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Tweaked.

Way back in July, Scott and I very innocently began purging our home for the annual summer yard sale. We thought we’d have a few items to fill a tabletop on our tree lawn, but by the time we finished our to sell, to donate and to keep piles, our living room was looking… sparse. This brought on Tweakfest 2000 (aka, 2012), since we’d now have spaces to fill and new ideas to try – while being very mindful of any items we bring in.

If you remember us geeking out over our recent Apartment Therapy tour, you’ve probably already seen the evolution over the last 5 months, but we realized that we never shared the ta-da! moment here. So, before throwing up the tree and hanging the stockings, I took some time to grab snaps of our room how it is now – many, many months after confessing, hey! We’re nuts!

Here’s where we were in July, after nixing a handful of items for the yard sale, but before really getting into it – sans curtains, no more Otto and a (at the time) recently snagged $2 chair:

Soon after, we moved on to our wall of art, deciding that we wanted a more streamlined look (and eventually landing on our big, bad picture ledge). Less shelves to dust (I’ve got enough of those in the studio!) make my OCD heart happy, and Scott’s never one to complain when it comes to taking out his power tools. For a few weeks – because in real time, we all know life happens, some afternoons are meant to be lazy and one more trip to Home Depot is the last thing on your mind – the room was looking sad:

But! Finally, we slowly whipped the room back into shape, often times working on many tweaks at the same time. Our original to-tackle-list has been crossed off (yes, 5 months later), all with the exception of one pesky item, see?

Makeover our $2 chair. (Done!)
Re-work our current art display. (Done!)
Swap our venetian blinds for easy, breezy cellular shades. (Done!)
Layer in curtains to hide speakers and add warmth, texture and height. (Done!)
Replace our shaggy rug with something that fits our oddly shaped room. (Done!)
Re-upholster the lovely chair. (Done!)
• Reassess the end table situation – or lack thereof.

Damn those end tables! We just can’t settle on something we love, and we’ve set restrictions that have turned into the impossible task – must fit over our apple crate, must be deep enough to make sense with our couch, must be super awesome (obviously). Regardless, we’re calling this room done, because despite our lack of end tables, we managed to squeeze in a few other accomplishments:

• We added an additional light fixture.
• We trimmed our curtains for extra credit.
• We re-worked our terrarium. For the fourth time.

Hey, every bit counts.

And now? Although we have an additional chair in the room (you know, the $2 guy), more art on display and more rug covering the floor, the space feels lighter, cleaner and brighter. Here’s how things look now:

Toning down our shaggy rug to a softer gray FLOR and reupholstering our two chairs are obvious room-brighteners, but swapping the wood-toned Venetian blinds to honeycomb shades and layering in curtains (that repeat the color in our hallway) have been one of the biggest game changers for us.

By somewhat white-washing the majority of the room, our art collection becomes the star, which as you can imagine, makes our hearts sing. You can’t go wrong with a big pink donut, Paris people watching and a rapping armadillo, right? (See the full art rundown here.)

Phew. This room here, it’s been tweaked. Tweaked! As we’ve said before, items in our home never feel permanent; we enjoy change. And isn’t that the fun part of loving your home? Because goodness, remember years ago when our living room looked like this? And this?

As for Tweakfest 2.0, we’re thinking the bathroom’s next. For a whole room the size of most folks’ modest closets, that should be easy, yeah? We have a handful of ideas, and we’ll wait until the new year rolls around, but we’re excited already! (Surprise, surprise!) How about you? Are your to-dos-next-year already swirling through your minds? Making it hard to fall asleep? (Oh, is that just me?)

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  • Shannon12.20.12 - 8:08 AM

    So awesome how little tweaks can amount to such a big difference! I absolutely love how it looks now! :) :)

    ShannonReplyCancel

  • catherine12.20.12 - 9:01 AM

    Be honest. Have you gained weight with that doughnut picture in the room? ;-)ReplyCancel

    • Kim12.20.12 - 9:13 AM

      Thanks, Shannon!

      Catherine, interesting… I have had a major sweet tooth lately (more so than normal). Is it the donut? Or the holidays?! No weight gained, but time will tell.ReplyCancel

  • Emma12.20.12 - 9:40 AM

    Looks wonderful! Well done you two (:ReplyCancel

  • Jillian12.20.12 - 10:06 AM

    The only thing that’s lacking is no more eff the dumb s@#$! :(ReplyCancel

  • Kim12.20.12 - 10:29 AM

    Jill! It’s there, it’s there! It’s on the media wall now, closest shelf to the hall (behind the plant). It got a new frame and mat :) I’d never get rid of that!ReplyCancel

  • Jill12.20.12 - 11:48 AM
  • Jane @ The Borrowed Abode12.21.12 - 3:50 PM

    I love it! Wonderful job, as always!ReplyCancel

  • marian1.3.13 - 8:45 PM

    Hi!

    I just came across your blog. Love it! I especially love that piece of furniture holding up your t.v. Did you make that yourselves? If so, do you have a tutorial or something similar? I have an idea for a credenza that I want to make and I LOVE the legs on your piece. Would love to snag some of those for my project and get ideas from you.

    THANKS!ReplyCancel

  • Making Made1.4.13 - 1:38 PM

    Wow, I really love your decor. The piece of furniture under your TV stand is amazing and I love your chairs. Very well put together.

    Jeanne
    http://makingmade.com

    p.s. Penina is one of my co-workers! Yay!ReplyCancel

    • Kim1.4.13 - 1:59 PM

      Hi Jeanne, thank you! And so fun that you work with Penina! :)ReplyCancel

  • […] and Scott, of Yellow Brick Home, are currently renovating their new home. That doesn’t mean we can’t all still be […]ReplyCancel

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We’re Kim + Scott, Chicago based content creators behind the Home + Lifestyle brand Yellow Brick Home.

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