Sometimes I like to buy print magazines for inspiration. A few of my favorites are:
Having print magazines around also gives me material for making mood boards.
Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge makes an annual vision board to set the mood each year. I like the idea of doing something less literal like this. She also has a cool magazine called Good Company.
Check out our new boards on Pinterest.
Donnie finds a lot of inspiration in thrifting, which is how he developed his home office aesthetic.
This bookshelf took a lot of creative thinking to put together from various pieces. After we found the piano bench to act as the bottom shelf and the light fixture to act as the top shelf, we had to decide how to put them together cohesively (some screws and decoupage), and we fixed the wiring of the light fixture so it works.
With a little bit of vision and paint, this trash chair from the side of the road now gets daily use.
This stool was another thrift find brought back to life with a little glue, paint, and new upholstery.
Donnie’s chest only needed some paint to make it fit in the living room.
I knew what kind of headboard I wanted but couldn’t find it anywhere, so I made one from a DIY blog. (I would totally recommend doing this yourself, but you should put the zip ties in the pegboard before upholstering. Trust me.)
If you also have the very specific need to separate a piece of furniture just slightly from the wall, check out my bumper tutorial from episode 10.
Also, if you missed episode 13 about shopping your own apartment, that’s one of the easiest ways to get creative in your space for free.
We reorganize our bookshelf constantly for a fresh look with very little effort.
Check out episode 28 if you’re interested in hearing about my 30×30 clothing challenge.
Apartment 26 Podcast 