DIY's have started!

Hey y'all!!

I have officially spent my first weekend in my new apartment! *squeal* This is such an exciting time. I moved in this past Saturday with the help of my awesome family and of course Sammy! I may be biased, but I want to say it was record time. I think we had everything moved in about an hour? Maybe two? Then the real fun began!

Mom and Sam stayed to help me unpack and begin decorating, which we all know is my favorite part. We went to the store and picked up some of the essentials (mainly creamer and sugar for my morning cup of joe) and began digging into some of the decoration boxes. I knew I wanted to get things done in my bedroom first. The walls are still a little more bare than I would like, but I couldn't look at white walls for too long without feeling like I was in a jail cell. I'll be sharing the bedroom a little later on. I'm still searching for a couch, so I haven't really touched the living room. I have a big chair that was slip covered and a foot rest in a corner, but that's about all. 

This post is mainly dedicated to a new addition I just put up last night in the kitchen. I'm too excited about it. I wanted something to hang my keys on, but also be an accent piece on the wall. I had this image in my mind from Pinterest:

I knew this was a little too elaborate for the space I had to work with and the book shelf boxes up top were completely out of the question. This was really just a dream space and that's not the kind of space I had to play around with. What I loved the most about this was the layering of pieces on the shelf. A simple shelf on the wall made such a statement! I wanted to put my own spin on it.

I showed the picture to my mom and I scoured the Internet for a shelf like this to buy. I couldn't find anything that I just loved and most of them were overpriced and out of my budget. My wonderful dad came to the rescue and made one for me! I'm in love with the way it turned out and everything came together perfectly.

It's 24 inches long and has a large enough shelf to layer a few pieces, including my beloved letter board. I dry brushed it with white craft paint and added 5 cup hooks to the under side. I'm thinking about getting some fancier hooks, but these will do for now! I found the two prints on Pinterest, here and here. The wreath and gold mirror came from dorm rooms and the 'L' tag came from my bedroom at home. I'm going to get so much use out of this!

Things are coming together slowly, but surely! I'll be updating y'all along the way, of course. Happy Monday, friends!!