KLeighSayno

Here ye here ye! Putting another one of my passions to work (an escape from my paid work) is the decorative rehab I performed on my downtown condo that I’ve lived in for the last six years. Yes, six years later, I finally declared it time for a major face lift. Now don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t say it was hideous before. In fact, I’ve always had modern, minimal, urban tastes for interior decoration. I just never seriously, and I mean SERIOUSLY, went balls to the wall and carried out my dream design.

Here is what my living area has historically looked like. Yes the lighting is bad because, well, I lacked lighting. Oh, and there is my dog Jellybean. Love of my life. 🙂 Ok I digress.

Before:

My motivation. Well let’s start with one minor factoid – what you see above, I rent. I’ve been looking to buy for the last year, however the area I live in has seen a HUGE market upswing after a catastrophic 5+ years, ergo inventory is either being snatched up quickly by cash investors, OR those who paid too much in 2007 are being smart and holding onto their properties in hopes of FINALLY recouping their investments. As a result, there is NOTHING available for me (Miss Normal 1st-Time Home Buyer Coming To The Table With FINANCING) to choose from.

Here is what my dream condo would have: Super urban, industrial loft-like, tall ceilings, either wood or polished concrete floors, large floor-to-ceiling windows, balcony, big open concept, awesome kitchen. Got all that? So as the Property Brothers would then say, “Here is everything on your list KLeigh…..for $1.4 million!”

Then I got to thinking….Wait a minute, I literally have ALL of that! I have the tall ceilings, wood floors, large windows, a huge balcony overlooking THE hippest spot in my area, an open concept layout, and a disgustingly sick ALL VIKING APPLIANCES kitchen! ON TOP OF ALL THAT – I’m paying UNDER MARKET rent because I’ve rented from the same private owner for so long. I really have it pretty damn good!

Which means that….The only thing missing is the urban industrial loft design, and I LOVE to design! So what do I do? SMACK in the middle of my busy season (let me remind you I’m a CPA), I decide to rehab my condo. I have ZERO free time, but I’m so excited by this epiphany that I’m doing it anyways! Who cares about no sleep! (And I kid you not, I did this entire thing in 2.5 weekends, so I literally got NO sleep).

The Plan…

1) Darken the walls. Dark walls make small spaces look bigger. And gray is the ultimate industrial color. As importantly, a dark gray shade will allow everything lighter to contrast against it and POP. So by losing the original soft green “accent wall”, I all of a sudden made visible what was already there – a large 12-foot high wall.

2) Finally call out those tall ceilings! Install a one-of-a-kind chandelier in the living room to immediately draw the eyes upward. This was my make-or-break task. I knew whatever this chandelier would end up being, it’d have to be so incredibly unique to really make the impact I was going for. And great news, I found it! At an amazing lighting store, and for less than $300! (let me also inform you I am SUPER thrifty. NOTHING you see in this condo rehab is high-end by any means. I also installed (well my dad actually installed it) an inexpensive spotlight from Ikea ($8!) to aim onto the now-visible dark gray wall for some long artwork I envisioned eventually hanging there.

3) Lose the dark furniture, open up the floor-to-ceiling windows, and start POPPING! First, I needed a pop color. This would be my accent color that would need to show up FEW times throughout my living area. I decided a reliable urban color would be orange. So I found this accent chair at Ashley Furniture for $150. I then removed the old love seat from in front of the window so I could open the FLOOR-TO-CEILING WINDOWS that I forgot I had! It was a perfect fit!

Next, I went in search of a light colored, modern, minimalist couch. This would be the ultimate pop against the dark gray walls AND hardwood floors. I had huge luck at American Signature for less than $500! I’m going to tease you and not insert the couch photo yet.

I also found the perfect LIGHT COLORED end table (to sit next to the chair) and an industrial old-school movie camera! Again, I don’t want what other people have, so check this out, found on Wayfair.

IMG_20150225_225617436

AND, also on Wayfair I found THE artwork I was envisioning over the couch but could never fully describe in words. Three long panels, adding to the enhanced large gray wall, that shine perfectly from the newly-installed spotlight.

4) Don’t undo the openness I just created with a boring stuffy coffee table.Blugh! I am SO OVER coffee tables. They are so overrated, everyone has the exact same ones, they take up a crapload of space, and they are just annoying to have to walk around. Even the most modern of ones! So of course I chose a different route, three individual gray leather ottoman cubes. They are modern, minimal, can be moved around (ergo FUNCTIONAL), and you can see in between them so the openness is not compromised. Again, I will tease you by not posting a pic. Only because I don’t have one of them all by themselves.

5) Lastly, time to put the TRIAL in INDUSTRIAL…and install BRICK WALLPAPER! I have LITERALLY NEVER installed wallpaper in my life. But I did it, I somehow managed to pull this off. It took me six hours, by myself, covered in wallpaper glue. Oh, and did I mention this was also from Wayfair? (I swear I am not getting paid by Wayfair, sadly they have no clue who I am). Check out a few progress shots below.

OK OK OK, ARE YOU READY FOR THE FINAL AFTER PICTURES?? A few finishing touches later and voila, a WAY more open industrial urban loft feel just by playing up the architecture I already had!

Before and after:

CHECK OUT THE DIFFERENCE IN LIGHT!!! Lighting and paint color are SO IMPORTANT to an impactful change.

What’s next? Ok well if I must “turn” perfectionist…I’d say the two things that are missing are a tall industrial ladder (to go behind the orange accent chair, continuing to draw your eyes upward) and something to run down the line dividing the brick from the paint (to make it more natural-looking). My thoughts are, and of course not what you’d find in your average condo, to install some industrial piping. I’d run it along the ceiling of the gray wall then bring it down vertically to cover the divide. However, going to take a little break for awhile before I get to that.

Hope you all enjoyed!

Salute!

~KLeigh 🙂