To Paint or Not To Paint...

in our six years of marriage, we've moved seven times. in all those times, we've owned one house, otherwise, we've lived in apartments. i find it funny that through all these moves i still struggle with mentally thinking that my apartment is my home, being that we don't own it. in the midwest where we grew up, pretty much everyone owns a house. when we bought ours, i didn't hesitate for a second to paint all the walls, change light fixtures, buy the perfect furniture and do whatever we wanted to it to make it more our style and feel like our home. however, there's something about the potential temporary-ness of renting that always makes me think it's not worth painting and such to make our house more homey. 

when we moved in to our last apartment (our first place in NYC) we didn't do any painting because we thought we would only live there for six months...well, that ended up being our longest residence, we were there 2.5 years.

 every so often i'd think how i would love to paint or put up temporary wallpaper and buy new furniture yet it seemed like it just wasn't going to be worth it in the long run. one thing about living in apartments is that you never know if your furniture will work in your next space. it's very challenging justifying new furniture that you might have to get rid of in the next year or two if you move again.

where do you draw the line of making your place feel like home and be somewhere that you feel is your retreat (especially in this city, you need that escape) but at the same time you don't want to put in so much effort and money knowing that you could move to a new space in a year...

when we moved into this apartment a few weeks before the babes was born, we took the time to paint our bedroom a dark charcoal. i love love it! it definitely has helped me feel less of a renter and more like this is our home. we havent painted anywhere else, but i'm beginning to get the itch to do something. ideally i'd love to get rid of both our sofa and loveseat and get a cool sectional sofa. that might happen once viv is thru her spitting up faze. i would hate to get a new sofa and have baby spit up get on it. 

i love the look of wallpaper, however, one of the joys of being a renter, it's not allowed. if we paint, we simply have to cover it up with white before we move, easy peasy..

i recently found this etsy shop OliveLeafStencils with some of the coolest wall stencils i've seen so far. now they're all i can think about! there are so many possibilities, what's a girl to do! all you do is paint your base color on the wall, then paint over with your stencil with your second color. 

here are some of my favies i'm considering:

{how fun is this?! i'd do a simple color them and then color them in by hand over time, whatever colors struck my fancy}

{love this in the white and charcoal combo}

{can never go wrong with a good ikat}

{i actually gasped when i saw this one, LOVE!}

{this in white and a lilac would be beautiful}

{something about this funky fish is drawing me in. it could be really cool in the right space}

{although not right for our home, i think this is beautiful}

{this lily pad print would be fun in more subtle colors}

{fun art deco print}

my problem is with so many great and endless possibilities, i take forever to make a decision! with the terrible winter weather, and my impending cabin fever, fast approaching, it seems this will be a great winter project...

now just to make my decision...hmmm..

which is your favorite? would you put any of these in your home?

xoxo