When we first looked at our new apartment, it was hard to get past one thing: the awful, ugly mint green walls in the dining room. Because the space is so open, you can see it from wherever you sit in the living room, and I knew that it was something I wasn’t going to be able to get past. Not that I really wanted to paint… but luckily, my mom convinced me that painting was not as much of a hassle as I was making it out to be. We took the easy way out, and asked the landlord if we could paint the walls white. (As much as I love color, I also ADORE crisp white walls. And furniture. And actually? If I could have a totally white canvas then all of my too-brightly colored items would look even better!) So the weekend before we moved, my parents came up and the four of us painted the dining room walls white. And it made SUCH a huge difference; I only wish I had taken a before picture so you could see how awful it was before.

And as much as I adore the white walls, the longer we lived here, the more it seemed too empty. Too white. The fact that the table and chairs are white too didn’t really help. I have some ideas for how to decorate other spaces, and while I don’t want to NOT decorate, I also don’t want to go too crazy because I don’t know how long we’re going to be here and I’d like to avoid making extra holes/doing anything that might get us in trouble down the line.

And then it hit me. Tissue paper pompoms! I put them on my 30 Before 30 list last summer because I have absolutely adored them since I started seeing them everywhere on the internet way more than a year ago, but I never got around to it. (At just over a month into 30? This is TOTALLY counting.) Party decorations? How about all the TIME decorations? I wasn’t really sure I could convince Dan to let me make some to hang in the dining room, but I made a hard sell, because they are temporary, easy to make and hang, and most importantly, a simple way to add some color to such a big blank canvas.

(the tissue paper is from Target. I’m sure you’re shocked.)

(the first one definitely wasn’t the best, but I don’t think anyone other than me would be able to tell.)

Dan surprised me by agreeing to the idea, as long as I didn’t make pink ones. I’ve had the supplies for a while, and once I heard that the hurricane was coming, I knew the universe had aligned to make it happen. After we ate our power outage pb&js, I sat on the floor next to a window and used one of our trusty Lack end tables as work space. It was the perfect power outage craft, and I cranked out six of them before I realized it was probably time to stop. (I even made a pink one). I used Holly’s tutorial, which was super easy to follow.

(working with the wire is a pain, but it does the job so easily.)

(power outage snack: baby goldfish crackers!)

I even hung them up in the semi-darkness during the hurricane power outage, because once they were done I was WAY TOO excited to wait. (Dan actually never commented on the pink one.) I hung them using fishing line and the tiny Command hooks I buy every year to hang Christmas lights, and you can’t even see the fishing wire or little hooks from a distance.

(one day I won’t be too lazy to tidy up before taking pictures like this)

Overall, I don’t think I could be happier with this project. It’s fun, bright, and cheery, and if I get sick of them? No big deal. (But I really don’t think I’ll get sick of them.)