How to be a renter when you own(ed) a house...

Hi lovelies! How is your week been thus far? We have been thinking a lot about how to be a renter. We are giving up our 6,200 square foot home to move into a more modest model in good 'ol Cali. We aren't quite ready to sell our little love nest, so we will be renting her out while we rent a new pad across the USA. It took us a while to put holes in the walls and in a house we own, so we wonder what it will be like when what we do to our new place won't really be "ours". We wonder what our renters will do to our home. Will they want to paint? Will they put holes in the wall? It got us worried, and excited, and researching. Here are some renter-friendly picks we decided would be that happy medium of making our new house a home.

Let's start with the walls. To me the walls are the most heart breaking part of renting. Make them cool, and you are all set. Get stuck with how they come, it could be a drag. I don't know "who we will be" when we move to LA. Right now we are a little British-Cowboy-Silly, and with the shopping I have done in LA I am not seeing a lot of what we have been doing in our 1930's tutor. I am thinking a little retro when we move. Which is so funny because that was our apartment in Williamsburg. Totally 70's.

I am wondering. Can I get into something like this:

Tempaper has the right idea. Non-committal wallpaper. Seems comforting to know you can wallpaper a rental and then take it down without the drama of wallpaper glue. I honestly wish they had a larger selection because they have sold me on their product, just not their designs. Could I relax and get into something more fun like the ones above?

I don't know if I could get away with this. Not because I don't love it to the moon and back, but because Joey has strong opinions and I have a feeling he wouldn't let this fly. Each panel is 24 inches wide x 120 inches high and only $80. I was surprised to find this super cute shop, Wallpaper Dolls on Etsy to say the least. Maybe I can get away with it in my office, or how cute would this be in a guest bathroom?!

Nate Burkus had the right idea when we showed us how to make "wallpaper" out of fabric, and I even found a great Apartment Therapy article to show me how. 

I am pretty sure a room or two will boast this fabric wallpaper scenario. I have always loved this print from Orla Kiely, and would be smitten to walk into my foyer faced with this every day:

A little less pricey, this option would go in the bedroom:

Look familiar? It's the fabric from our guest room. I kinda crush it big time. 

We know for sure there will be some stencil action again. Right now we have our eyes on these guys:

You can find them at Cutting Edge Stencils, which btw, we have a giveaway going on right now! You can also get 10% off with code JLana! 

It's kinda funny how into wall coverings I am, considering we haven't even found the "perfect" neighborhood to move to. I remember renting in Brooklyn and being too scared to do anything to the walls. I am excited there are now renters wallpaper options. It will make things feel more homey for sure.

Have you every tried temporary wall paper? Have you lived to tell the tale? We want to hear all about the good and the bad! 

Another Day, Another Color Story.....

So yea. The guest room....not so much. The fabric I have been waiting on, well, is sold out. If I didn't check I would be waiting a long time. So, I decided to take the hint from the universe and relook at what we were working with and make sure I was making the right decisions. 

It's miles away from the first mood board, back in the day.

And then I changed my mind. Yet again. Welcome, new color story. 

Also, new pattern story. See, I love chevron. I loved it before I even knew it was called chevron. I want to put chevron all over my house. I want blankets. I want to paint it on my floors and dress my curtains in it. But I hate that it's so right now and it's also so last week. You know what I mean? I feel trendy and because it's oversaturated, I am beginning to hate it in my house. I tend to like unpopular things. And the cycle is usually; I like it, and then it's everywhere and I hate it. Except for vegetarianism and veganism. That wound up being very convenient. So I went backwards and made some new decisions.

The yellow and white is Premier Prints Chipper Slub Corn Yellow and the flower print is Amy Butler Lotus Wall Flower Cherry. The super deep teal behind it is our paint from True Value, Natural River Bed. I am happy about them all hanging out and throwing a color party in my guest room. I was getting a bid bored with the spa feeling going on around the rest of the house.

With new changes in textiles comes a little bit of editing. For example the rug (#7) is going to be saved for something else, and the West Elm rug (andalusia) from the kids room is going to takes it's place. Have I ever mentioned how much I love shopping my own home?

The yellow and white fabric will grace the built ins Joey made, while the flower fabric will power the windows. 

Can you see it coming together? I needed to brighten her up a bit and I am really excited about the edits. No more chevron, but total introduction of some fun patterns. Maybe when the trend blows over me and 'ol Chev can take it slow. Go out on a date or two and see how it feels. 

Because Everything is a Work in Progress

...which means, nothing is ever done! Thank goodness for the long weekend! We had an aggressive plan to "finish up" some pending items in the casa. Did you have a great 4th of July?! It would have been great to kick back, but we were just too backed up with our overflowing "to-do" list to have that luxury. Here is some of what we did.

Remember our post about the bedroom being done? I confessed it was done, but not final. If felt much better than it did before we painted the stencil wall, and built the bed, but by no means was it done - and it's still not, but we have made some progress this weekend!

We added some moment to the room and did a little styling. If feels good to have a "short" to-do list in this room now!

You may notice an old friend in this photo! Remember waaaaay back when, when I got this moose I was obsessed with from Z Galleries? He was meant for the mudroom, but his antlers were too large. See he just wouldn't fit. So this is what we settled on. His name is Humphrey, and a year later, he has a home over the fireplace in our bedroom. It took us a year, yes, but we have officially hung something on the wall.

Isn't he handsome?

He totally makes the fireplace cooler. I love him. Besides the special moment above the fireplace, I added a few more moments that make us very happy. It's been a while, but we found ourself in the bedroom, with the TV off, just looking around happy with what we have accomplished so far.

Like our Timothy Oulton console table. This isn't final-final, I would like to put a great chair there one day, but for now, we are happy with it.

This table kind of acts like a side table for me. The place where I put my hair bands and sleep masks all tucked away. The items are a random collection of finds from Target, Home Goods, Urban Outfitters, and vintage shops. Also Joey's favorite rock from when he was a child holds down some feedsack fabric under my alarm clock.

Joey's side of the bed looks a little something like this now:

 Our to-do list is shorter as mentioned. It looks something like this:

1.  Buy and install fan
2.  Find a rug for under the bed
3.  Buy curtains
4.  Put pillars back up
5.  Fix the TV situation
6.  Hang art on the walls

Not too bad! If you are curious about the TV "situation", it looks like this right now:

Not very inspiring. And it's alllllll the way on the other side of the room. Sometimes the remote doesn't want to do it's thing because it's so far away.Here are more angels of our almost-done room.

 So there you have it! I really think the rug and curtains will really cozy up the space. The plants have already done so much for it. Even these odd little air plants make me so happy.

Let us know what you think of the progress! We would love to know your thoughts. Living inside the bubble sometimes skews our perspective, that's why we always welcome what you guys think! You are a smart bunch!