Apartment Tour and Challenge, Room 1, The Living Room / Office / Dining Room

My forever-task of re-arranging my apartment continues, but it's getting better every day! Limits force creativity, and my challenge is a money-saving one. I want to solve as many living space solution problems as possible, if not all of them, by not purchasing anything new. I can thrift a little, I can make things, but for the most part, I want this to be a $0.00 challenge. My living room/office area isn't done by far yet, but here's the current progress.

I've read in feng sui it's good to move your desk so that it "overlooks your workspace" for good energy. I've had it facing the wall and out the window and wanted to try breaking up my "open space" a bit. I deliberately have it facing my calendar and weekly to-do list and a feel a little more productive this way.

The desk being "connected" to the expedit unit was an idea I gleaned from IKEA. The same Expedit unit I have has been paired with matching "work desk". I actually considered buying one (fool!), but i have a perfectly good desk to push against it. I like the color contrast better this way. A fun change for now.

I'm trying to sell my dining room table. We never eat at it and I inevitably let work clutter pile of top of it. Pushed to the side as an "ornamental" table (guests sit when they visit, otherwise, virtually un-used) the room feels bigger and the "energy" flow is better.

I like it by the window as my "plant table" for now.

The desk also faces a new little "reading nook" I carved out. Don't mind Yuko's distracting cat toy there. I was about to stash it out of the way for the shot, but meh, went for authenticity. I'm dying to move the dinosaur and Robert Land print lower even if it defies the gallery height rule to balance the distance between art and couch. I'm pedantic that way. Besides, now my desk faces that wall and I'm looking at the imbalance all day! Rawr, kill it!

I sold some more of my massive book collection a couple of days back. It hurt to accept the checks for my prized comic books, but they were long-unread and gathering dust. I hope to read off a lot of this "reference" collection and keep reducing.

Before:

Here are a couple of before and in-progress shots. Hard to believe it go this bad before it got better! The holidays were crazy-times. You can see all the products I was shooting on top of the expedit unit and just the crazy mess deep-organizing and shipping stuff out daily is everywhere else.

In Progress...

After:

I like how moving the desk to the middle actually opened up the layout a lot.
This space has had a lot of incarnations from when I first occupied it. I've seen lots of furniture come and go. It's looking a little spartan, but the clean is nice for now. I think some bigger art pieces/better wall art composition will really finish it off in here. Maybe some curtains, too. Expect some fun DIYs before/afters soon.

Right behind me as I work is the living room. Where the AJ and the roomie often watch football. While reading the ipads or smart phones simultaneously, naturally.

Again, needs some better composition on the walls, but I like how the sectional completes that space. Much more cozy and inviting and more cohesive and practical than the mismatched couch mix I had before. Guests usually ending up sitting on the floor, not enough chairs for the butts in the room.

And if an AJ is usually beside me, a Yuko is in front of me. She inexplicably adores this rug. I've tried to throw it out but...

I affect a weird "foreign" accent when I "talk" for my cat. I can't be the only one who "talks" for their cat, right? Anyone? Everyone in this apartment "talks" for the Yuko. I'm not alone!
She loves the hell out of it! Fine, keep yo fuzzy gray rug, cat. It ties that part of the room together nicely anyway. "Anchors" the reading area, if you will.

So, my goals for the living room/dining room/office space area are to:

(1) Read and sell off un-needed books/magazines
(2) Sell dining room table and chairs
(3) Find or make bar stools
(4) arrange existing art for better composition
(5) make some feng sui pieces where needed
(6) Find or make small curio cabinet
(7) Arrange the stuff in the expedit unit black boxes again, they got out of whack post-holiday blitz :P

I shall update with progress! How's your new years organization/purging/re-arranging going? Any particular challenges you're trying to work out? Sorry for the crazy post, I usually like my posts and shots to be more contrived, but it was fun to mind dump here last night.

If you're not, get to it. Yuko is JUDGING. YOU. Get to work. Daily thrifting updates, information, & Inspiration: Follow Thrift Core on Twitter and Facebook.