Settling In: Decorating our Rental

So we've been in Oregon for two weeks now. Of course my first item of business was decorating. Duh! It was all for my son though really. Ok, maybe not but he was my motivation to get us settled into this place and get it resembling our home in California as much as possible so that he would feel at home. I forgot that moving can be much more challenging for children with Autism. He has now started calling our new place "my house" when we drive into the driveway. Enough about him, here are the current pics of what I've been able to do with the duplex so far...

 Our entry way. I realized with downsizing from 1800 sq ft and a 3 car garage to just over 1100 sq ft and no garage that we would need to use every ounce of space as efficiently as possible. I decided the entry had enough room to slap this bookshelf on the wall so as soon as you walk in you see it. We stash our most regularly used shoes in the basket on the floor and then I have baskets and trays for keys, hats, scarves, gloves (its cold here!). I'm waiting on a wire basket to put on top of the bookshelf for even more storage and to add height. These ceilings are low. Missing thos 9 foot ceilings!

 Details on the bookshelf. My cookbooks didn't fit in the kitchen so they found a home on the entry shelves. The kitchen stove is literally right around the corner.

 Our living room has a fireplace that we don't intend to use. When deciding how to use all of the space I realized there was a 5x5 area to the left of our couch in front of the fireplace that was just open. So, I decided to stick my desk in front of it and use the space. We love having my desk in the main living area instead of in a bedroom because then I can be right there with G and/or Ryan. What do you think? 

 The built-in bookshelves were one of my favorite things about the place. I couldn't wait to decorate them with all of the little treasures I've collected over the years. I've never had enough surfaces to use them all, still don't. I will be giving away a lot of my decorating stuff because its just too much. The goal with this move was to use things I already had with decorating and to minimize expenses. I did sell my area rugs and some decor from the CA house so I have some decorating money but I want to reserve it for a new rug in the LR and more long term pieces like furniture (headboard, console, tv stand, etc). 

 Here is my gallery wall. I wasn't thrilled with it at first, not head over hills still, but I'm starting to like it and be ok with it. I'm sure it will change over time. This photo is a better angle of the desk space too.

Details of my desk. This will definitely be changing. This was a cheap investment to fill a random cut out in the wall of our CA house. I brought it with me because its "my space". We'll see how long this $50 piece of particleboard furniture from Wal-Mart holds up.

Here is a sneak peak of our master bedroom. I didn't have anything done on the room until yesterday I realized that I had this outdoor rug (its made of recycled plastic) that we weren't using outdoors. Again, I'm trying to use what I already have. So, its on a trial run. I have some other things around here that may help this work out perfect for our temporary home. I'm pretty much obsessed with woven baskets. Are you? I did invest in a few more and I love how they corral things and also add decorative beauty and textures (warmth in this application). I'm also testing out adding a 2 inch black grosgrain ribbon to the border of the white curtains. I have an endless supply of white curtains that we used on the many windows in our CA house so I'm trying to reuse them and change them up. 


That's it for now. I'm still working on the other areas and waiting for a trip to Ikea (probably tomorrow!). 


What do you think?


BTW I absolutely LOVE the white walls. Its so refreshing coming from a house that basically was devoid of white.