2015 Christmas Home Tour

This time of year is always so much fun and everyone’s favorite. For me, it’s been a little bitter sweet and filled with mixed emotions. All though their due date was in January, our girls most definitely would’ve made their grand entrance some time in December had we made it full term so I imagine this time of year will always bring reminders of that. Although they can’t be here with us to see the magic of the season unfold in person, we know they’re always close in our hearts and that’s reason enough to celebrate this time of year just as we always would.

I didn’t put much thought into this year’s décor. There’s no theme other than deciding to do an all-white tree. Much of what we used this year is the same items we’ve used in years past, just pared down…if that’s possible to do while decorating for Christmas. I have four giant bins of Christmas décor and found that I used the contents of maybe two of those bins. This tells me it’s time to purge what isn’t being used.

But enough chit-chat…let’s dive head first into our “traditional” Christmas décor around the apartment.

Our entryway received a subtle nod to the season with a couple holiday print throws for a festive touch. I’d love to find an old pair of ice skates to hang here as well.

The view of the tree is the first thing you see as you walk in through the front door.

To the left of the tree we have our TV and media cabinet in the nook. Without a traditional mantel, I hang our stockings from the cabinet using black 3M Command Hooks (every renter’s best friend). Works like a charm!

Our friend Anthony the antelope who lives above the TV got into the holiday spirit as well with a scrap piece of fabric tied around his neck as a scarf.

The coffee table got a dose of Christmas cheer too with a red runner, a pine scented (the best!) candle, and some season appropriate vase filler.

The couch wall received the most holiday décor. I swapped out the pair of black couch pillows for smaller red ones that read “Merry & Bright” and a wreath hung up by some candy cane ribbon replaces the round mirror. Excuse my horrible bow tying skills – I was running out of steam by the end!

The long console table behind the couch (tutorial coming soon!) has a few bottle brush trees I picked up at Target this year which I paired with some red glass ones I already had. The only other change I made to the table was to change out the books on the right for more seasonally appropriate colors. One of the things I love most about decorating is the ability to shop your own home, using what you have but giving it a twist to achieve the look you’re after – like giving the antelope a scarf, using the same hurricane candle holder but popping in a seasonally scented candle and vase filler, swapping out the mirror for a wreath, or using books in the right color pallet – all things I had on hand but helped sprinkle the festive touches throughout!

Directly across from the couch is the focal point of the entire room…the TREE!

We purchased a new 7 ft. Slim tree from Michaels this year for $40 and at first I wasn’t sure I’d like it but now I LOVE it! It’s perfect when you’re limited on space just like us!

I loaded it up and just love how it turned out. Our tree was already pre-lit but that didn’t stop me from adding two strands of round globe lights. I love the mix of the different lights and on the smaller tree I think it really pops!

I also spotted this snowball garland at Target and added two strands of that as well. Think beyond regular ornaments for tree décor – anything is fair game!

From there I added a lot of floral picks I got on major sale at Michaels and just a few actual ornaments I already had on hand –  white glittery ones (because glitter is always better) and some clear ones for another added layer without taking away from everything else.

I set up a wrapping station using a glass vase which neatly corals my wrapping paper rolls, ribbons, tape, and scissors all while doubling as festive décor along-side the tree. While rifling through my wrapping paper stash I noticed an abundance of red & white paper so I just went with it. The red chevron and hounds tooth paper I found at the Dollar Store last year!

The last stop on our Christmas home tour is the kitchen. I added a few hot chocolate supplies – cocoa mix, marshmallows, and chocolate chips in mason jars to our bar tray. We just dump our hot chocolate concoctions to our sweater adorned mugs and fill with steaming hot water via the Keurig. Nothing better than a yummy cup of hot chocolate to cuddle up with on the couch!

That’s all the Christmas I have to share with you from our little corner of the world – hope you enjoyed the tour and get a little inspiration to deck your halls this holiday season!

Fall for $20

Although the calendar indicates that Fall is officially here and underway, Southern California hasn't gotten the memo. It's still hot around these parts (we're flirting with the 80's) but temps have been dropping and I hope they continue to do so. There's no time of year I love more than Fall.

 

I usually break out the Fall / Halloween décor by late September / early October to really get into the spirit of things that this time of year brings but with everything we've been through over the last few months, I just haven't gotten around to it.

 

With Halloween almost here and Thanksgiving just around the corner, I wanted a quick and simple project that would sprinkle our home with those warm and cozy fall feelings without having to drag our décor bins from the depths of the black hole garage.

 

Buffalo check is all the rage right now and what perfect timing because this bold take on a classic plaid print is so fitting for the season. Ive been oogling over these gorgeous pillows but when I spotted a similar fabric at Ikea for a fraction of the cost, I picked up a yard on a whim and decided to make my own low-budget version.

 

If I've said it once, I'll say it again - pillows are the easiest way to change up the look and feel of a room in an instant without much of an investment. So with my Ikea fabric, I made two pillow covers in about 30 minutes start to finish all in an effort of infusing a little fall coziness into our main living space.

 

I've done my fair share of sewing but usually just ask my super-sewer Mom to make my pillow covers for me instead of bothering to do it myself. But these ones? They're all me! Even someone with the most basic of sewing skills could whip these up, no problem!

 

With a little direction from my Mom, I made two super simple envelope style pillow covers out of 1 yard of fabric. The Internet (and Pinterest) is flooded with tutorials for this type of DIY so I won't bore you with another - just click here and use any one of these tutorials to make your own.

 

But how about a few helpful hints before you dive right in?

 

#1 - Always remember to make your cover smaller than your pillow insert. This may seem illogical but it's the most important thing I've learned and the key to getting the fullest pillows! A general rule of thumb is to make your cover 2" smaller than your pillow insert. For example: if your inserts measure 20" x 20", you'll want to make your pillow cover a finished size of 18" x 18". Be sure to account for your seams when cutting your fabric!

 

#2 - Reinforce the seams where the two back flaps of your cover overlap. When you're stuff your cover with the insert, that area will have the most stress put on it from all the pushing, pulling, and re-arranging your insert. Having a reinforced seam will make sure that your cover doesn't literally rip at the seams.

 

With those tips in mind, after my covers were sewn, I gave them a quick press with the iron just to iron out any wrinkles and to press the seams. But I didn't stop there. I decided to add a few yarn pom-poms to each corner of the pillow because nothing says fall like a good plaid and some cozy textures!

 

To make the over sized pom-poms you'll need:

1. Yarn
2. Scissors
3. Steel yarn needle

I started by wrapping the yarn around 4 of my outstretched fingers like so:

 

I wrapped the yarn loosely around my fingers approximately 70 times until my bundle was pretty thick. The same technique can be used around less fingers or wrapped around fewer times to achieve a smaller pom-pom too.

 

There are several tools out there that you can buy to assist you in making pom-poms but I didn't have any of them so I improvised and used my fingers instead which seemed to work out just fine.

 

Once I wrapped the yarn around a sufficient amount of times, I carefully slid the bundle off my fingers and laid it in the center of a 12" piece of yarn that I had previously cut.

 

With the single piece of yarn, I tied a knot in the middle of my bundle and then flipped it over and tied a second knot.

 

With the tied bundle, I slid my scissors through the loops on either end and cut - careful not to cut the center tie.

 

After cutting all the loops on either end you can choose to trim your pom-pom for a more uniform look or leave it as is.

 

Once I had all my pom-poms made, I used a steel yarn needle threaded with a length of yarn and sewed each pom-pom to the corner of my covers. Easy-peasy!
 

Ready to see the final result?

How cozy are these pillows? And what a big difference they make! Not too shabby for $20, right?!

 

 

Gimme all the heart eye emojis...I think I'm in love! Are you too? Please tell me you agree!

 

Plant Pots and Paint Pens

Say that 10x fast!

As I mentioned at the end of this post, I’m slowly trying to ease my way back into the blog and chip away at all those projects we put on the back burner for a bit. While we’re still knee deep in the raw every day emotions of this new life we’re adjusting to, staying busy helps.

Outside of this blog I work a regular ol’ 9-5 except instead of 5 – 8 hour days, I work 4 – 10 hour days with every Monday off. Having Mondays off is great! While everyone else in the world is at work, I’m able to accomplish a whole lot of blog related stuff and tackle a few projects around the house unless I turn on the TV and get sucked into a Gilmore Girls marathon – then all productivity goes out the window. Over the last few months, that sorta became the norm as I wasn’t very mobile towards the end but I’m slowly redirecting my focus and I have to say that it feels good.

This last Monday was a very productive one after many, many unproductive ones. I worked on and/or completed 5 new projects – all of which I’ll be sharing here sooner or later. High fives for me!

This first one is more so a facelift than it is a project and takes zero skills whatsoever. One of the things I love most about decorating is incorporating live plants into every room. I think plants just brighten up the space and when you add any sort of natural element it just brings the room to life. Unfortunately for me, I totally suck at keeping anything alive. That’s why I always tend to gravitate towards low maintenance plants – usually of the succulent variety. But even I’ve managed to kill quite a few of those too. Most recently I killed a snake plant…or most of it…which is considered to be virtually indestructible. #GOme. I think I have a chronic case of over-watering but I’m working on it.

I woke up one morning to find that 95% of my snake plant was water logged and the stalks were falling over, so after feeling like such a failure, I removed the dying stalks and was left with a whopping 3 stalks. Sure made for a wimpy plant. So while I’m trying to bring it back to life, I went to Home Depot and brought home my next victim and plopped it in the pot that the previous one vacated.

Except the pot totally sucks. Just like my plant caring abilities. It was just a plain white ceramic pot I picked up from Ikea and thought that maybe…just maybe…if I jazzed up the pot a bit the plant would last longer. #Ainthappening. But I went ahead and did it anyways because that’s how my crazy mind works. I could use all the help I can get.

The ceramic pot already had some raised detailing so I just took a paint pen and enhanced the details. Looks like a totally different pot – and much more expensive too might I add! Don’t you agree?

Here's a side by side:

And the best part? You don’t have to have these pots with raised details from Ikea to achieve the same look. Any plain ceramic, or terra cotta pot too for that matter, can be transformed with a paint pen and free-handing a super simple pattern…think dots, crosshatch, grids – the options are endless!

So what do you say? Think this super cute pot will help keep my plant alive? Probably not but #Onecanhope.

Living Room Changes - Part 2

Last time I checked in I showed you guys the beginning stages of some small changes that we've been making in our living room over the past few weeks and today I'm back to show you what else we've been up to.

 

The next set of changes we recently made involves a part of our living room the blog hasn't even seen yet - our media wall. Decorating your home to accommodate that uber important TV is often challenging, and in our case, was only made worse when we purchased a larger, more obnoxious television to replace our old, on the edge of death, TV. After purchasing the larger TV, we were forced to do some furniture musical chairs when it became clear that the wall that used to house the TV, was way too small.

 

The previous media wall, as seen in this really bad cell phone pic, shows just how cramped the previous situation was to begin with. The TV and media cabinet were smashed up against the curtains and sliding glass door leading out to our patio leaving no extra room to accommodate a larger TV.

 

 

So...with a new TV and the realization that the existing wall was too small, we did some rearranging and moved the TV, the media cabinet, and Anthony (the antelope) to an adjacent wall with a really annoying nook that I've hated since the day we moved in but since it was the only other place for the new TV, we had to make it work.

 

The nook is off center on this wall and for a person that really gravitates towards symmetry, it's always been a nightmare for me to decorate around. This little nook has seen quite a few changes in the 2 years that's we've lived here which I plan to document in a future post, but this go-around in the nook is by far my favorite.

 

 

After moving everything over into the nook, the entire wall felt visually heavy on the left and really empty on the right, making the nook all that more prominent and irritating!

 

I didn't have much space to work with on the left but I knew that it definitely needed something to visually balance everything out and with all the craziness going on to the left, I thought something clean and symmetrical would be the best solution to both my problems.

 

I decided to do a gallery wall of frames filled with pictures from some of our most memorable travel adventures. The inspiration for this came directly from these two awesome bloggers as seen on their sites here and here.

 

Ready to see how it all came together?

 

 

For the gallery wall I chose to go with these warm wood toned frames that I scooped up at Ikea. I've been on a mission to bring in some wood tones and textures into our home to warm things up a bit and balance out our other black furniture pieces and I think these frames did just that!

 

 

I chose vacation photos that were bright, bold, and full of vibrant colors! It's the perfect way to display our personal memories in a very subtle way while bringing in some fun colors at the same time.

 

To put my own little spin on our travel adventures gallery wall, I used my all time favorite (but sadly discontinued) Martha Stewart bookplate labels on the glass of each frame to name the travel destination pictured. Great thing about this is no matter what picture you showcase, the label can always be updated easily as you add more destinations to your passport! And for those with a short term memory, you'll always have a handy reminder of where your photo was taken!

 

 

To hang the pictures, I used every renters BFF - 3M Command Strips (you can see the little bump out of the Command Strip on the top of each frame in the photo below). Using 3M Command Strips saved me from putting 16+ nail holes in the wall and from having to patch all those holes when we leave. Plus, 3M Command Strips are re-positionable and made it easy to make sure my grid lines were nice and straight. Can't beat that!

 

 

All in all, for all the challenges this wall & the larger TV presented us with, I'd say I'm smitten with the results! Plus I think Anthony is enjoying the new scenery too...

 

 

There's still one more change I'm working on to round out our living room refresh, be sure to check back soon so you don't miss out!

 

 

 

 

 

Living Room Cha-cha-changes

I've been making a few changes to our main living space and am dropping in today to share the first of many minor tweaks that have been happening over the last few weeks.

 

I've been eager to infuse a little more color into our normally neutral living room for quite some time and one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to do that is through pillows. It's so easy and convenient to change out your pillows throughout the season or hey...just because! I'm a known hoarder of pillows and can always be found perusing the pillow aisles at any home décor store. One of the greatest things about having a mainly neutral base is that it makes adding color on a whim, so easy!

 

 

I picked these vibrant blue floral motif pillows up at HomeGoods and I think they're the perfect counterpart to the darker navy curtains while boldly standing out against the neutral backdrop of the couch.

 

 

I'm loving these new pillows so much and think they bring in the perfect amount of color for summer.

 

 

What do you think? Do you love HomeGoods as much as this girl does? Have you ever switched out your pillows for an instant change or for a quick living room face lift? How are you infusing color into your home this Summer?

 

Be sure to check back soon for the other living room changes we've made over the last few weeks! I'm so excited for you all to see!

 

15 Minute Fix - Bar Tray

Hi friends!!

I'm back from our Hawaiian vacation, very well rested, and cant wait to share all the fun we had basking in the sun! With all unpacking and laundry that needs to be done I thought the best first project back post vacation would be another project in my 15 Minute Fix series where I tackle a project or something on my to-do / want-to-do list in 15 minutes or less because sometimes all we have time for are quick little projects, am I right?

 

This project is all about reinventing an ordinary, every day item. My favorite kind of DIY! I spotted this pink mirror at the thrift store and although I didn't need a new mirror, the mirror was inset in a deep frame and I thought it'd make the perfect tray. Just so happened that I needed a tray because one can never have too many trays!

 

 

 

To change my thrift store find from a mirror to a tray, I started by taping off the mirror with some computer paper and painters tape and then sprayed the entire frame white.

 

 After the frame was painted, I removed the hanging hardware from the back of the frame. Once the hardware was removed, I covered the bottom of the tray with craft foam sheets that I found at Michael's. To adhere the foam to the back of the mirror, I used spray glue and let it cure for a full day.

 

To add some interest to the mirror turned tray so that it wasn't just a boring white tray, I attached these brass corner brackets on each corner.

 

 Once completed, I loaded up my new mirrored tray with all our bar essentials. The mirrored tray is reflective and looks great with all our decanters we've collected. Since the tray is mainly stationary and really just meant to define a space atop our buffet and to corral all our bar necessities, I never have to/need to move it while all loaded up. I don't suggest transporting the tray fully loaded as the mirror may crack under the weight of the items.

How's that for a quick 15 minute project? This project was so, so easy and the perfect post vacation project while I'm knee deep in laundry and vacationing from my vacation!


15 Minute Fix: Updating Dollar Store Vases

Hey there! Sorry for the brief hiatus...it's been a busy, but productive, few weeks (ahem...patio! I'm talking to you!). The patio makeover has literally eaten me alive but I'm rounding the home stretch and can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel so for now I don't have any other patio updates except to say that the chairs arrived and they're all kinds of tooshy heaven, but I wanted to pop in and share a quick little project I checked off my to-do/want-to-do list recently.

 

With summer knocking on our door, or at least here in CA it is, I'm loving the longer daylight hours and what that means for the blog and the endless amounts of projects I have going at any given time. The extended daylight hours sure make it easier to work on projects and photograph them after a long 10 hour day at the office but even with the added convenience that Daylight Savings brings, sometimes all I really have time for after work, traffic, dinner, clean-up, and all that jazz is a quick 10-15 minute project. Anyone else feel the same? And heck...let's be honest...sometimes I have no desire to do any of the aforementioned tasks and instead just plop myself down on the couch and watch HGTV on repeat. Feel me now?!

 

If you're anything like me, your brain never shuts off and there's always a to-do list a mile long. When I sat down to actually write out what I wanted/needed to accomplish, I realized that a lot of these items were quick, easy, and something I could easily get done in 10-15 minutes...if only I actually set aside those minutes to actually do them. What a concept! Sometimes something as easy as putting pen to paper puts things into perspective and makes all those to-dos a whole lot more manageable.

 

So because I thought many of you might be in the same boat as I, I thought I'd start a new series of sorts with quick 10-15 minute projects straight off my own to-do/want-to-do list that even you might find useful when time is limited.

 

Please don't judge me on my to-do list prioritization because as you'll see when you come back for the next post in this series, I chose to paint dollar store vases first before I tackled the disaster that is my purse because obviously gold vases are way more important than organized purses. Moving on...

 

Over the years I've managed to accumulate close to 50 (#youthinkimkidding) dollar store vases. How? I have no idea, but yeah...it happened. If you need a few vases, holla at your girl! They're the perfect vessel for so many things around the house and because I have so many, I thought I'd have some fun with a few.

 

All I did was tape off a portion of the vase using some blue painters tape. You can get all kinds of crazy or creative with your pattern, just mask off the area that you don't want painted and leave the area you do want painted exposed. For my vases I just taped off an asymmetric line. Sorry, no pics of this! Then just spray the vase whatever color you fancy. I chose gold...because well...duh...I'm obsessed with gold.

 

Once the paint is dry, remove the tape and ta-da! Dollar store vases look like they cost $1.50 now!

 

 

This is literally the easiest project on the face of the planet. I didn't re-invent the wheel, this project isn't going to break the Internet, and you've probably seen it done a thousand times a thousand times better, but it's been on my want-to-do list for-ev-errrr and now...it's not.

 

 

That's all for today - just a quick little 15 minute project for ya! Enjoy my friends! And be sure to check back soon for the next installment of 15 Minute Fix...or if you're lucky, you'll get a patio reveal soon!

 



Our $50 Bathroom Refresh

When we were apartment searching almost 2 years ago, I swear we looked at nearly every apartment in the area that fit out price range. After what felt like weeks and months of endless searching we finally settled on the apartment that we currently call our home sweet temporary home. Emphasis on temporary. When we toured the model floor plan of what would soon be our floor plan of choice, what I remember seeing ended up being very different than what we moved into. We toured a spacious, light, bright, and beautifully staged apartment model that hit most of the items on our checklist. It made choosing this complex and floor plan and easy decision after such a hard search.

The 2 things I remember most about that tour was all the beautiful natural light and the large master bathroom with dual sinks. The master bathroom was bigger than any we had seen...it was a long room with high ceilings and no doorways - think open concept. It was spacious and equipped with dual sinks - perfect for the 2 of us who would be utilizing this space at the same time every morning. Sadly though, what we moved into was quite the opposite. Our apartment windows are literally facing the exact opposite direction as those in the model apartment, making all that beautiful natural light that I remembered nearly non-existent. And the master bathroom? Bad. Real bad. Nowhere near the example of the model apartment. The trickery!

I remember moving in and grabbing a box to deposit in the master bathroom and stopping dead in my tracks. I swear we were given the wrong apartment. Our master bathroom is literally half in length of the model we had seen. A doorway separates the carpeted (gag) sink area from where the toilet and shower/tub are located and the door to the toilet/shower area opens inward and barely clears the toilet by about an inch...if that. The high ceilings are non-existent too. In fact, there's a huge bulkhead above our sink area making it feel cramped and dungeon-like...a far cry from the large master bathroom I was expecting to get. I almost cried. I was so confused that I called the leasing office and was informed that the model apartment we were shown had been retrofitted to be handicap accessible, thus meaning that all 1st floor, handicap accessible apartments had higher ceilings, wider doorways, or no doorways at all, making our 2nd floor apartment master bathroom layout entirely different, considerably smaller...and here's the kicker...being that we were on the 2nd floor, our ceilings, particularly in the bathrooms and hallways were indeed considerably lower that those of the apartments on the 1st and 3rd floors. Ugh.

Here's what I've been working with over the last year:

 

 

Not good, not bad. But knowing what I saw in the beginning, the bathroom situation could be way better. Especially if I lived on the 1st or 3rd floor. But I digress.

Unfortunately, being in a rental, there isn't anything you can do structurally. Recently, not having a place of our own that's ours has been weighing heavily on me. It's hard living in a space that isn't yours, your taste, your style, or one you can freely make changes to without the fear of paying for them later. But...this bathroom has bothered me so much over the last year, that I couldn't let that derail me. Even though I cant build the bathroom that dreams are made of, I have to make do with what we have. Just because I hate our current bathroom situation, doesn't mean I can't pretty it up to make it just a tad bit more bearable in the meantime.

 

I've been wanting to "decorate" this bathroom for some time as a way to make it a little easier to deal with its shortcomings. Over the weekend, I did just that. It only took a few hours (most of that time was dry time) and it only cost me about $50. That's about all the time and $$ this cruddy bathroom deserves anyways. #kidding #sorta

 

Without a whole lot of bathroom are that could be addressed, or much that I could actually change, I figured that zhusing up the boring apartment standard mirror would bring the most visual impact and give me the most bang for my buck. I thought about making a simple frame for the large mirror but decided to take it a step further and do something a bit different. I'd been on the hunt for some over sized frames to bring this vision to life but...I'm el-cheapo here, so it took forever to find a pair of frames that matched, were light weight, had visual interest, and didn't cost 8 million dollars. I know! A lot of must haves to contend with.

 

After several weeks of searching, and nearly scrapping this idea all together...I received this picture from my Mom:

 

 

She found these gaudy gold, plastic, oval mirrors at the Swap Meet for $15 a piece. Minus the mirror part, they were perfect for the bathroom project I had in mind! Aren't Moms the best? Yes...they totally are! Love, ya Mom! (We'll see if she really reads my blog after all - ha ha)

 

With mirrors in hand, I removed the paper backing, the mirrors, and painted the frames white. Don't forget to paint the underside of the frames too. The underside of the frame will reflect against the mirror if it's not painted too. Once dried, I used every renters best friend, 3M Command Strips for picture hanging. I positioned the strips all around the frame, and then attached each frame to the large bathroom mirror making sure each frame was centered over each sink. I didn't bother trying to measure exact placement, I just eyeballed it.

 

Ah, instant upgrade!

 

The only other items I added were 2 new clear glass soap dispensers ($12) and 2 new white hand towels ($8). We had everything else already. I decided to go with an all white color scheme because the space was so dark to begin with that it just really needed something to lighten it up and when I think of all white bathrooms, I think of spas and who doesn't love spas? Now walking into this dungeon every morning puts a little pep in my step.

 

 

The apothecary jars are dual purpose and I just love them. They house every day essentials like Q-Tips, cotton balls, an bath salts that just so happen to match the all white, spa-like feeling I was going for. They're pretty to look at and the clear glass doesn't obstruct or take away from the overall space. I love using pretty vessels to house ordinary items.

 

 

 

I brought in a little blue and white bud vase that I found at the thrift store a while ago and popped in some pink flowers for a punch of color. I've never had flowers in the bathroom before, but now...I'm a fan! It's impossible to be grumpy and crabby in the morning when flowers are around!

 

 

 

 

The last little detail of this bathroom refresh is this oval wooden tray. It was a last minute addition that didn't get photographed during my first round of shots but I found it in my stash and thought it was the perfect size to corral my bobby pins (in a cute dish of course) or small jewelry such as earrings or bracelets. The wood adds a much needed warmth and texture to the space and really rounds it off beautifully.

 

 

Not bad for $50, eh? A few thrifty finds and shopping your house can go a long way to amp up any space. Not being able to change much else, I think this is exactly what our bathroom needed. I'm now wondering why I didn't do something sooner in here and scheming up ideas for our much larger guest bathroom. Adding frames, whether they're over sized, chunky picture frames or from a mirror to a boring apartment standard mirror is an easy and temporary way to update your apartment rental bathroom without having to pay for the damage later! Using the 3M Command Strips makes it easy to remove with no evidence that it was ever there. Love those things! My only suggestion is to find a frame with a semi-flat back so that the Command Strips have a flat surface to adhere to. Also, use caution when removing the frames. Don't get all Hercules on them. Slow and steady wind the race.

 

Down the line, I may change out these oval frames for something more...dare I say...gender neutral? The filigree frames did go a bit girly-glam real fast and being that my boyfriend uses this bathroom too, I ought to find some chunky, over sized, rectangular frames that would put this bathroom back in the neutral zone. But...he's a trooper and gives me free reign, so until then, I'm hating on this bathroom a little less these days :)