$5 towards a new Living Room

Blake and I are in the middle of seeing what Life brings our way. We have a couple of things showing promise for his career and we are looking into them. That means we are starting to think about a house. Well, we have to make the call on where, but we know our future means a new place. I've really enjoyed living in our duplex. WAY more than I would have thought I would. Its so functional. Its space is tiny, but the layout is so well thought out that I haven't had a whole lot of trouble fitting our stuff in here.
That said, the minute I started thinking about having a house my brain almost exploded. I love decorating and the thought of having my own place that I could paint, and tile, and makeover is enough to keep me awake at night day dreaming instead of night dreaming.
I also started thinking about having a "me" space. Right now we have 3 rooms and the living room open to the kitchen and a small bathroom.
I am always dreaming about a "grown up space" where toys can't touch, that I can go to and decompress once the girls are in bed.
So far our bedroom has not been that place. When Ruby was tiny she shared our room. Then when she got into her room I put the sewing table in our room because I couldn't find any place for that. And our room turned into a heap of projects and mess.
I am constantly rotating our house around to work with the stage of babyhood we are in. It works. I haven't hated it. Its kinda fun to rearrange.
Anyway, lately I've been feeling like we need a new rearrangement if I'm gonna be able to handle staying here any longer (post-new-place-day-dreaming-gone-wild.)
I wanted to find a desk to go next to our toy TV cabinets. There had been different baby things there --- bouncy, pack and play, what-have-you. But the pack and play had turned into a cage of toys that looked like a disaster, and Ruby doesn't really need the pack and play anymore. (If I NEED to corral her for a random moment, I can set it in the middle of the room.) I wanted somewhere to hold some more of my stuff and feel more grown up.
So I set out to my favorite mommy-online-shopping-place: Craigslist. :)
I love thrift stores. But since having Ruby and feeling like its too hard to haul the girls into one, I've turned to craigslist. If I find something, I just ask Blake to go pick it up for me after work. Its awesome. I've scored some great stuff so cheap on there!

Yesterday's amazing purchase....this crazy perfect fit of a desk. (Size and style --  which is turning into random vintage modern industrial eclectic.) For FIVE DOLLARS!! Holy cow. It even has this cool space in back where you plug in an attached-to-the-desk power strip so your computer cords are all tucked into this holder back there. (And it works -- for $5 I wasn't sure that thing would be good still. But it is!)

So I got to clear a lot of space on our TV cabinets off. And set up my stuff in a more appealing way. Plus now I have a place to work (Edit photos, blog, etc) (Ok, ok, also facebook and pinterest) like a grown up. This post is brought to you from this space.

On that top shelf, I have our diapers in a three sectioned basket. It holds our Size 4s & Size 3s, and my morning reading books are in the third space. To the left of that is my knitting. Underneath is a basket of more books I'm working through. (All baskets thrifted.) And space to tuck my computer away in.

Our toy box ottomans work GREAT as a seat, tucked away underneath when not in use. (That other thing under there is part of our surround sound stuff.)

In the cleared off space to the right of our TV I have a box where I put our library-borrowed movies and it also hold my iPod/iPad-etc cords. Next to the Vase I have our "charging station" for our phones and iPads to hang out when needed.

It all feels so much more functional and beautiful.

And I CRAVE functional beauty.

Its my biggest goal of our home. To have as perfect as possible function, that is as beautiful as it gets.

I like to have just the right amount of stuff. Not too much. Not too little.

I feel like  this desk nailed it for me.

Apparently I'm nesting despite not being pregnant. (I cannot stop myself right now from organizing like a fiend. I think its due to me being used to June being nesting month. Or it could be that I didn't nest too hard with Ruby, since I was focused on VBACing, which meant nonstop working out to go into labor on my own -- my body loves staying pregnant -- So maybe I'm making up for that. OR it could just be what needs to be done after a year of mothering two little ones -- LOTS of make up work for the days where I just didn't have it in me when they were smaller.)

Anyway, so because of that I decided because my sewing table/sewing machine should come out of our bedroom and I realized it would fit right next to our couch as a side table. And then when I want to sew it won't be so loud next to Ruby's bedroom like it was before. (I thought I could get stuff done when she sleeps but she would wake up from the noise.)

Plus I'll be forced to pick up my mess since I can't stand the living room to stay messy -- since its always covered in toys during the day -- I clean it up at night.

To my surprise the other toy box fits underneath it as another seat/ way to save space! Perfect!

I threw a couple coasters and decorations from around my bedroom on there and called it a day.

(To the left under the couch is a basket of shoes I tuck away. Jasmine pulled it out while I was taking photos to get her "glass slippers" and I figured you might like seeing where our shoes go.)

In that tray thing, I'm storing our remote controls and our keys. Behind the table I tuck our carseat and my mom-bag.

So yeah. I was just so excited I had to tell someone!!

$5 and my life feels so much more functional which feels so much more peaceful! Ahhh!