A couple of months ago, I came across Hannah Hagler's blog and fell in love with her eclectic and bold sense of interior style built on her mantra that you can live a fabulous life without spending a ton of money. Hannah agreed to let me interview her and virtually tour her home, and I found lots of really great (and super affordable) ideas to file away for future projects.

 Read below for the full interview!

Finding a painting or photograph that just speaks to your soul is something that is equally amazing as it is rare. Although I'm a creative at heart and have always loved art, the hunt for meaningful and affordable pieces is extremely difficult for me. My first real apartment offered a blank slate of walls begging to be adorned, but I had no idea where to begin and couldn't bear to cover it with run-of-the-mill, mass produced faux canvases from IKEA or Target. 

I remember wishing that there was a one-stop shop where I could discover up-and-coming artists and afford to buy their work. A few months ago, I finally found it: it's called Art Crate, a genius concept founded by veteran insiders of the art world to help connect potential budget-conscious (and overwhelmed) art buyers like me with premium quality print works of individual artists that we might otherwise not discover on our own.

When Wes and I first got married, my parents drove from Chicago to Charlotte with all of my grandmother's china in tow (service for 16, no less). Since they were going to be loading up the old Kelly family van anyway, I seized the opportunity to have them transport a few things that I've always wanted to take off their hands but couldn't carry home on a plane.

Enter this chair, which has sat in my dad's basement workshop for most of my life and (literally) collected dust. According to my mom, it's a patio chair from the 1950s that used to belong to her grandmother. I love the midcentury design and that it's astonishingly comfortable for a hard shell!

One of my favorite sources for vintage inspiration in Chicago is an amazing vintage-modern shop called Humboldt House. It's one of those places where you walk in and want to live there. It's filled with amazing Chesterfield sofas, leather butterfly chairs, patina-ed credenzas and the most beautiful, unusual assortment of decor you'll ever find.

These photos are of Spruce, an amazing restaurant in San Francisco that I visited last summer: it's been the inspiration for the first dining room or study I have when I move into a place where I'm allowed to paint the walls! Here's how I would copy this look to recreate a moody and masculine room of my own:

#1 Mix rich colors, textures and tones

Like deep navy walls combined with warm camel faux ostrich leather and dark brown velvet chairs, plus touches of crisp white in the tablecloths. Think how different (and boring!) this room would be if the walls were white. 

#2 Play with proportions

The oversize sketches on the walls are hung in enormous silver frames and make an extremely bold statement. I love that they're offset with delicate, antique picture lights and ornate chandeliers. The bold look of the colors and textures is balanced with subtle touches like small, understated succulent centerpieces and minimalist place settings.

#3 Combine decor styles

It's traditional, luxurious and modern all at once, thanks to a handful of well-positioned abstract paintings on unfinished canvases. The lack of an overall theme makes it feel pulled together but not overthought, and reads masculine when combined with the bold choices in paint colors and artwork.

If you're not ready to commit to navy blue walls, get the color combination by using rich rugs, fresh white drapes, and oversize sketches sourced from Etsy and hung in silver frames.

Meanwhile, I'll get started on re-creating this look by hunting for a vintage chandelier, trying to convince my landlord to let me paint, and attempting to recover a distressed pair of studded leather office chairs that my dad pulled out of the garage and hand-delivered to our home along with other Kelly family castoffs (including at least six different types of cacti that have been flourishing* in the Chicago climate).

*They arrived drooping and nearly dead, handed off by my guilty parents who didn't want the blame for killing them off (aloe is on their hands).

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This post could have also been titled "How to not freak out about moving in to a little house of limited closet space with your big wardrobe and all of your soon-to-be husband's stuff that he can clearly live without but won't let go (see light-up beer signs and other bachelor pad horrors)."

When my husband and I were getting married, I desperately need help with this topic and sought some expertise from a professional organizer. Kim Clark, an expert at whipping cluttered messes into crisp, calm homes, helped me prepare for some of the biggest challenges to organizing our new place by suggesting some strategies and product recommendations to keep the soon-to-be Chateau Bordeaux organized.

Here are her top five tricks, in no particular order:

My collection of pictures and frames have followed me from my childhood bedroom to college dorms and every single one of my apartments. Whenever I move in to a new place, the first thing I do is start hanging frames on the walls - there's something comforting about being surrounded by familiar images when you are in an unfamiliar place. I have no regard for symmetry and truly hate when everything matches, so my little collection of pictures and frames fit in just right no matter where I live.

For all the charm of this little old 1930s bungalow that my husband and I rented when we first got married, the turquoise countertops were almost a deal-breaker. The kitchen was in a sad, disorganized state for months and I had no idea how to fix it.

So I decided to stop fighting it, accept those ugly laminate counters for what they were, and work with them by adding other quirky accents to liven the place up a little (and focus the eye on the white space of the pantry door).

There was awhile there at the beginning of the bar cart craze that took the world by a storm when I didn't have room for an actual cart. (I was living in a 400 square foot studio, and had to keep furnishings to a minimum for obvious reasons.) However, what do you do when you want all of the entertaining joys that come with an organized bar setup, but don't have the cart?

My friends, you look to Craigslist and search "cart." It's amazing the solutions that will populate before your very eyes. After thorough Craigslist research, I finally settled on a tea cart that doubles as a side table to save space. It worked perfectly! I bought the antique brass cart from a little old lady who was downsizing and very happy to help me load it into my Honda Civic. To keep the "bar cart feel", I decided to style my tea cart with old bamboo tray from Target and filled it with assorted Homegoods tumblers, shot glasses, and a fantastic stainless ice bucket. I ordered a matching stainless bar shaker set on eBay for $0.99. I used the top of this cart to display an antique camera and long lens, Restoration Hardware sterling silver candlesticks (that I found at a consignment shop for $1 apiece) and an orchid that died almost immediately due to my black thumb.

In my research, I found a few other ideas for bar-but-no-cart designs, and one of my favorites was this antique buffet-turned-bar. I love the bright green tray and think the bar tray idea works perfectly here! (The giant gold mirror, symmetrical lamps, and ceramic Turkish end tables tucked underneath the credenza are all amazing.)

Photo via Appollinas

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Vintage is just a fancy way of saying really old, and very used - both qualities that I prioritize when hunting for furniture. I am anti-Ikea. For some reason, it is important to me that my furniture has character. This dresser has plenty. But there's more than just character that makes vintage furniture such an amazing addition to a room. Here are just a few reasons to consider:

Our new apartment is amazing, but posed some serious challenges for the living room layout. There literally was not a place for the TV unless we sacrificed the windows and I just wasn't willing to do that. So, we got rid of the TV. (Ok, really we turned a 3rd bedroom on the first floor into a den and it turned out to be the best idea ever.)

Anyway, our living room is really bright with an exposed brick wall that I love, and decided to let it go au natural with the only statement-making decor choice being a large red wool Moroccan rug.

We didn't have room for large furniture, so I let the couch and rug take center stage, and added some extra seating and modern side tables to bring it all together. (I found the clear acrylic nesting tables on Amazon for $165 and it was the best buy ever. They are the PERFECT modern touch to balance my random collection of assorted vintage furnishings.

Raw silk drapes in a dark gray added some texture to the room, and also block out the light when I am trying to read my Kindle! The old drapery rods from our other apartment fit perfectly, as did a hand-me-down brass lamp that never quite worked in our other places.

These mismatched side tables (from Target, can you believe it!?) are the right height and work together because of the round shape and metallic tones. They also help to balance out the old, dinged-up vintage furniture in the room!

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Outside of work, organization is not one of my strong skills (am I alone in this, or do other people find it shockingly difficult to be an adult?!) - I'm always looking for ideas to help me keep track of all the little to-do's that pile up at home (getting oil changes, reordering contacts, giving the dog her flea medicine) and also balancing my travel schedule with my husband's so we can give the dog walker and the cleaning lady advance notice (not to mention knowing when we'll be home to receive our freaky-fast Amazon Prime deliveries).

This is my creative workspace where I write, paint, craft, put on my makeup, and drink my coffee while daydreaming in the morning. Having a dedicated space in our apartment to do all of those things was really important to me, and finding a stylish modern desk that would fit a little nook in our living room - and stand up to my acrylic paints and eyeliner faux pas - was challenging. 

When we first moved into our new apartment, I loved the exposed brick walls in our living room but quickly realized that it was going to take some extra effort to decorate them. Although the original brick is amazing, it needed something to lighten up the space. There's nothing quite like a huge frame with white matting and a serene vintage photograph to do that! This print is 24"x 24" vintage photograph from the 1940's called Weeki Wachi Springs that I purchased from art.com and framed myself by replacing the original print in a frame my dad's office was discarding.

Really, it's as easy as posting a black-and-white reminder in your living room so you see it every day. I just made this $30 investment at RowensCo on Etsy and am so excited for it to arrive! Although posting a reminder is one effective way to live in the present, there are some other amazing, thought-provoking tactics that I learned earlier this summer and have completely changed my perspective on how I thought about my life. 

Moving every year has really demonstrated how the basic, functional pieces like my oatmeal linen Crate and Barrel sofa are a great blank canvas for the unique, vintage items I've found over the years. If you start with one basic, contemporary-yet-timeless piece to center the room, it's an easy to hunt vintage shops, Craigslist and specialty stores for additional seating, tables, and eccentric accessories. The challenge is knowing what to look for, and how to tie it all together.

Obviously, this is a topic close to my heart - so many things in my home are older than me. I love strolling flea markets and discovering something that I'll never find again. In a world filled with low quality, build-it-yourself Scandinavian furniture, it's so worth it to take a little extra time to hunt for a pre-scuffed, solid wood credenza with dovetail drawers and brass fixtures (for the same price as a Malm dresser). 

This might just be the case for me and Wes, but we have an extremely hard time coordinating our schedules. There have been times when I'm about to board a Monday morning flight to Philadelphia with Wes already in the air to the opposite side of the country when I've had the following thoughts: "Did we remember to pay the dog walker? Was I supposed to mail the rent check, or did Wes already do that? Does our parking permit expire this week? What day did I ask the cleaner to come?"

There's something about moving into a new place that makes you look at all your old things in a new way. I spent a good part of this weekend hanging, unhanging, and re-hanging pictures and art and rearranging furniture. I have aaaaaalmost got it right except for two chairs that just did't quite fit in anymore. They were a Goodwill find that I reupholstered (covered in this post) and were just sitting in a corner taking up space.

With my new place, I also inherited a small backyard in need of a makeover. It has a few great features - specifically, a firepit and an old stone slab patio. However, up until a few days ago, I had no interest in stepping foot out there - I am allergic to yard work thanks to my dad's habit of waking up the family at 7 AM on Saturdays to weed, rake, hide behind the shed to make dandelion necklaces, etc. Then I found the pictures of this yard and have been dying to get started on my own backyard.

This bedroom set was a gift from my mother-in-law (and by gift, I mean that I may have coerced her into parting with it by explaining how it would get much more face time in my house than hers... and the rest is history). She bought it for $25 in the 1970s and I'm so glad she hung on to it for all of these years. It's simple, but beautiful and fits our house perfectly. 

So, I've been on a roll designing rooms in our new (old) house and wanted to share some ideas that I picked up about creating a cool bedroom and applied to my new space. Read below for five easy tips that I've learned!

This post could also be titled 'how to make over a chair in 10 seconds' which is exactly how I use a big chunk of my collection of Turkish towels: at this very moment, I am sitting on a worn out Ikea Poang chair covered in a gray Turkish towel in my bedroom. It covers up a wine stain on the cushion, looks very Jonathan Adler, and pairs well with a Mongolian fur pillow all for a mere $35.

  

We moved into a rental house that was built in the '30s and has all the charm that money can buy (think arched doorways, worn-in hardwoods, antique moldings) and included a whole set of strange nooks and crannies that took up valuable square footage. Exhibit A above is a 3' x 4' alcove in our hallway that was the resting place for old gym shoes, a discarded wooden chair that Wes picked up off the curb, and useless boxes of 'important documents' that everyone feels obliged to keep but never needs (or opens to begin with, in my case).

After I moved into my tiny studio, I started paying a lot more attention to interior design because the place needed some personality to make up for the lack of square footage (although the small space has turned out to be an advantage - I can Swiffer the entire place in about 45 seconds).



Kira Neal has the coolest home ever - plus a great eye for design and art. She inspires me to use more color, and her place has made me want to start collecting modern and pop art to add to the walls of my apartment. I interviewed her for a Refinery29 article about buying a place and wish that we could have included a hundred pictures of all the style she packs into her 2 bedroom condo on U Street!

My friend Gill rented a simple student apartment on Northwestern's campus and transformed it with restraint and thoughtful accessories. I love how it is serene, filled with light, and decorated with vibrant green plants - not just flowers, but living, air-cleaning trees, shrubs and other greens that need love, care, attention and regular watering.