My go-to way to dress up and any living space is curtains! Unfortunately, sometimes there are rules imposed by landlords, RAs and property managers about how you can attach things to your wall. Let me tell you, Command Strips will be your best friend!

I found all the materials I needed to complete this 15-minute DIY project at Home Depot. Here's what you'll need:

• 5/8" Dowel Rods - I needed 2 to go across my 76" wide window
• Copper coupling with stop - to connect the two dowel rods
• Command Strips Large Utility Hooks
• Tape Measure or Ruler
• Rubber Mallet - to secure the copper fitting

How high you hang your curtain rods depends on your curtain length (typically either 84" or 96") and if you like puddling curtains or not, but a good rule of thumb is to put your brackets - in this case, Command Strip - 4 to 6 inches above your window OR centering them between the window molding and the ceiling.

I chose to stick my Command Strips where the hook would be at 6 inches above the window, which was just a little shy of vertically centered in my small apartment. You can follow the instructions on the Command Strips box, but it's basically a peel-and-stick method.

Have y'all seen the new Opalhouse collection at Target? OH MY GOSH! It is everything I would put into my dream home and at Target prices! I am in love! If you follow me on Pinterest, you'll recognize some decor themes; it's like Target was reading my mind!

Thank you Addison's Wonderland for sharing your favorites because it has led me down a rabbit hole that even my thrift-shopping wallet can enjoy. I'm sharing some of my favorites room by room below, so feast your eyes! (These are affiliate links so everytime you click to shop I earn a small referral fee. This comes at no cost to you.) Of course, if you head over to Target.com you can see the entire collection unfiltered - which I recommend. If you just want to shop the top photo, click here.

Opalhouse Bedroom

Opalhouse Bath

Opalhouse Dining

Having visited Target since writing this blog, I do have to add a few things!

1.  Yes, everything looks beautiful and trendy, but...
2.  Some of it feels so cheap!
3.  Which leads me to suggest that some of these items (particularly the kitchen goods) would be great for a dorm or first apartment, but maybe won't have long-term durability.

Because my last Pinterest comparison post is one of your favorites, I've undertaken another! I've wanted a blanket ladder almost since I knew they were a thing, but they've always been out of budget or just not the style I want in my living room. As our collection of blankets has grown (shoutout to all my always cold girls!), the need for one has not gone away. Finally, I found one that I liked the look of, and because it was a DIY the price was much more manageable!

I came across two on Pinterest that looked almost identical in style and end-result, but with some different measurements and steps. The first is Foxtail And Moss's gorgeous DIY Wood + Copper Blanket Ladder. The other is Darling Darleen's DIY Modern Blanket Ladder. If you're a picture person, I suggest Darleen Meiers; if you're good with end-result photos and written instructions, Foxtail And Moss' post will work for you.

Materials:

• 3 7/8" wooden dowels (the 3/4" dowels were too loose in the fittings!)
• 6 3/4" copper pressure tees
• 4 3/4" copper caps
• Wood Glue
• Tape Measure
• Spray paint (if you want to paint your ladder)
• Hand saw (or cut your dowels at Home Depot or Lowes)

Cuts:

Because I had a very specific home in mind for our ladder, I made up my own measurements. I only wanted it to be 53" tall, so that breakdown looks like this:

• 2 20" dowel pieces - the bottom "legs" of the ladder
• 4 12.5" dowel pieces - the middle sections of the ladder posts
• 3 19" dowel pieces - the crossbars that will actually hold blankets
• 2 8" dowel pieces - the top "posts" of the ladder

 We're officially moved into our new apartment! Yes, this is the one that we moved into over our second anniversary weekend with some help from some wonderful church family & friends. And no, we haven't been living out of boxes for a month. BUT we have just this three-day weekend added a coffee table to our collection of hodge-podge furniture and begun to hang artwork and photographs on the walls.

I also try to take a step back and look at the bookshelf as a whole.  I don't have all of my books upright, some I stack and stagger. And I don't only have books on the shelf but include framed photos and vases of flowers. It's important when styling things other than books that you keep it from looking too crowded with knick-knacks.  In a recent blog post on the Nester, she states that "Tidy People Don't Overdecorate." Since we're trying to keep this apartment as tidy and uncluttered as possible, it's necessary that even our storage areas - like the bookshelves - don't look get cluttered.

How do you style your shelves? Any tips that I missed? Let me know in the comments!

If you follow me on Pinterest, you've probably noticed the overwhelming amount of velvet couches, industrial lighting, and brick walls that have been populating my feed.  If you aren't following me, you should be!  If you just want to follow my Kansas City Loft Apartment board, that's this one here.

Currently, my living room has a beautiful exposed brick feature wall that houses two very large windows.  To be honest, the brick wall and the location are the two reasons B & I chose this apartment over the 13 or 14 we toured.  But my gorgeous brick wall has its drawbacks:

• It crumbles.  Seriously, you can hear the little pieces of brick falling off the wall and onto the books that are currently stacked in the corner because we don't have shelves.
• Without the proper masonry tools it is very difficult to hang anything -- pictures, hooks, curtains; if you can think of something that would be absolutely perfect to decorate the space, it it isn't going on this wall.

That aside, here's what I'm working with:


Ignoring the weird angle, and the fact that an air mattress is serving as our couch at the moment, you can at least see my amazing wall and huge windows and crazy tall ceiling.  It's more than enough space to work with and I have so many ideas (and a tight money to ideas ratio) to work with.

Below are my favorite inspiration photos as I work on assembling my empty living room into a classy cozy comfy space!

My husband and I were blessed to receive a ton of hand-me-down furniture when we were married last year, most of which needed a lot of love and some fresh paint or fabric.  Scroll through some of my inspiration for our dining room update! All ideas are apartment-friendly.


Photo 1: I loved the combination of a green teal with the indigo & white (especially since our master is indigo & white).  And – what a steal – the dishes are currently on sale at Wal-Mart!

Photo 2:  The open shelves and the subtle shades of grey on white.  The open shelves keep the kitchen area feeling very casual and visitor friendly, I think.  I also mimicked the open shelves in our tiny kitchen by papering the back cabinets and removing the doors.  Since we’re in an apartment, our dining room shelves function more as book shelves than for storing dishes.

Photo 3: The stained wood with the intricate blue and gold designs caught my eye.  My lovely dining room set was my parents’ (and is probably even older than they are) that they purchased at an estate sale when they were first married.  Seeing how the aged wood worked with modern Gatsby-esque patterns on these stairs kept us from wanting to purchase new furniture and instead update the pieces we had.  I recovered the chairs myself with fabric found at Jo-Ann’s and approved by my husband.


Photo 4: A fun and trendy small dining space that incorporated color to really make it a focal point of the room.  You’ll notice in the final photo we haven’t made the leap to pops of color like the bright coral.


The Final Product:  Instead of unfinished wood bookshelves they’ve been painted with white & grey satin paint from Home Depot.  We staged the shelves to show off our photos, books, board games, and even some of our serving dishes – all of which display really well against the neutral grey of the interior of the shelves.  The aqua curtains were a Marshall’s find back in January, and the chairs are antiques recovered with a fun fabric. We can’t do anything about the wall paint, which came with the apartment!