I live in a two bedroom condo… and anyone that has a baby knows that small places get even smaller once they come along with all their stuff. And then they start moving around and discovering everything. Soon enough you are un-decorating (gotta get those picture frames up off the shelves!) and your tiny place looks like Geoffrey the Giraffe threw up all the toys from both Babies ‘R Us and Toys ‘R Us on your family room rug. Then the toy vomit spreads into the kitchen, the foyer (let me just pretend I have a foyer), the bedroom and every conceivable place you can think of. Molly is almost 11 months, not quite walking, and she still manages to leave a little trail of books and toys in her wake. She’s lucky she’s cute. 
The point of my toy tangent is that I want to move out of this small place, but right now is just not the time. The holidays will be upon us any day now and I’d just rather wait and rent out our condo in the spring. Therefore, if I have to spend every second of my life here (drama queen much?), I want to make our space pretty and more appealing (to myself). Let the projects begin! I will be sure to document and blog them all!
First thing on the agenda was to find a hutch to create a bar area for our drankssss. The kitchen countertop was becoming much too crowded with my mixer, the toaster, the bottle dryer (UGH THAT THING), etc. I know we could “store” these items in the cabinets but puhlease, there is not enough space! We decided we needed another piece of furniture for added storage and of course for our drankssss. We found a great piece at Home Goods for $150! (See photos below). We moved the bookshelf that was previously against that wall to replace the side table by the couch and the lamp from the side table was moved to the bar/hutch.
As I sat on the couch and looked at our new beaut I thought, hmmm, we need some color over there or something (not to mention how hideous that lamp is). “Ben, do you think we need a plant over there?” Ben loves plants so I was surprised when he actually said no! I knew that eventually we would be creating a photo frame collage on that wall, but I still wasn’t happy. So I decided to DIY the ugly lamp.
I went online, found some coupons for JoAnn Fabrics and Molly and I headed out to the store. I bought 3 yards of this beautiful fabric because I plan on making curtains for under my desk to hide my mess, but this project only required 1 yard. And I also bought no sew glue. I would’ve used adhesive spray but they only had temporary spray and I needed some permanent shiz. I put the glue around the top and bottom rim as well as the seam and I wrapped the fabric around… smoothed and cut. It’s not perfect and I’m sure you can find a much easier tutorial on the interwebs, but I’m happy with the turnout! Now I just need to paint the base and finish filling my wine rack!
1 Yard of Fabric: $5.59
Liquid Stitch: 5.99 w/ a 15% off coupon = $3.41
Total Cost: $9.00
LUMOS!
ooooh! ahhhh!
Just wanted to virtual high-five you. Nice lampshade, nice blog, but also, nice job living in a 2 bedroom condo with a family.
High-five.
Thank you! It’s a tight fit, but I can live with it for now.
It’s a skill. I suppose living fairly squished is not that remarkable, (people in Third World countries probably do it better than I do and with less space) but it seems like everyone I know has more space than we do. My husband and I have a 2 bedroom condo with twin boys and I also babysit a little 1 year old girl a couple days a week. Tight squeeze!
Just a smiling visitor here to share the love (:, btw outstanding style and design .
Shop at Joann fabrics on-line store and make sure to use its joann.com couponcodes to earn discounts in your purchases. Great article!
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Yep! You can follow me here : http://twitter.com/#!/NoVaMomBlog
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