I mentioned on Monday that this week, I'm making the big move into my boyfriend's apartment. Now, my boyfriend and I have been together for about 5 years now, and luckily that means that I've gotten to know the differences in our style pretty well. Not so luckily, I've learned that he and I are pretty much polar opposites when it comes to style. I'm very much modern glamour meets pops of color, and he's very much rustic minimalist. My boyfriend is very much a guy's guy, and I knew moving in I'd have to immediately tone down my over-the-top glitzy style (he also has a weird aversion to anything painted white, and I have the strong desire to paint everything white, so...problems).

Because of our differences in style and also because of my need to visualize and pre-plan everything, a while back, I made a private Pinterest board to try and find some kind of middle ground between our two styles. And I found that our styles mixed together is actually a pretty awesome mix of rustic, quirky, and modern. Lots of found objects(we'd always enjoyed thrifting and antiquing together), mixed in with modern furniture with clean lines, add in some natural elements, and then bring in cool art with warm, energizing pops of color, and somehow we have a meshed style that's all our own.

Now the Pinterest board I created was totally just a dream of sorts; I have much more realistic home decor expectations for the first apartment we share. However, I feel so much better going into this move knowing that our two styles can coexist successfully, and having a set visual in mind helps me organize what to bring in to this new shared space and what to leave out.

"our place" Pinterest board

bedroom update: gallery wall.

This weekend, my dad helped me hang a gallery wall in my bedroom at home. I wanted a place to store some of the many, many pieces of art I've created and accumulated since high school. I also wanted to display a few gifts/souvenirs(rose print, sunset print, and Bob Dylan poster) that I've gotten over the years in a way that seemed intentional and thoughtful. I love the way it turned out. It's definitely NOT a traditional gallery wall with matching frames and synchronized pieces, but it feels very "Liz" to me. At a single glance, I can see years of memories and better yet, years of practice and improvement within my own art.

Some quick tips for hanging your own gallery wall:

• Plan it out on your floor or a big table before putting it up on the wall. This final format you see here is probably the twelfth combination I actually tried.
• Use pieces you already have and/or accumulate more pieces over the years. Buying a ton of pieces all at once from discount places can make your gallery wall seem kinda forced and stiff, rather than homey and personal.
• If you find yourself stressing about positioning each piece, keep it super simple like I did and create two rows of prints, aligning the bottoms of the first row and the tops of the second row.
• Consult Pinterest. (Duh.) There are pretty much billion resources available online for creating your own gallery wall. It's kind of a thing now.

bedroom update.

I'm sharing a few tiny corners that I have finished in my new room to better show how the new color looks. I still need to hang a gallery wall above the bed, figure out the space above my desk, and get a new TV and desk chair before I feel ready to share the full effect. After living with the color for a few days, I've grown to love it even more. My room feels both lighter and calmer, and it's becoming a place I can see myself truly relaxing in after exams over Winter Break or after an 8 hour shift at my current summer job.

from the weekend.

This weekend, my dad helped me paint my old bedroom at home. The room looks so different without the orange walls, and I'm beyond happy with the result. I decided to go with Valspar's Channel Seal Gray, which is a warm purpleish tone of gray. My sister describes it as a "chic gray," which is exactly what I was going for. Today I'm sharing just a quick preview of the progress and will be back Wednesday with a look into the (mostly) finished result.