I could kick myself!
A friend of mine moved into a new apartment a few months ago. You may recall that I spiffed up her bathroom for her a few blog entries back. Anyway, she has two daughters in grade school and works full time so as you can imagine there isn't a lot of free time. It was all she could do to get them all moved in days before school started. So, her apartment is my "project" and she is psyched to have a friend that likes to organize!! You will never understand that transformation that took place today between the hours of 11am and 2pm becuase I didn't take a BEFORE PICTURE. I could cry. Put it this way, my husband saw the apartment on Saturday and when I showed him the picture that I took today his comment was simply "Unbelievable" followed by "What? You didn't take a before picture? Oh man"
In an effort to help you understand I am going to try and describe the situation. It is a 2 bedroom 1 bath apartment with a kitchen/living room combination. A familiar layout I am sure. It is common for every chair to be draped with jackets, sweaters etc. and the dining table to be covered in papers etc. The dining table (also a writing desk) is a perfect match with the cabinets in the kitchen. It is beautiful but it made literally no impact in the apartment where it was. It was right next to the sofa between the sofa and the pantry cabinet in the kitchen. It was awkward. I knew I wanted to change it but I wasn't sure how.
In the kitchen was a large white armoir. Another beautitful piece. It was big and it wasn't being utilized. I made a note to myself.
Without hesitation I moved the dining table into the kitchen. I place it longways with 2 chairs on either side. It fit. I was underwhelmed. It was ok but didn't really do it for me. I knew I was on to something but I had to give it some more thought. I sat down on the sofa where I could see the kitchen and the living area. I looked at the wall across from the sofa and all I could focus on were the cords stretching from behind the TV to the cable hook up. UGH, the cords. I hate cords! I looked back at the kitchen. And the back to the wall again. Back to the kitchen and..... THAT's IT! The white armoir in the living room with the TV IN IT!! Solves the cord issue and the DVD clutter issue around the TV. Once the armoir is moved we can put the TV along the wall and create a suitable and, better still, romantic dining space.
It pains me to not have before pictures. Here are the after:
She is going to hang the mirror up on the wall between the plates. So pretty!I will have to post a testimonial from her. She called me a genius. She was absolutely thrilled about what I had done. She said she felt like crying. We were both really, really pleased. I am so proud of this transformation. I am proud to say that we did all this with only things that she already had and we did this in about 1 1/2 hours.
OM
