By Request: Apartment Tour

A couple of readers have requested a tour of my apartment, so today I thought I would oblige. This post comes at a rather odd time though, because I'll soon be moving; Mark and I have got a place together! We just found out that we got the flat we wanted, and we're both really excited about it. More to come on this new adventure. In the meantime, I suppose it's fitting that I do a little tribute to my soon-to-be-former abode.

I put a lot of thought and energy into the decor of my apartment when I was setting it up 5 years ago, as it was a chance to start with a relatively clean slate and to use the skills I'd learned when I took several interior design classes at a local community college. My apartment is small, about 600 square feet, so I really needed to get the most use out of the available space. And more importantly, I wanted to create a vibrant, modern interior that was also welcoming and comfortable.

Upon entering my apartment this is what you see: the hallway and the bathroom at the end. Yes, my shower curtain has shoes and handbags on it; but of course! On the left is a bookcase with old family photos on top; to the immediate left and right (out of the frame) are walk-in closets, and the doorways at the end of the hall lead to the main room on the left and the dining room and kitchen on the right.

Walking down the hallway and looking back, you'll see the front door (my old spot for outfit photos until I got bored with it), and the doors to the closets (the largest closet, on the right, also has a door that connects with the main room). I've done a closet tour before; here are the links to those posts:

Part I: Closet Philosophy
Part II: Tops and Accessories Closet
Part III: Skirts, Dresses, and Shoes Closet
Part IV: Coat Closet

First I'll show you the main room, which functions as both the bedroom and living area. My goal was to create a cozy seating area and make it look distinctly separate from the bedroom half of the room, even though the two are literally inches apart. When you enter the room and look to the right, you see the seating area, with the TV and Charlie's habitat. That modern-looking perforated round table actually opens up and is Georgie's bed and crate.

Right now the room is far more packed than I would like it to be, in part because of this recent purchase (though there will be plenty of room for it in the new place):

Inside is a gorgeous 1920's sewing machine with gold Egyptian motifs on a black background. I found it for a steal of a price at a local antique store and could not pass it up; it still works and has all the attachments!

Panning left, you can see the rest of the seating area. The sectional sofa helps to define this as the living room, keeping it visually separate from the bedroom half of the room, which you can just see the corner of on the left.

Here's the other half of the room, the bedroom side. I used the hanging shell strands to further define this as a separate room-within-a-room. The shell strands (from West Elm) make a beautiful tinkling sound when you disturb them.

Looking all the way to the left are my bookshelves, another past outfit posing spot which doesn't get used very often because the lighting isn't as good. Those bookshelves (the Sapien bookcase from DWR) are brilliant for small spaces, because they hold a ton of books in a very small footprint. The bamboo wall graphics are by Blik. The round rugs, as well as the area rug in the seating area, are by Flor, which makes eco-friendly modular rug tiles that can be configured in a multitude of ways.

Moving to the other side of the entry hall, there is the by now familiar yellow dining room, which also doubles as my office area. I also stuck the refrigerator in there, because the kitchen was just too small for it.

As you can see I still have my old iMac as well as my new PC; when it came to it I just couldn't bear to get rid of the Mac, and anyway it has Photoshop on it, which I didn't want to have to buy again for the PC. So I hooked them both up, and now I use the PC for all my blogging, email, etc,. and the Mac when I need better graphics capabilities, such as editing the promo photos for the shop.

Finally, there's the kitchen, which you enter just to the left of where I take my daily outfit photos. As you can see I've mounted just about every type of rack, shelf, and hook available in order to keep my limited cabinet space as uncrowded as possible.

For more about that beautiful wall graphic, see this post.

That concludes the tour! It may be small, but it's been great little home for Georgie, Charlie and I for the last 5 years. In many ways I'll miss it, but the new place promises such delights -- including (drum roll)... outdoor photos!!