Wordless Wednesday (Kinda)- Project Beginning

OK, so this one isn’t entirely wordless, since I’m going to give some backstory. One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to make my apartment feel more like home and I’m finally starting to follow through. Pretty much all of my furniture was donated to me by my brother and sister-in-law, so while it has the advantage of being free, I’ve been wanting to personalize it for quite a while. And you’ll get to come along for the ride! It’s going to be a pretty gradual process- changing everything at once isn’t in the budget- but I’ll be posting updates as I work my way through. My (fantastic) roommate has given me free rein since we have similar taste, so I get to really make it what I want! Here’s my plan:

• Put up sheer white curtains- I already had some spare sheer panels, and I just picked up some simple silver curtain rods. Manfriend will be bringing over his drill and installing those for me soon. I figured this would be the best mix of maintaining privacy while still letting plenty of light in.
• Paint tables/TV stand- I already have the supplies for this, and the two tables are currently hanging out in the back of my car until it’s warm enough to spray paint. They’ll be mostly white, but I’m going to try and stencil on a pattern in blue. Wish me luck.
• Add pretty bright throw pillows to the couch- honestly, I would get rid of this couch in a heartbeat. It’s massive, it’s dark, and it sucks all the light out of the room. Alas, it’s also the most comfortable piece of furniture to ever exist, so manfriend and roommate would stage a mutiny if I tossed it. I’m hoping that some oversized bright pillows will help shrink it and make it more visually appealing.
• Add some wall art- any suggestions for this? We have a beach pic over the mantle (that I took myself!) and this picture over the couch, but the rest of the walls are pretty bare.
• Take down the Christmas decorations- don’t judge us. It’s festive.
• Add lighting- the ceiling lights are super harsh, and the stand lamp could use some assistance.
• Anything else that I can think of!

Please forgive the potato quality of this picture- once I get my mitts on my nice camera I’ll attempt to take nicer ones. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

Starting point!

Any suggestions for personalizing a smallish apartment living room? My landlord is a total boss and has told me to do whatever I want, but I’m shying away from painting. Anything else goes though! I’d love to hear any ideas or tricks y’all might have.