Decor: From This to That

Yesterday, we were lucky enough to be on the house call section of the Apartment Therapy website showing how we live in a small space with our large dogs. This prompted me to look back at our old photos to see how much our place has changed. It has only been a few years since A and Ms. M moved in and the transformation of our place from a bachelor pad to a home has been quite dramatic. This beautiful green paisley couch that Ms. M is sitting on was originally one of my prized possessions.That couch had been with me everywhere: from my first college apartment to my first condo. From the looks of Ms. M, it was one of her prized possessions as well. When A and I first started dating, Ms. M and I would share the couch and watch TV. She actually moved in long before A did.
When A moved in, she already had a couch she had bought on Craigslist. We actually got rid of the TV and added the second white couch, another Craigslist find, to make it more of a social area. We quickly learned our bullies needed limits and they were restricted from the couches, which was made easier when we got a bunch of huge floor pillows so they knew where to lay:

We realized you don't need traditional dog beds for the dogs to be happy. Even our foster dog was quick to realize the best place to lay.And we picked up a bunch of sheepskin rugs from Ikea for the pooches to hang out on.

During my bachelor days, I would throw epic b-boy battles in my living room, but

that space has been taken up by flowers, sofas, a rug,

and several upholstered cube ottomans, which Mr. B could use to separate himself from Ms. M.

Despite all the empty space that I had in my living room back then, I would horde everything in my bedroom. It was cluttered with everything from workout equipment to a desk and bookshelf. I used to live in my bedroom, even though I had a second bedroom and an empty living room.

To make the bedroom a restful place, A moved everything that wasn't conducive to resting out of the bedroom. We replaced the carpeting with hardwood floors, painted the room pigeon gray and changed all the bedding to just black and white.

I used to have a completely empty deck that I would barely use. Now during the spring, summer and fall, we pretty much live on our patio. We use the patio to do work, cook, eat, watch movies and even to take a nap.