The post with a tour of our apartment.

Since my blog has now been alive for about a month, I thought it was time to post a tour of our apartment. Some of the pictures have popped up in posts already, but now they're all in one place. There are definitely places in our apartment that we aren't a fan of but either can't do anything about (like the trim that has been repainted WAY too many times and never sanded down or scraped in between, so there are unsightly drips and bumps everywhere) or just haven't gotten around to it yet (like our bedroom). But there are spaces that I love, like my craft room.

So without further ado: a walk through Rick and Erin's apartment.

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Our front hall.
Not much is here, mainly because we don't have anything to put there--and we're hesitant to buy lots of new items since we will just end up hauling them to our future house in approximately two years. The white corner desk was taken from my parent's attic in a friendly furniture exchange program and re-painted for a place to display some of our wedding photos and mementos. We also added a basket to wrangle some of our loose mail that was, previously, stored conveniently on the floor.

 

Our living room.
The furniture in this room was 100% put together from hand me downs (the loveseat was free), Craigslist (the papasan chair), and yard sales (the coffee table and end tables).

I also whipped out my Betsy Ross sewing skills and made the pillow covers and curtains (although I cheated a bit and used no-sew fabric tape on the curtains because the sewing machine was just making the delicate fabric bunch and look all like some unfortunate Girl Scout project that I attempted in my youth).

 

I would love to learn how to do more advanced stuff on the sewing machine, since a straight line is about all this seamstress can handle at this particular time in her life and this pillow is calling her name.

On the other side of the room, we have a fireplace and an awesome built-in bookshelf. Unfortunately, the fireplace is non-functional and mainly serves the purpose of Resident Eyesore and/or Entryway for Bats.

We (meaning me) are pondering a way to cover it up, but haven't yet come up with something. I'm also trying to figure out a way to get the TV off of the fireplace so that it isn't functioning as flat-screen artwork, but Rick isn't going for that. In his words: "We paid a lot of money for that TV!" But I'm not worried. A little Wegmans sugar cookies here, a little bulk gummies there...I'll have that TV off of the mantle before he can say "Let's watch Minute to Win It in high-def." ;)

Our dining room.
Again, all of the furniture was Craigslisted (the table and chairs were purchased separately but look like they're meant to be together!) or DIYed (like this chair).

I wish we had before and after pictures of the table and chairs, as they were quite an unsightly bunch: the table was white with previous mint green paint undertones (yuck) and the chairs were--are you ready?--ivory with glittery gold trim. To make matters worse, the seat and back were covered with faded, stained floral fabric. We ripped off the back cushions for a cleaner look and recovered the seats with new fabric from Joann's.

Our kitchen.
We didn't do anything to our little kitchen except make these magnets to dress up the fridge. The room is small, but the cabinets have been updated and the tile floor is unlike any other floor that I've seen indoors.  I'd like to add a bit more of "us" to the room, but counter space is limited and wall space is even more limited.

Our office.
We spend a lot of time in here, so I wanted to bring some color to the otherwise off-white room. I chose sunny yellow and some small pops of turquoisey-blue to make the dreary space come to life a bit more, and we bought tile at a local architectural salvage store to brighten up the top of the black desk. Although the room is still in progress (there's a big blank wall that we have plans for), it is definitely more cheerful than it was before.

My craft room.
We rescued this narrow little area from being the inevitable dumping grounds for stuff that we didn't know what else to do with by converting it to a space for my projects. Before the switch, we affectionately (and so creatively, I might add) called it "the junk room." (Erin: "What should I do with these boots?" Rick: "Oh, just toss them in the junk room." Erin: (flings said footwear over the tangle of other abandoned objects and closes the door quickly). 

This problem was solved by ditching or relocating the misfit junk and bringing in a some furniture to define the space in the room. The table and chair were both super cheap yard sale finds ($10 and $5, respectively) and fit perfectly in the space. I should add, though, that the table, when we first saw it, had been the victim of some small child's unfortunate foray into painting, as it had orange legs, a brown top, and glittery purple and silver paint stenciled all over the legs and top. It was not pretty. And once again, I am regretful of the fact that we did not snap "before" pictures so that the table's former look could be forever immortalized, but, alas, this switch took place B.B. Before Blog. At any rate, we like it much better in its cheerful aqua color. :)

Our bedroom.

This is one room in our apartment that has gone virtually untouched--but not because we don't want to give it a makeover. The biggest challenge with this room is it's size and shape: it's actually not a room. It's the attic.

Angled ceilings? Check. Chimneys in the middle of the room? Check. But finding a way to make it "ours" without breaking the bank is absolutely on our to-do list. We have gotten the go-ahead to paint the yellow walls off-white, which will be an improvement. The room as a whole feels a lot like a loft to us, and it really is quite a nice retreat. I am especially a fan of the two walk-in closets that the room contains so that I can hide what I recently heard a friend refer to as "a pile of indecision." :)

Our bathroom.
We like the white fixtures that were used to update this room, and the tile floor adds some character, as well. You'll have to excuse the yellow-ish pictures: the only light for the room is artificial.

The open storage shelving (which is all that's in there other than the small medicine cabinet) was mind-numbing at first, since it became a dumping grounds for all things hairspray-toothpaste-deodorant-lotion and looked, well, like a shelf at Target after some person emptied their cart in the wrong aisle. Minus refrigerated products. I love when we stroll through, say, the electronics aisle, and find a package of cheese. You'll be happy to know that our bathroom contained no cheese. We do have certain standards here.

Anyway, to correct our issue, I brought in some baskets for organizing our toiletries and some glass bottles to more attractively wrangle some other items. Now, our open shelving train wreck is a thing of the past.

 

And last but not least: the polka dot room.
Off of our bedroom, we have another room used for storage/laundry (hence the clutter) that we affectionately (and, again, quite creatively) refer to as "the polka dot room." Why, you might ask? Well, ponder no longer. The evidence is below.

Apparently, someone who lived here before had a thing for large, navy blue polka dots.They loved them so much, they even thought to paint them on the ceiling.

They make me twitch. It's like walking into a carnival funhouse. Only there are no mirrors that make me look like a twisty blob.

When we re-paint our bedroom, we are also going to take our rollers to the said "polka dot room"--although I'm not sure what we'll call it once it's done. "Off-white room" just doesn't have the same ring to it. And it would be confusing, since every other room in this place is also off-white.

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So there you have it. A grand tour of our 1,500 square foot apartment. We really do think it's a neat place to live, and, since the house is so old, it has an immense amount of charm and character.

How about you? What do you like about your own living space? Have you ever faced a decorating tragedy such as a "polka dot room"? Feel free to share. :)