Late December will be a year in our new home. There was so much to do in this first year. We took the popcorn off the ceilings, painted the whole living room, entry, kitchen, dining, hallway, and two bedrooms walls. Then we took a much needed rest for our bodies and wallet. Weekends shortly got filled again with home projects and we got back at it, painting the two bathrooms- cabinets and walls and all the kitchen cabinets. We replaced the hideous 1990’s era generic tan brown, somewhat intricate pendant for a more simple, cleaner-lined, industrial black pendant. We took our homemade dining room table designed for our old apartment (It was long and skinny, I think around 90″L x 22″W) and took it apart and reworked it to fit our current dining room (a less skinny table at 84″L x 34″W) and we loved the finish product! We stained it a little lighter by accident because we picked stain in states of exhaustion. We both didn’t like it at first but were way to exhausted to sand it and stain it all over again. Slowly the color grew on us and we started to like it and we soon added chairs that we much debated over before buying. We have made a few picture frame skinny shelves for the bedroom and dining room. We made a nice long shelf for the entry way and my office. I have been a little precious on what I have put on the walls -art wise, so far but a few have made it through! Here are the small changes I want to make to the living room and then it will feel done, for at least a little while…

Looks like our living room’s list is shrinking, which is good news! The only things left are:

• Add recessed lighting (Throughout our main living spaces)

• Add removable wallpaper to break up all the whites. Not too loud, more a subtle texture-ish design. I really like the wallpaper this company makes.

• We NEED new curtains. These were from our old apartment. They are over 10 years old, too short and white. We need a pop of color here. I am thinking of these, in the blue color, I want them to have a French pleated look, (I need to figure out how to do that) and I want them to hang by black rings, where they just hit the floor. We also need a new rod the one we have now is nice (from restoration hardware $$$) but the width of the rod is not long enough.

• Right now we have our blankets/throws in a storage ottoman. We don’t really use the ottoman except to collect entryway stuff like purses, gym bags, jackets, groceries and the like. I have a better solution for that but that’s a different list, so we will save that idea for later. I want to get rid of the ottoman (love it but don’t need it) and make a blanket ladder. I am thinking of staining it flat black, with a not so shiny sealer. That will be an easy weekend project.

• I want to give our couch a tiny makeover. We use the pillows we got to pick out that went with the couch. I didn’t know at the time pillows came with the couch and there were hundreds of swatches to choose from. We had been in the store for a while and were both getting anxious to leave so I blindly chose three pillow swatches. Don’t hate them but don’t love them either. I like the pillow selection here.

• Lastly, we need a new media console. This console is at least ten years old but I think it is even older. It is actually meant for the dining room to hold dishes and stuff like that but when we were buying this televisions were changing – they were getting slimmer, to hang them on a wall was a very new idea. We wanted something slim and sleek. I loved this for the time we had it but I am ready to look at something new, preferably open shelving – so I can style it with some of my favorite books and some plants, a few odds and ends. Plus, there are so many options out there. Here are a few that are on my radar:

It will take us a while to narrow down our choice, we hold on to things for a while so we need to know that we are going to really love it. Starting from the top left and ending with the bottom right:

• This is my top contender!!! It is light, great for some special pieces, and has open shelves!

• My husband really likes this one. It’s nice but it doesn’t have any open shelving.

• This one is right up my ally. It is a little short in the length. I was looking for something a little      wider than this but this would be great in a small space.

• This is my second runner up but it is not open shelving so… it might not make the cut.

• I like the idea of this. The more I looked at this I realized it would actually be perfect for our bedroom. I bought these a while back and think they would look cute on the shelves. I would need to do some measuring to see if they worked. But this is a possible contender for the bedroom.

• I found this one by accident and love it!

• Is it okay to call a dresser as sexy? This one is and I am in love with it.

• This one is so unexpected – the doors open/close from the top instead of the side . I don’t like it as much when all the doors are closed but you can switch this up to make it a little more interesting. You can leave them open and then decide to shut it when you want a change. Or you can have two open and one closed or vice versa. You have the opportunity here to change your look up a bit without actually changing your furniture which I do like. I checked it out in person and kind of also love it.

• This one goes with the style of what our place is turning into the most. It has the warmth of the wood but the sleek of the metal.

Since it is the weekend between Black Friday and Cyber Monday there are so many great deals right now. Which media console are you?