Jen from insideways's Profile

hi there everyone. Jen here... sorry my craft has been so upsetting to many of you. I've started experimenting with centerpieces for my wedding in October and I tried this project out. It was really easy, cheap, and I would never claim for it to be a "professional" or revolutionary craft. I hope I didn't offend anyone, I was just experimenting with looks for my wedding and sharing with my readers. To each his own I guess!

I have the hardest time decorating with black and white (especially black) and I'm totally jealous of how well you do it!! Don't change a thing - it's magical xoxox

@Nandapanda the couch was from craigslist. Sorry I don't have a store to share :(

@Pi and @Strikermary the bathroom situation is super strange. There's one with a sink and shower and one with a sink and toilet. I'm really not sure why they designed it like that, but it's kind of a waste of space. Oh well...

I'm a renter with a very tiny porch. I decided to plant my herb garden in a vintage pepsi crate and I LOVE how it turned out. You can see it here :)

http://www.insideways.com/2012/01/diy-herb-garden.html

Wow it looks great!! So slick :). I actually have the same pepsi crate, but I made mine into an herb garden. (Here's how I did it: http://www.insideways.com/2012/01/diy-herb-garden.html) It's so neat to see how differently people use the same objects!

I love the look of wood so I wouldn't paint personally. What if you aged it? I had this method pinned on Pinterest and thought I would share :) http://ouradventuresinhomeimprovement.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-love-old-windows.html

That's crazy! It's *exactly* what I wanted when I decided to store my record player front and center in the living room. I even wrote a blog post about the importance of putting things where you'll use them based on my record player here: http://www.insideways.com/2011/10/put-things-where-youll-use-them.html

I especially like your first point. My fiance got a record player about 8 months ago. We were both excited to have it but never used it because it was put in an impractical place in our apartment. Now we have it out, front and center. We use it *all the time* and are so happy we made the change.

Here's a picture of where it is now: http://www.insideways.com/2011/10/put-things-where-youll-use-them.html

Oh I'm so jealous. My last apartment was a 1920's home and I loved it!

My old apartment had grey walls too (the color you chose is really pretty). If you want to check out pics, you can look here:
http://www.insideways.com/2011/09/today-tim-and-i-will-move-in-to-our-new.html

I have two suggestions for you...

1. Definitely try curtain rods on the outside of the window frames up at the ceiling. Then have the curtains go all the way to the floor. Since curtains are expensive, consider canvas drop cloths (if you can sew). You could even add in some strips from your old green curtains to create a horizontal stripe at the bottom. Sheers could be great too. Floor to ceiling length is the key.

2. I TOTALLY get the furniture situation! Have you considered selling your current furniture on craigslist then buying new couches with the money you make? It would make a huge difference :)

Good luck!! You've got great bones to work with!