Oh man, you guys, it’s been an exhausting two weeks. I took on a design project that ate up a ton of my time and ended up being a complete disaster (lesson learned: if someone won’t give you a specific budget in dollars, ABANDON SHIP), my new semester at school started (which is awesome but time-consuming), and I’ve had a mis-diagnosed sinus infection for two freaking months that finally decided to try to kill me this weekend. I’ve been basically dividing my time between staring blankly at homework assignments, explaining that HGTV shows are not an accurate depictions of the design process, and falling asleep while watching Top Gear. I finally acquired some nuclear-strength prescription pills yesterday and I’m feeling a little better, but I’ve totally been been neglecting the one thing in life that truly matters: this blog. And also my living room.

I’ve already been up for five hours today, which is apparently a pretty hard limit for me right now, so this is just going to be some quick pictures of where I am with the One Room Challenge (which I definitely will not finish by next week.)

Before:

Currently:

OMG SO MUCH BETTER. The rug and the curtains make SUCH a difference. I am so upset that I put up with that tiny pink rug for so long. I relocated one of the blue chairs to the bedroom, and the second one will be going in my roommate’s room once I figure out my indoor patio chair situation. (I’ve been hounding a woman on Craigslist all week who ostensibly wants to sell me one but only answers like 1 out of 5 texts I send her. I have a theory that the Venn diagram of people who sell furniture on Craigslist and people who would thrive as DMV employees is basically a circle.) There’s still a lot to do–throw pillows and artwork and decluttering the tv stand and figuring out where to store the sewing machine–but it already feels so much more peaceful and spacious in here. It’s not visible in the first picture (and just barely visible on the right side of the second picture) but the air conditioner cover I made classes up the space approximately 8000%, and it looks enough like a real piece of furniture that people keep opening it and being confused when all they find is a blanket-wrapped AC unit.)

If you want a better idea of the space, here’s a SketchUp model I spent way too long making:

Beyond just being vaguely narcissistic, it will come in handy if I want to switch out furniture pieces or try to rearrange things. Seeing the rope chair on there is actually making me lean towards something with a smaller footprint, like an Eames LCW (knockoff, obvs.)

I’m headed off to NYC on Thursday for five days so there is pretty much zero chance I will accomplish any of the DIYs I want to do in this room by the time the ORC ends next week. Oh well. I am so tired, you guys.

(Also, anyone have any NYC suggestions? I used to live there but I haven’t been back in three years and all of my favorite places have been converted to luxury boutique hotels at this point. So far my plans consist of museums and sandwiches only.)