{chicago living room}

Since moving into our place in Chicago, I have shared our dining room, office/2nd bedroom and black/gold bathroom.  I wasn't sure that we would ever get to a point where I would want to share our living room since  it just hasn't felt quite finished for months.  After returning from a two and half week vacation, we promptly decided to start moving around all of our living room furniture which included un-mounting and re-mounting both our tv and fauxdenza.    It's clear to me after this re-arrange that previously we were simply not using our space in the best way for our lifestyle.  This new set up gives us more usable space surrounding the living room and lends itself perfectly to what we do most which is entertain guests!

 {our bar set up is now front and center instead of our TV which is now mounted on the 

wall to the right in this photo}

 {coral ottomans, throw pillows & floor lamp from Target, rug from Pottery Barn, sources for other items can be found in our previous home tour right here}

 {vintage table that used to belong to my grandmother topped with fashion books & a terrarium 
from Urban Outfitters}

 {Tom Ford book + faux succulent since real succulents aren't real happy in Illinois}

 {view into the dining room}

{tray from CB2, matchstick holder from Jonathan Adler, Laduree books}

 {custom matchbooks from our wedding now sit on our coffee table}

 {gold rimmed glasses which were the best Salvation Army find in my life}

 {blurb photobooks that live under our TV}

Like I said in the beginning of the post- our fauxdenza has been moved and now lives in our entryway which I promise to share along with photos of our master bedroom just as soon as those rooms are 100% done!

{our new Chicago place: in progress}

{taken when we first arrived into our new place}

Somehow we actually survived driving a 26 foot moving truck and a car all the way from LA to Chicago and we are now just getting settled into our new place after arriving here last Wednesday.  Moving is always a long process filled with multiple trips to Home Depot or Ikea, searching through countless boxes for the cord to connect your tv and debating paint choices.   We have gotten all of the boxes opened and unpacked and most of our furniture assembled, but we still have a ways to go before I would consider our new home to be complete.  Some of the projects on our to do list right now include painting almost all the rooms (especially the bedroom since our DIY headboard currently matches the blue wall perfectly), setting up our fauxdenza and hanging all our artwork. 

 {our new tree-lined street and ivy covered building- you cannot even imagine what a pleasant change this is for us coming from the concrete metropolis of downtown LA}

 {supplies for my black & gold bathroom- the mirror is from Ikea and it is currently on my to do list to be painted gold}

 {the Malm dressers set up as night stands awaiting their overlays.  As much as I loved making our previous nightstands, they proved to be way too small to hold more than a small glass of water and a tiny lamp. Robert Abbey Delta Lamp from right here}

 {a new houseplant from one of our Home Depot trips}

{supplies for our "fauxdenza" tv stand.  we are still  trying to find a good resource for the wood top- if anyone knows of a good (not sketchy or creepy) lumber yard in the Chicago area I would love to hear about it!}

I'll be back with updates on these project as we start crossing them off our list!

{sprucing up the deck}

Gardening on our deck is a lot more difficult than it looks. Since the artificial grass sits on top of "rooftop" concrete, I have to put down plastic painter's drop cloths whenever I want to garden since any dirt that doesn't make it inside the planters has no where to go but down a tiny drain on the side of the deck.  Because of this, I try to save up gardening projects and do them all at once.  This past weekend, I finally had a chance to plant some succulents I picked up in the downtown Flower Mart into some ceramic urns I scored at Michael's Crafts.  The urns are intended to be used for our upcoming wedding, but until then they'll hang out in the corners of our deck.  I also picked up a small white azalea bush for our dining table.  Other than our cocktail tree, I try to only plant succulents so that I don't have to water that much, but I couldn't resist this girly little plant on a recent trip to Home Depot.