If you recognize the movie quote in the title of this post, you and I are going to get along just fine.
Having lived in our apartment for more than a year now, I've come to the point where "getting settled" has been upgraded to the more adult "decorating," and let me tell you, I'm very excited! I'm getting to know my style, and getting to make my space more comfortable and unique in the process.
Thankfully, my style is very much compatible with Jim's, and I've been trustingly granted artistic license to follow my every whim in making this apartment a home (famous last words on his part I'm sure). But let's be real here. I'm operating on a strict just-starting-out-with-massive-student-loan-debt budget. It's cringe-worthy, but in an effort to see the silver lining (glass half-full and all that rosy stuff), I'm seeing this as an opportunity to be creative.
So I started with a lamp. In a design sense, I've never really liked lamps. Don't get me wrong, I like being able to see what I'm doing. Curling up in an oversize armchair with a lamp at the perfect angle for tucking into a good book is my idea of a good time. But decorating with lamps just seems so...technical to me. Lamps have cords and need to be plugged in to offer any function, which confines them to walls and corners.
But what I had was a lamp. Specifically, one of those dingy, heavy, curvy, brass structures sporting a burnt, dusty, beige lampshade that does nothing for the aesthetic of a room--and in my case, did not even work for lack of a light bulb. It was free, donated to our cause by Jim's generous sister Amy, and while I was initially less than thrilled with how it looked in our place, I saw potential! I've been learning, as I go, to see the bones of a piece of furniture and to appreciate what could be, instead of what currently is.
Here is the lamp, artfully displayed on my parents' driveway atop some leftover cardboard boxes:
Having lived in our apartment for more than a year now, I've come to the point where "getting settled" has been upgraded to the more adult "decorating," and let me tell you, I'm very excited! I'm getting to know my style, and getting to make my space more comfortable and unique in the process.
Thankfully, my style is very much compatible with Jim's, and I've been trustingly granted artistic license to follow my every whim in making this apartment a home (famous last words on his part I'm sure). But let's be real here. I'm operating on a strict just-starting-out-with-massive-student-loan-debt budget. It's cringe-worthy, but in an effort to see the silver lining (glass half-full and all that rosy stuff), I'm seeing this as an opportunity to be creative.
So I started with a lamp. In a design sense, I've never really liked lamps. Don't get me wrong, I like being able to see what I'm doing. Curling up in an oversize armchair with a lamp at the perfect angle for tucking into a good book is my idea of a good time. But decorating with lamps just seems so...technical to me. Lamps have cords and need to be plugged in to offer any function, which confines them to walls and corners.
But what I had was a lamp. Specifically, one of those dingy, heavy, curvy, brass structures sporting a burnt, dusty, beige lampshade that does nothing for the aesthetic of a room--and in my case, did not even work for lack of a light bulb. It was free, donated to our cause by Jim's generous sister Amy, and while I was initially less than thrilled with how it looked in our place, I saw potential! I've been learning, as I go, to see the bones of a piece of furniture and to appreciate what could be, instead of what currently is.
Here is the lamp, artfully displayed on my parents' driveway atop some leftover cardboard boxes:
Not much to look at, but the bones! They look good. So I got to spray painting (after taping up the electrical equipment), oil rubbed bronze as my color of choice, and was left with something much improved:
It's always hard to see oil rubbed bronze in photos for what truly does, but let me tell you, it looks deep, shimmery, and elegant. I was already thrilled at this point in the process, and I couldn't wait to get it home, slap a new lampshade on its head, and start admiring my handiwork.
I have to say, the result is much more impressive than I could have imagined (if I do say so myself). The oil rubbed bronze paint makes the lamp look so classic, and so much more polished than the dingy brass. Thanks to Amy and some spray paint, this little corner of the apartment has gotten a serious upgrade!
If it weren't for those cords...
