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I can without a doubt say that the best money we spent in our condo was installing our built-ins. I mean just look at this before & after…
These babies were not cheap, but they are the main focal point of our entire condo. They definitely upped the value of our home, they have lots of storage in the bottom cabinets, and they have plenty of little cubbies to show off our favorite decor items and precious memories.
All in all…MONEY WELL SPENT.
Tweaking the Built-ins
This area of our home really hasn’t changed much since I last wrote about them back in March. But I did recently swap out the silver hardware, for some matte black knobs and I’m loving this small tweak. 
When the carpenter first installed the built-ins, he told me to have hardware ready to go and he could install all of the knobs on the cabinets that day too. But (as you guys now know) I like to reaalllly think things through before I do anything…and there was just no way I was going to have my ideal hardware picked out and ready for him. Luckily, my mom had just re-done her kitchen and had plenty of silver knobs leftover so I used those as temporary placeholders.
Here they are…
They’re not bad, but they just weren’t my style.
It only took me about 9 months of living with them to make the switch to ones I liked much better. 
These matte black ones remind me of the black hooks next to our bright white board and batten in the hallway. And they also go with the black legs on our new marble kitchen table. I’m trying to incorporate more hints of black through our home, and this is an easy way to do that. 
They’ve also got a contemporary style, and (my favorite part) they were relatively inexpensive. Which is great when you have to buy 8 of them.
I’ve also made the shelves a bit more minimalistic, and a tad less colorful. Sometimes open shelves like this can look pretty darn busy, and it’s important for me to only display items that I absolutely l-o-v-e. 
I’m still searching for a new couch and the struggle is real. A light gray, contemporary (yet comfortable) sectional that won’t cost me an arm & a leg. Hmmm…still haven’t found the perfect one! I’m very open to suggestions!
But until I find the perfect sofa, I’ve upgraded a few of our pillows & throws. The gray blanket is from West Elm (it’s out of stock, but this one is similar) and I adore the little tassels on the end. 
And our blogging friend Danielle (from Danielle Oakey interiors) has a new pillow shop! 
Don’t you just love this black and white mudcloth one? The quality is unreal.
To be perfectly honest, I know these built-ins will never truly be “finished.” Instead I will be constantly arranging and re-arranging them until we move out someday. But it’s just so fun to have such a large “canvas” to play!
It’s crazy to think how much this entire large room has changed over the span of 1 year. Let’s hope the next time we chat about this space, I have a little more clarity when it comes to the couch situation. We’ll see…
Casey
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