New Year, new look a la easy peasy bohemia

I've been a wee tired and bored with myself of late - a line I snatched from a Bruce Spingsteen song that perfectly encapsulates my feelings. And when I start feeling that way only one thing can help: an apartment re-org.

I was in the mood for a new look, but not in the mood for lugging big pieces of furniture around. So all I did was shift a couple of Persian rugs around and reposition one love seat so that the two love seats are facing one another - an easy way to create a cozy nook - and then moved the blue chair where the blue loveseat used to be.

I put good old Uncle Ugly (the 'family heirloom' table that my folks picked up 35 or so years ago at a garage sale, which I spray painted silver a few years ago) back in commission as a coffee table, and piled colourful decor and coffee table books on him to add to the clutter-cozy effect.

It's amazing what moving around a few pillows, lamps and paintings can do - see the low hung Paris scene over the large wood dresser to the right of the white mirror? That just happened that way as I had another painting there and didn't even bother to move the nail. Easy peasy bohemian style is what I'm all about, remember.

Before my little re-org I was questioning my boho look, characterized by clutter, lotsa velvet, and colour and texture. Now I'm in love with it again. Just goes to show that a little re-jig can work wonders on your psyche.

Happy New Year!

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Mini makeover

For a fresh new look without lugging around furniture, settle on a rough theme/colour scheme and change up the lamps, chairs, pillows and decorative accessories to match the mood and tone.

I haven't been doing anything much to my apartment lately in the way of rearranging as life has been busy; but I've learned that you can create a whole new look without moving large pieces of furniture around - it's the semi-lazy Grunge Queen way, remember? But it's also what I call play - just moving stuff around my space is kinda therapeutic, actually.

My fave velvet chair found in the trash my first fall in Toronto. I scattered an old old wool shawl thrown over top (found in a junk shop for $20; the guy said it came in a box marked 'granny's shawl'!) and a red velvet pillow, thrifted.

In this case, the dining room table was blah blah - I had a dull coloured lamp and shade on it and the entire space looked washed out. Using the blue glass Moroccan star (now on the table) as inspiration, I changed up the lamps, chairs, and other accessories to create a punchier look with red and blue accents. There was a certain, semi-exotic mood in my mind.

This solid wood dining room table was $30 at my local thrift store. Pretty much everything you see here was thrifted, found in the trash or bought second-hand.

In the spirit of play, I tried a little something different and propped a thrifted painting of a Paris scene on top of the mirror on the table. I didn't think it would but it actually makes the ceiling look higher. And I hauled out my lovely antique Persian rug that I've had under my bed for months - Dag the cat IS scratching on it again now that it's out, but what the heck am I supposed to do: keep a rug under the bed for my entire life and never enjoy it?

Yup: the bohemian clutter bug in me is slowly learning about simplicity! I love the 1940s blue lamp perched on the bookcase.

I didn't do much with the living area, just changed the direction of the rug and added a footstool as table. I like the simplicity here. It's very New York (in my imagination, at least).

Thrift store art and a piece I chased the artist down to buy, brazen thing that I am.

I love the print on the bottom; it reminds me of a William Morris design (come to think of it the book on top is about the Pre-Raphaelites!). I walked into a shop one day and saw it hanging in a back office - tracked the artist down and asked her if she wanted to sell it. Now it's on my wall.

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Can a bohemian clutter bug live with a streamlined contemporary?

I've spent most of the weekend relaxing and tidying my apartment - no energy to do a full-on re-org, alas, but sometimes you can get the FEEL of a re-org by just rejigging the elements on a console, as I have here.

The urge to de-clutter and purge myself of all my STUFF is still going strong, helped along by life's little events - falling in love with someone overseas - and that fact that said beau is a contemporary style kinda dude: minimal clutter and an uber streamlined look is his design dealio.

So I dedicate this pared down little twilight tableau (consisting of a vanity/console I traded with an ex; flowers given to me by someone I wrote about in the Town Crier newspapers; a brass/glass box with all my little tchotckas in it; a brass lamp bought for $5 at Consumers Lighting in Toronto; a lamp shade from a garage sale; and a thrifted hardcover book you will be hearing about very soon!) to my darling N, who, like many of you lovely readers, checks in every day to read this wee blog -- because, well, he loves me.

I'd say a bohemian clutter bug and a streamlined contemporary can most definitely live with eachother! It will certainly make life interesting!!

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Books, books, books, in and out of my apartment

Books. In my apartment.

More books. In my apartment.

And yet more books, in my apartment. But these are the ones I'm keeping.

These are the ones I'm donating, six bag full, as part of the biggest Grunge Queen apartment re-org to date.

Yes, I am decluttering massively. A former English major, I amassed a whack of books in the past - books which I have hung onto and faithfully moved from apartment to apartment, but books which I've never opened since completing schooling a decade ago.

So bye-bye 18th century novels, Canadian Confederation poetry volumes, and good books I've read once but will never read again.

This is only the beginning.

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Spring closet cleanout

I want to stay home today and stare at my newly organized closet and drawers.

Busy weekend. Worked, cleaned, worked some more - then, in an effort to avoid more work, cleaned out my closet and big chest of drawers.

Every time I opened this chest of drawers I got depressed. It was so messy. So I put everything on the bed and sifted through the tees and tops.

Some went into the donation bag; the rest were folded neatly in the drawer.


I also changed over my closet, which entailed moving the winter stuff to the left side and transferring the summer items to the right side, which is more accessible as I've placed a mirror over the left side.

Doesn't this look pretty? Look at all those colours! I don't even want to think of the hidden winter side - it is dark, dark dark.

I didn't employ any fancy organizing techniques here; I just took every thing out, organized it, did some handwashing, and put everything back in in an orderly way.

There's nothing like a clean, organized closet - great for state of mind, I'd say. And hey, it looks lso pretty it's like giving my closet a mini decor makeover!

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View to my couch

This is the view to my couch, a place I am trying to spend some more time on these days as I unwind at night.

On the other side of the console table is another loveseat, which you can't see.

I love the idea of creating a cozy nook with two loveseats facing eachother. I find I tend to cozify my decor in the winter months, when nesting takes place - don't you?

I traded this console with a nasty ex beau; in return he got a (hopefully termite ridden) chest of drawers another ex brought me from the trash - talk about trash romance Karma!
Mt stinker of an ex said he bought this at auction and it belonged to Canadian parliamentarian Stanley Knowles. Who knows if that was the truth?

But I dig the table anyway - think it's actually a vanity as there's a ridge at the back where a mirror should attach. I like using as a divider in my living room. And generally, I like a clean look with no clutter under tables, but an old wicker chest piled up with decor mags and a worn handpainted wood bowl (and with a gorgeous thrifted purse hanging from the handle - I get off using fashion accessories in my decorative vignettes), made the look a bit more sloppy boho.

A smattering of beloved hardcover books - from ballerina Karen Kain to thrifty decor - are piled on top.

Another purse: the silk Banana Republic clutch bought at a consignment shop therefore found a home on top of a book.

The crystal tea light holder under the thrift shop lamp and garage sale shade was also thrifted. My sis received two exactly like that as a gift from a person who loves buying expensive gifts, so I know it's worth something (but that's not why I bought it reader: of course I love it!).

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