Apartment Tour: Living Room & Kitchen--Before/During the Renovation

I'm so excited to share a little tour of my home with you! I rent an apartment in downtown Chicago and have put a ton of hard work and love into making it feel like "home".
I want to give you a glimpse of the "before" and "during" before I show you the "after".
before
Our apartment was pretty "blah" the first year we lived in it. A creepy guy came in and painted the walls an awful beige color right after we moved in but he was too lazy to move furniture so as things were moved there were sqaures of unpainted and nasty walls. Kind of like this...

Our apartment was furnished in cheap cheap things (like the futon that had no cover, the rug that felt like office-carpet, the 80's style TV, and the $10 target coffee tables. It just felt really gray and unexciting. There wasn't really any art on the walls except for a HUGE unstretched canvas in the hallway.



I'll say that our apartment was pretty typical of three college students on a budget in their first real apartment. I'll also say that I really hated it. I avoided being at home because it was always a huge mess (these pictures were taken immediately after I cleaned one day. Don't let them fool you) and it felt really depressing. I made it my goal to redecorate everything over the summer. Below are a few of the "in-process" images.

during
My roommate helped me the first night I painted but then she went on vacation to Ireland so I tackled most of it on my own. My tips for making the process less painful are as follows:
1) Listen to stand-up comedy as you paint.
2) Listen to really trashy/catchy pop music while you paint.
3) Have lots of snacks on hand.





Check back tomorrow for the "after" images!