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.