home improvement, part one

Yesterday I mentioned that K and I were super-productive this weekend, and I thought I would share our first little DIY project with you! K had already crafted an awesome desk and a really cool door-turned-bookcase, but I didn't really assist in those endeavors so I can't even begin to take credit for them (I'll just say I was his muse...). But don't take my word for it! It's time for a quick round of "Look What My Boyfriend Can Do!":

Anyway, we had originally intended to build three sets of bookcases for our living room, but after lots of complicated math and lumber research, we determined that the project was way too expensive for our weak wallets. Instead, we bought some bookcases on the cheap ($25 each), assembled them, and painted all day:

(Side note: these are my "painting pants." I've worn them every time I've painted anything, from spreading tar on the basement foundation of my parents' house in seventh grade to the bright-red walls of my post-college apartment in Boston, and now this... it's nice not to have to worry every time about which pair of pants I want to risk ruining :)

And I mean all day. We went to Home Depot for a gallon of mustard-gold paint (only now I realize I don't remember its cutesy color-name) and spent the better part of a beautiful Saturday afternoon putting the pieces together, sanding the surface to enhance the paint's sticking power, and painting into the evening hours. After applying a second coat to all three cases on Sunday morning, they were finally ready to move into position on Monday evening. The paint definitely turned out a much brighter yellow that we had planned on, but that's okay!

We then lovingly lined the canary-colored shelves with our paperback friends (and other favorites, like my new elephant bookends):

Our orange couch is awesome, although this particular angle and this particular light do not particularly flatter it. Now all we need is... more furniture! Ultimately we hope to have a large Oriental rug under/around the couch, a coffee table, more seating, a side table and lamp... and the list goes on. At some point we also intend to put plants on the tops & around the bookcases. I can't believe how much space we have! We've come a long way from this:

(slapdash panoramic photo approximately to scale)

And the icing on the apartment-cake? The lovely nightly treat of fantastic sunsets through our bedroom window: