DIY Day

AFTER

This weekend I spent a whirlwind 24 hours completely transforming the dining area of my apartment with a quick change and a new addition. The above image is the "after" and below are some "before" images.

BEFORE

Recently, I have been feeling like my place was lacking color. When I first moved in and started decorating two years ago, I was using a subdued color palette and relying heavily on chestnut brown as the main color for most of my larger pieces of furniture. I have been really drawn to brightly painted furniture recently and decided that it was time to take the plunge and pick a bright hue for my dining room table. I felt that a bright salmon would really work well with the mint green of the room's frames.

I then decided that a rug would be a great addition as well. I love chevron rugs but could not find one that wasn't too expensive. Let's face it, I just graduated from grad school, so I can't really justify the purchase of a $700+ rug. After a little online digging, I found a great tutorial on Design Sponge that showed how to make your own chevron rug. I used that tutorial as a jumping off point, then went to Lowe's and picked up a $60 8x12 rug, cut it down to 8x 9 so it fit in the room, then plotted out the chevron pattern with a ruler and a roll of 4" wide painters tape. I then used spray paint to fill in the lines, pulled up the tape when it was dry, and VOILA I had my very own chevron rug for the very low price of around $85. 

I am loving the result and now have plans to make some more changes to the living room and sunroom. I hope y'all like the updates as much as I do! I can't wait to have my first guests over to see it.

xoxo