Before: 

After: 

I decided that I will not be afraid to share my home with you...plus I need to document these photos for future uses, right? A lot of my friends think my rental is cute and charming, but to be honest I was quite embarrassed of it for a good while. Although it is not bad looking, it is not 100% in the best shape. I can still remember the first day I walked through my front doors and the lingering odor that no one but me and my mom could smell. I remember asking the landlord if they cleaned this place prior to us moving in, obviously she said yes...but I beg to differ.
Let me que you in on the backstory of my rental...the mister picked this rental out. Did I send him the info on this rental?..."Yes, I did"...but to my defense I sent him a whole bunch of other listings and a criteria list of what I wanted. Not to be surprised, 99.9% of what this house is made up of was on the what not-to-rent portion of that list. Let's just say, my cleaning standards are a lot higher than *cough* the misters. Under the grime, odor, and nastiness of this place, this place was truly a diamond in the rough.
BOM BOM BOM...here is my living room! There is really not much to the schematics of my house or my sense of decor. I like a lot of different things and I am still trying to make this place more cohesive with the budget I have. In my living room I have my ever so blown up Natasha Law inspired art, my Chinoiserie print sofa that needs to be reupholstered, my pair of beautiful-mistake side tables/night stands, and my gold target metal table. Ummm yes, we do gave bunny ears and I would love to move that metal table but it attracts great reception right where it is at.

Unfortunately or is it fortunately....hmmm, I will let you decide....you cannot see my kitchen chairs, but they were given to me by a friend and I just reupholstered them. The kitchen chairs are your basic metal restaurant chairs. What I love about these chairs is the simplicity in the design of the chair. I do NOT plan on keeping these chairs long term, I am actually hoping to find some black acrylic chairs similar to an Eames school house chair (here) or maybe even lucite ikea chairs (here) or inexpensive ghost chairs (here). I know I have high hopes, big dreams, and a little money. Ha!
All of the decor around the table I already had or was free. Before I go any further, the large black and white print near the window is a diy reproduction of the "LES TOUCHES" fabric not les touch, my apologies. The vases on the table were a total diy, that I will share on a later date. The gold round tray is from target that I purchased back in December of 2013. The two white mirrors were approximately $10 together ($4.98 each to be exact) and were purchased from Target. I was suppose to use the mirrors in my sons room but changed my mind (see my inspiration board here). The Hello Love printable I used look like this:
The print above can be found on the site classy clutter and is totally free! Yay! The other print was a total diy and is a basic representation of how I feel....
Yeah, I totally took that crappy photo! Lol. I am sooooooo soooo bad at photography. Ha.
If you haven't noticed, I totally went jute. I scored one hell-o of a deal at target. The rug was originally about $150...but thanks to it being repackaged and returned by a friendly shopper, I got it for $38...Whoop, whoop! Check it out in my kitchen....
Now on to the opposite side of the eating area...the sideboard was a free find on craigslist (here), I just pulled off the top, painted it, replaced the knobs and applied a faux marble honed top to it. Again, I will touch bases with this piece on another post later this week.
The mirror is actually my absolute favorite mirror in my house. Believe it or not, I passed it up the first time I saw it at the thrift store. I literally, no kidding, went back the next morning, family in tow, just to get it....I had to have it!
Y'all are probably wondering, "who has a lamp in their kitchen?".,.I DO! My house is so dark, we need to put lighting wherever we possibly can. That alone is another reason my pics come out crazy. Lol! Note on the lighting in my house, we do not have ceiling lights in our living room or bedrooms and our light in our kitchen is kind of wonky. Back to the lamp, it is also a Nate Berkus lamp purchased off of the clearance rack with a coupon stacked on it for $13. I actually purchased the lamp above and the asymmetric gold Nate Berkus lamp with hopes that the asymmetric one would work better with the space, but it did not so I returned it. The lamp shade was thrifted with another modern lamp. Although I do like the lamp shade I do not like that everything is so square in that vignette.
The curtains are sailcloth white curtain panels purchased from Wal-Mart when we moved into our rental. I believe those curtains may be discontinued, I purchased mine off the clearance rack.
Now to the grit of this area, the art...all but one was free...the two large prints were free craigslist finds. The two floral prints were free printables from the site Vintage Printables. That site has a plethora of free printables that would look great in any home. love It! The picture of the lips sold by The Aestate but is no longer available. Let me just, The Aestate has some GORGEOUS prints for sale, check it out. That is basically it for this makeover, but I will leave you with one of my favorite FREE craigslist art.