Fabulocity - My New Living Room

Since the summertime, I've been working on re-doing my living room. Here's what I had to start with. Not overall bad pieces... It just didn't scream FABULOCITY or represent ME in any way.


Yawn

In my defense, I had just moved into my very first apartment when these furnishings were selected. I was in love with them for a time, however over the years, my style just became more, shall we say - GLAMOROUS.

With that, I set out on a mission to redecorate the living room. I had a few objectives:

1) Decorate within my means. While I didn't really have a budget, per se (Fabulocity isn't really budget friendly), I did want to feel like I was getting high quality, unique items at an affordable price. So rather than giving myself a budget, I just chose to look at each item separately, only purchasing the items I loved, that had a place in the room, and for the best price possible.

2) The room will have a feminine touch... okay, so I got a little carried away on that one. It is majorly girly. But hey! I'm a girly girl, so it fits.

3) The color scheme is Tiffany blue/turquoise and terracotta orange. For those cave men out there (or women, although I highly doubt it), Tiffany blue shall be defined as the amazingly beautiful robbin's egg blue of the ever coveted Tiffany and Co. boxes.

My inspiration started here from House Beautiful:


Love Love Love

 So here is a list of the "features" I decided to copy in this room:

• Hints of terracotta orange and Tiffany blue/turquoise
• Velvet tufted back couch
• Zebra print and flower print fabrics
• Nail head detail
• Accents of crisp white ceramic and sparkly mirror
• Small scale furniture

In a perfect world, I would just use some of the same pieces in my room, but alas, the example I was working from was the NYC apartment of an interior designer.... I had to get creative. After lots of stalking shopping around, here were a few of my ideal selections.

Amy Butler Chandra rug in colors of rust and blue, you are so beautiful... However, even at a discount, you still are $350 for a (5x7) - which is still too small for my space



Oh Brocade Home Lace Cut Media Storage, how I love thee... Unfortunately you cost $700 with $170 shipping charge. Not even a 15% off coupon will entice me to buy you.

 

Crate and Barrel Dubois Mirrors... How fantastic you would look in a set of 4 over my fireplace... But not even with the highly anticipated 15% off friends and family coupon would I buy you for $320.


So after a little reminiscing and snapping to it in the real world, we move to my actual selections.

Throughout this process I learned a few tips on how to be fabulously stylish without spending a fortune, which I will share:

1) BE PATIENT. In other words - stalk the sh*t out of anything you want to buy for months, then when the price looks like it can't get any lower, pounce on it like the lioness you are.
2) DON'T SETTLE. If you don't love it, like CAN-NOT-LIVE without it, then don't buy it. nuf said.
3) HAVE A VISION. I like to search through my favorite design sites, magazines, or catalogs to find the room I want to steal ideas from, copy, borrow from.
4) BE SHOPPERTUNISTIC. Always keep your eyes open for something that fits your needs. Resist the urge to purchase items that you aren't in love with, just because you have a need to fill. Instead, buy that amazingly awesome totally glam thing-y that you can't live without (that is majorly on sale). You can find the neatest stuff in the most surprising places. Don't set out to find everything you need in one day. Take your time. Design is a process.

Coming up to a blog post near you... the big unveil of the living room. I'm trying to convince my friend Jaime to come over and take fab pictures with her awesome expensive camera. Can't wait for those...