I usually have Fridays off - even if I end up typing up interview notes or checking my email, that takes two hours at the most - so I spend much of my time researching home decor on the internet. Since Gideon works Friday and Saturday, I send him links to projects or items I think we should buy."This looks cool!" I'll say.
"Yeah! We could do that." he responds.
While I'm sure he's excited about decorating our home, I get the impression that the constant influx of design ideas has quelled this excitement somewhat. There's also the fact that our cat is more expressive than Gideon is, but Gideon doesn't eat canned food or wake me up by rubbing his feces on my face so I'll call it a draw.
We had an impressively small amount of furniture when we moved into the apartment last July: an animal print futon, a full-size mattress and a kitchen table. To further emphasize how poor we were, I'll add that Gideon's grandmother donated two of these items and we made away with the mattress when we moved from Fayetteville and one of our friends said, "Eh, just take it with you."All that started to change after Christmas when my mother donated a large flat-screen television to us, a move that has helped revive my TV obsession. In February, she visited and bought us some wall art. (Have I said that I love you lately, Mom?) And soon after that, I found a $60 red-orange couch for sale on Facebook's local yard sale group.
We've also been working on the kitchen, adding a bright, floral tablecloth, a photo frame donated by Gideon's mother and a large drawing of an angry cat. The cat cost me $4 at a thrift shop and everyone seems to really enjoy it. See for yourself:
I was so unhappy with the decor when we first moved in because I grew up seeing a well-decorated home that I didn't have to put time or money into. (Thanks, Mom.) I didn't think I'd move into a place already decorated to my taste, but that doesn't mean I wasn't upset when that didn't end up happening.
Though we've slowly been acquiring items and have pretty much kept it budget-friendly, I fear I have more ideas than actions. I keep stumbling on these DIY lists and think how easy the projects look from the photo. Then I click on the link and see how you're supposed to make these things and realize that I am absolutely not equipped to upholster my own headboard. I mean, I once stabbed myself in the stomach with an x acto knife while cutting some stationary at work. I'm not sure I should be given actual power tools.
I saw this fun list of ways to use maps to create various home decor and thought it was probably a thing I could do. But after reading how to complete these projects - okay, this project, as I read only one before giving up - I realized that I could save time and money and probably one of my limbs by just keeping my eye out for inexpensive, quality finds.
Of course, that means that I will continue to send Gideon links to candlesticks and bookends and bed frames that we will probably never purchase.
It's such a sad situation that someone should set up a GoFundMe for him.
(No, really, don't do that. Just mail a check directly to our home instead.)
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