DIY: Upgrade apartment light fixtures

One of the frustrating things about rental apartments can be the hideous lighting fixtures. Ugh! Unfortunately for us, we are not electricians… future calling? In the meantime, one of our top apartment priorities was to hide our ceiling lights...

Pretty bad, right? We spent Labor Day weekend hopping around thrift stores in the Upper East Side looking for cheap lamp shades. HOLD ON. You thought we were talking about ceiling lighting, 

well… we are. 

We spent less than $10 on two lamp shades! Thank you people of NYC for kicking your old shades to the curb. We still had paint leftover from our walls, which added the perfect accents in each room. 

Richard's creativity and stubbornness lead to awesome results for hard to complete projects. 

After a few trips to the hardware store for odds and ends… and even a wine cork, he managed to get both shades hung in very little time. 

It's crazy how much light fixtures pull a room together. 

So if you are dealing with hideous light fixtures in a rental, don't fret. You can always disguise them with the magic of a lamp shade. 

Happy Thrifting! 

Ikea Hack: Blinds to Headboard

We recently moved to a new apartment in NYC. Closer to the express subway, my friends. One of life's greatest joys as a New Yorker. 

It had been over two years since we have owned a headboard. You know, one of those things that is necessary to really be a grown-up. The problem was, one would not fit in our last apartment. The closet sized bedroom, that we grew to love New York City in, through our slumber. Cup half full… we were holding on to our youth sans headboard. 

And then change happened, as it often does. We moved into a new apartment and realized our Ikea blinds would no longer fit our window. Hallelujah - larger window! It was quite the dilemma, seeking a headboard and trying to get rid of blinds. But then it happened, a thought of how we could save money (and the world?). 

We pulled apart those blinds, used the backing of our Ikea bar that was being stored in our closet and gorilla glued each piece down, in a pretty little pattern. Thanks to the invention of two-sided velcro… our dreams came true. Our new Ikea-hacked headboard was built for under $20, and under 2 inches of wall space. In New York City, space and money are hard to find… a true win in our book. 

Adulthood, you have been found. A headboard at last.

IKEA LINDMON Venetian Blind Brown