My allergies have alerted me to the fact that spring has sprung here in Maryland, which naturally means I will make a half-hearted attempt at spring cleaning. Yesterday’s project was cleaning our main living area, as well as rearranging it to accomodate our gorgeous new coffee table that I scored from Facebook Marketplace, and as many of you probably know, decorating a rental can be difficult for the following reasons:

1.) You only have so much say over things like paint color, tile, and flooring

2.) Your space is probably small, and meant to serve multiple purposes

3.) You probably don’t have much overhead lighting (like, wtf? This has been a problem in multiple apartments I have rented) which means NO OUTLET CAN BE BLOCKED or you will be living in a cave.

We happen to have all 3 of these challenges in our apartment, so decorating in general has been a special test of critical thinking + spacial awareness, next add in our MASSIVE couch and there are only so many ways the room can be arranged.

BUT I was determined to make it work, so with my mind made up I started pushing the furniture around.

I do have those little felt things on the legs of all of our furniture because I’m terrified of scratching the floor, and luckily they also make it easier to move things around

When we moved last spring I took it as an opportunity to revamp the decor and feel in our living space, and since have been slowing finding the pieces that I wanted to incorporate into our space. I have been leaning towards light colored textiles, gold accents, and darker wood finishes to create a space that feels natural but also refined. The coffee table I talked about earlier was the last item of my list of must-haves for the living room, and now the space is almost done with the exception of the perfect rug I am still searching for.

After shuffling around the furniture and rearranging the plant babies it is ready for its been reveal!

Enjoy!

Where I Got Stuff:

All in all, I decorated this space for less than $1000 thanks to thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace. I am hoping to add two rugs, a jute rug, and a cowhide that will be overlapping each other

Couch – IKEA in the salvage area. Someone had returned it still in box, and I snatched it up for 70% off. The entire cover comes off and is washable which is a win from a dog parent perspective

Chair – Target via Facebook Marketplace, free because I traded a different chair

Coffee Table – IKEA via Facebook Marketplace

Plants and Pots – IKEA (sensing a theme?)

Lamps, Gold Tray, Watering Cans – Thrifted

Painting – Original from Daniel’s personal collection