Operation Decoration

My boyfriend and I just signed the lease on our first apartment! It's a gorgeous, spacious condo in one of my favorite neighborhoods right across the street from his work and I am SO excited. Excited to move in with my boyfriend, take the next step, blah blah blah, sure, but mostly I'm excited to decorate! (Sorry, Nick.)

You see, the room I currently inhabit is the same one I've had since I was born, and the same one that hasn't been redecorated since I was 13 (yes, my walls are still covered in Steven Madden ads). My freshman year of college, I moved into the dorms with three female roommates (and when I say "three female roommates," I mean, "three evil harpies"), but after my self-esteem was thoroughly drained, I moved back home and decided I was never going to leave. I did end up going to Hawaii for a semester with my brother and my boyfriend, but we lived in a condo that didn't even allow us to straighten a picture frame. So yeah, the interior decorating of my life has been stagnant for ten years (that sentence came out really intense, whoa).

Which is why I've forsaken my textbooks (I'm sure my professors will understand), and spent my first month's rent on a stack of design magazines as tall as I am. Blogs about interior design and art have suddenly become relevant and interesting to me, and Etsy is my new BFF.

I love funky, eclectic decor and pop art (Dharma's apartment on Dharma & Greg was and is my vision of perfection), so of course I had to have these Keith Haring wall decals I saw on Kingdom of Style:

$18, here.

And, again something I saw on the Kingdom (I swear I don't buy everything they tell me to, although if I did I would be exceptionally chic...and poor), this reproduction of a British WWII-era poster that was hung in the streets and meant to make the populace feel better during those pesky air raids:

I plan to hang it near my front door to make my friends feel better for having to leave my cozy apartment and head out into the rain.
About $7, here.

A Cup of Jo is another blog with which I've been borderline obsessed as I prepare for Operation Decoration. I've liked the site for a long time, but without my own place to decorate, Joanna's posts about chic design and affordable art had sadly been like those articles in US Weekly about how to get Jessica Simpson's ass: interesting and entertaining, yes, but not a reality in my life. Now, however, I've been scouring her archives with great delight. Homegirl's got maaaaaddd taste!

For example, this print:

$30, here.

And check out the article she wrote about affordable art. Lord knows I'm gonna sheep it up and buy some of her suggestions.

Over in Etsyland, my favorite find so far is this pillow, which will probably cause my mom to never visit me, but come on, it's our dear leader and Jesus, together at last!:

I know you're judging me right now, but I ask you to look deep inside your heart and admit it: you've never seen anything this cool.
$24, here.

The place is ours in a couple weeks, so expect lots of pictures and a whole new realm of Daddy Likey dedicated to design. In the meantime, please give a shout-out to your favorite design blogs, magazines, websites, etc. (don't be shy to plug your own!) in the comments section, or share your favorite sites/stores for rad home goods. Filling my walls shall be a collaborative effort!