do my own sort of design around the decal.  I did apply the decal directly to the wall because that is the look I wanted- but if you wanted to be able to reuse the decal you could apply it to a pretty frame and then hang the frame on the wall.  The Umbra flowers are reusable and are a lot of fun to play around with and also relatively inexpensive- I think they were under $25 for a pack of 20 or 25 :)

Admitted shopaholic.

Colorado Springs

Besties since 6th grade :)

Red Rock in Colorado Springs. Beautiful.

OOTD: Back to work...Maroon & Lace!

I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas and just as fabulous of a New Year's Eve! I gotta admit...two 4 day weekends in a row was very much needed and I was lovin every minute of it.  Getting up for work this morning took a little bit of extra effort and a couple of extra snooze buttons :) 

My outfit today was pretty simple, and very comfy- which is always a good combo.  Hope you guys like it!

Lace top: Forever 21

Maroon Pants: Banana Republic (bought at Gap Clearance Outlet for $10!)

Mini Bubble Necklace: Ebay 

Brown Leather Heels: Jessica Simpson (Dillard's)

Accessories: MK watch, HM bracelet, Forever 21 ring

Hope everyone has a good week!  Also- I have started working on my wingback chair...I am actually not reupholstering it, decided to take a totally different route.  Hopefully I can get some time to work on it this weekend and post pictures soon! 

Catherine

CHIC.CLASSY.CHEAP

Exciting News! More to come soon...

In the last year or so, I have become kind of obsessed with vintage looking wingback chairs.  I have thought to myself more than a few times...I wonder how hard it could really be to reupholster one of those things.

Mainly it was this picture right here that really got my head churning...

Add caption

I mean, they are Chevron, black and white and wingback! How could I not fall in love?  So lately I have been on the hunt for a vintage wingback chair, in really good shape, and not crazy expensive (since I have to buy a lot of fabric to re-cover it, and that is not cheap...)

Well, my exciting news is that yesterday I was casually looking on craigslist, and I finally found my match!

Ain't she a beauty?!

 I picked her up yesterday at a peddler's mall (for only $40!!) and I am really happy with the condition, the tufting, and the fact that I got a matching ottoman to go along with her :)  I haven't started ripping her apart yet, because honestly, I'm a little scared of what I am about to take on...  I also have not been able to decide on a fabric fully yet.. I know I want something black and white and patterned but I just haven't decided fully.  These are the 5 that I have pretty much narrowed it down to.

 I would love something more in the Trellis family, but unfortunately I just haven't been able to find anything like that that fits in my budget :(  I'm also a little frightened to take on the stripes or the Chevron because I'm scared of how much harder that will make the upholstering process (trying to get lines to match up...etc, etc).  Also, what if Chevron is just a fad and I don't love it anymore in a year?!   Ahhh, decisions, decisions.   Any input on my choices would be GREATLY appreciated.

Anyway, I know it's been forever, so I wanted to post to let you all know what's going on in my life.  I did get all moved into my apartment, and I am loving how everything is looking.  You can see a little glimpse of how amazing my striped wall turned out in my bedroom in the picture with the chair above.  Stay tuned for an actual apartment tour post, there are just a few things I am still needing to get done before I publish everything on the internet for the whole world to see!

Also stay tuned for updates on this crazy adventure I am about to take trying to reupholster this chair and ottoman, YIKES! I am scared, but very, very excited :)

Thanks for reading and again, any input on fabric choice would be appreciated! Also, for all the shopaholics out there...look out for BIG sales coming up.  The semi-annual sale at Victoria's secret usually starts around Jan 3rd, and Dillard's has one of their biggest sales of the year New Year's day (and they open early for all you crazies like me!).  EVERYTHING in the store that is already marked down at all is an additional 50% off.  You really can't beat that...I can't wait! Hope everyone has an amazing New Year's and hopefully I will be posting again soon!

Catherine

CHIC.CLASSY.CHEAP

OOTN: Feelin' animalistic

I finally had a night on the town this past Wednesday...I say finally because it's been over a month since I have been social and gone out! I can't help it, I become a couch potato when it gets cold outside :) Anyway, I put together a fun outfit to cope with the weather, and thought I would share my 'outfit of the night' with you all! As always...please excuse the mess in my room.  I always take these pictures right after I get ready, and I get ready sitting on the floor in front of my mirror that I use to take selfies....oopsies! Shows that I'm human I guess :)

Red Jeans: Gap (from Gap Clearance Outlet in Hebron, KY)

Leopard blouse: Forever 21

Black Chunky Heels: Target

Watch: Michael Kors

Bracelet & Ring: Groopdealz & Forever 21

Crossbody Bag: Michael Kors

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving! I know I ate wayyy too much food over the entire week, it's always so hard to say no when you can use the excuse 'it's the holidays..' I am moving into my apartment in 10 days!! I really do have a countdown going.  I can't wait to post some DIY posts in the next few weeks, so keep an eye out! 

Catherine 

Chic.Classy.Cheap