Get Mandi into my Living Room’s Liiiiiife!!

I may not have cute kids, but I have cute cats to sway the vote!

After minimal deliberation – and the O.K. from the bf – I’ve decide to enter my decrepit living room into Mandi from VintageRevival's “Yo Yo! Vintage Revivals Come To My House And Give Me An EPIC Makeover” Giveaway Contest!!  If you recall painting my living room was actually one of my New Year’s Resolutions, and – GASP – it’s almost May and it hasn't been done. I saw Mandi’s awesome-ly generous contest and thought "why should I paint by myself when I can get Mandi to help me?".  For those that don’t know, the queen of the thrift store glam and crap-tastic finds is coming to someone’s home to help them redecorate a room with the help of her fabulous sponsors.  Read more about the contest here and check out some of her amazing projects (Hello! She made her own RUG).

Now onto my entry!! I’m mentioned on this blog before that, as a renter, I’ve always been hesitant to make any big purchases or do anything drastic in my apartment.  As much as I love interior design there is this part of me that wants to wait until I own a house. But we have been here for a few years, and we will be here for a few more and our living room needs PERSONALITY and LIFE.  Mandi – if you’re reading this – this is where your energy and genius come in!

This is our drab living room.  We live in an oooold Brooklyn brownstone that went through some major refinishing before we moved in…but it’s definitely not in pristine shape by any means.  Advertised originally as a three bedroom apartment, my boyfriend and I actually turned what would have been one of the bedrooms into our living room.  It’s the front room that faces the sidewalk.  We actually keep our curtains drawn and our blinds down for privacy and also to hide the dirty white window sills.

The sectional is a super comfortable 3 year old couch, but clearly I went with a light beige color before I knew I would end up with three cute kitties that tend to sleep here during the day while we are at work.  We deal with this furry mess by covering it with sheets or towels most of the time. Sectional couch covers are basically impossible to find, and I’m not much of a sewer (things to think about Mandi!).

We’ve got some other mismatched tables, mirrors, chairs, and a piano in the room that are pretty much just lined up against the wall and serve no real purpose most of the time. We definitely need to rethink some of these pieces.

I know most people hate the TV being the main focal point in a living room, but hey, what can I say, it totally is for us!  We hung the TV ourselves when we moved in and had great expectations of cutting holes in sheet rock to hide the wires, but as you can see those were just dreams...

And last but certainly not least…the walls.  And the ceiling.  I actually should have started with these pictures for the pity votes!!  When we were looking at the apartment the first thing I asked was if I could remove the HORRID flower border. I was given the O.K. and it only took me about a year to get  around to removing it. (Well almost remove it, this section is still behind the door that we never close; but, out of sight, out of mind, am I right people?)

Now what is left is this terrible shiny greenish glue, and the occasional gap in the wall where some of the sheet rock came off with the paper.  Happy the border is gone; yes.  Loving what has been left behind, a resounding NO!

And due to some burst water pipes about a year ago – we have been left with these lovely water stains on the ceiling…oh, and the area where the ceiling falls away every winter from the hot pipes – also very classy.

While we’ve been living happily in this space for about three years, we expect to be here for a few more and we are ready to inject some PERSONALITY into this space. We need some serious painting projects going on in here, and who better but Mandi to come and stencil me up and give me some color and direction!

So vote for me and my drab, decrepit living room over at Vintage Revivals from May 1 - May 3 (think of it as your birthday present to me). This room is begging for a sassy makeover, and Mandi is the one to do it!  Good luck to the other amazing entries, but I think after these pictures we can all agree who deserves it the most!