I live with my husband, Brian, and our beautiful border collie, Zoe, in a townhouse surrounded by beautiful trees. During this time of the year, it is especially beautiful with the colorful changing leaves.
You'd never guess this wooded area was located behind a shopping plaza with Bed Bath & Beyond, Target, Pier 1, and World Market, making my home shopping trips much more convenient!
The townhouse was built in the 1970s. That's right. Among interior decorator professionals and home designers, the 70s is popularly known as the decade that style forgot. Thankfully, the place didn't come with brown shag carpet and hues of pea green and mustard yellow. However, it does have carpet and lots of it, a galley kitchen, and a few creepy chandeliers. The carpet and chandeliers would be the first to go, but we are only renting it and therefore cannot make drastic changes. This is where thrifty home decorating comes in to create a personalized space that feels like OUR home instead of Ron Burgundy's shag pad. Thankfully, Brian and I are old souls and aren't quick to label a vintage retro vibe as "outdated," but rather a homey lived-in place with plenty of character. In fact, I am all for the refurbished vintage style. Due to the fact that we are talking about a three-story townhouse, this post will only tour the main floor: the one we spend most of our time on.
This is our entryway:
As you can kind of see, I have a love for wrought-iron accents: wrought-iron print rug from Lowes, the key and bicycle wall decor from Hobby Lobby, and the coat/umbrella stand from Bed Bath & Beyond.
The entryway opens up to the dining area:
In case I gave off the impression earlier that I despise the popular 70s shade that is pea green, I in fact feel quite the opposite. As you can see below, it is the color of my table linens.
I like to display pretty pottery, pitchers and casserole dishes instead of stuffing them away in a cupboard. Of course, the photo doesn't capture the colors or details.
Below is a close-up of the current table centerpiece that will probably be replaced soon with a Christmas theme, but Brian and I spent an hour or two one night melting these candles onto the wine bottles. It took longer than usual because I later realized that these taper candles are the special non-drip kind. On ANY OTHER occasion less "drippage" is what you want, but seeing that the POINT of this DIY project is for the candle wax to DRIP down the bottle to fuse the two together, it took extra effort and lighter fluid. I will also note that the painting of the autumn trees in the background was done by yours truly.
Moving on to the galley kitchen:
It's long and narrow with lots of cabinets and counter space to hold all of the appliances. Note: I LOVE our Cuisinart Brick Toaster Classic oven. I registered for it online and was sold when I read it was a brick oven, toaster and broiler that comes with many inserts and gadgets including a pizza stone. I had no idea that it was almost the size of an actual oven until I saw a delivery box the size of the front door. Another shout out should be made to the All-Clad cooking utensils set and their lifetime guarantee!
I recommend the Cuisinart Model Em-100 Espresso Machine along with the Crock-Pot six quart cooker. We keep our cookbooks on hand in the kitchen since they are frequently put to use and my favorite is the Williams Sonoma "Essentials of Baking" (on display) while Brian's favorite is Jamie Oliver's "Food Revolution" (the one behind it).
Onto our living room area:
We had more space to work with than we're used to, so we have a sitting/tv area and a music area behind it. We are renting this place from family friends and they asked if we wanted to keep the grand piano (I don't think they meant forever) since it would be a hassle and a half to move it out. I lived abroad in Argentina for half a year and that would explain my little art collection of tango dancers on the wall. The biggest and best painting, the one on the far left, was actually from Brian!
Below is the matching love seat. I'm looking for more colorful throw pillows since these blend in with the sofa to make a "blah" presentation. We are currently lacking side tables, so I put an old coffee table to use, stacked some books under the lamp to add height and covered the rest of the table with this hand-woven basket tray filled with Brian's record collection. And most importantly, the Texas star on the wall represents not only the home state of my beloved Texan husband, but where we met and fell in love!
This area has two sliding doors that lead out onto our scenic patio:
The patio dining area is also being used as my amateur painting area. I'm not a professional yet, but my paintings are good enough for wall decor!
We don't have luxurious outdoor lounge furniture yet, but we do have two fold out chairs and a hand-me-down wicker chair! Throw on a few chair cushions, a rug, add a tile-top table and candles for ambience and [voila!] you have a seating area!
Here is a view of the small downstairs bathroom:
The framed vintage chair prints are from Pottery Barn. I just got them on super sale.
My solution to not being able to paint the walls was this little DIY project: I made my own wallpaper by taping/gluing together old yellowed pages of piano sheet music from 1920s sing-along books. Some may call it tacky, others might call it art. I call it art and an interesting conversation piece. No need to worry about trashy song titles when you're dealing with classic sing-alongs and love songs.
I have shown you outside, in and around the main floor of our humble [rental] abode and hope you enjoyed the tour. More updates and beautifications to come!
