the one year (re-decorating) itch

Will and I have lived in our apartment for just over a year now. When we moved in, I decorated our dining room, which opens to the living room and kitchen, with turquoise and black accents. However, it never got much attention beyond some artwork above the dining room table. This was the dining room last August.

the art was created with prints from Ikea, and color blocks using leftover paint from the living room accent wall color

A year of living in the space has taken it from sparse to cluttered mess. The table became one part desk for Will, and one part dumping grounds for mail, paperwork, school papers, and other odds and ends. In other words, not pretty, not usable, and definitely not creative. I usually make sure any area I'm taking a picture of in the apartment is clean and tidy, but for the sake of full disclosure and to show you what I'm working with, this was our dining room yesterday:

...a total mess! Definitely in need of some attention. Here is my list of things I would like to tackle to make it a better place to be, both functionally, and aesthetically. I also need to address these things on a major budget. The colors will stay the same since I'm working with an open space connecting the kitchen and living room, which have turquoise in various shades, with hints of green apple and yellow, and black accents.

• Layout: I'd love the dining room table to be in a location that gives more space for chairs to move in and out. Plus I just like to mix things up every once in a while, so I definitely want to move furniture around.
• Clutter: Get rid of what is there already, and come up with a plan to keep it from piling up again. Also, find a place where Will can use his computer so he doesn't need to worry about moving it all the time and the dining room doesn't become the office.
• Window treatment: Right now we have vertical blinds. They're provided by the apartment, so I deal with them, but they are ugly. I just recently noticed they're easily removable, so I'm definitely planning on taking them down and replacing them with something else. My requirements for the new window treatment is that it is (1) pretty and (2)inexpensive. Will's requirement is that it still provide the privacy that the (ugly) vertical blinds provide. 
• Furniture: I don't plan on buying anything new. I'm going to use what we already have, but I would like to dress it up.

Stay tuned over the next week to see how the design unfolds and comes together. I've gotten started on the first few projects and I'm excited to start sharing them!