Category: Home

We have a home office, we have a home office, we have a home office that’s a desk and a bookshelf and a laptop workstation! I hinted at a IKEA purchase in an earlier post this week, but I didn’t tell you what we were purchasing.

So, I’ll rewind. Remember back in September when the boyf and I moved in together? I made a great long list of all of the major apartment projects that were needed before our one bedroom apartment felt like a home. We checked off a number of big ticket items in the fall, like painting the living room, painting the bathroom, creating a dining room and a cozy, bright living room.

Somewhat strategically, we left one big huge corner of our living room empty until after the holidays. It’s where we housed our Christmas tree during the holidays, and a queen size aerobed in the months since when we’ve had visitors. But our goal was always to turn the corner into a home office of sorts.

Finally this past weekend we took the plunge and drove to IKEA. We braved the crowds, and the warehouse, and the big, huge, boxes and returned home with a great, big, awesome white desk (and bookshelf). We ended up purchasing the Expedit workstation. It’s pretty bulky, but our living room corner can handle it’s dimensions, and it’s the style we had been eying since September.

We set up the workstation the same evening and (unlike the living room paint color fiasco), we have no regrets. We both absolutely love it, and having a “home office” has already proved incredibly useful.

Now, it’s just time to decorate that beast! There are 8 cubes in the Expedit bookshelf that we purchased, but only 4 are visible (the other 4 are tucked underneath the table top).  Stay tuned to see how we fill the shelves, and decorate the wall above the desk!

There’s nothing I love more than quickly sprucing up the apartment with a bouquet of fresh flowers, so when my parents sent me back to Boston with planted paper whites, I died. I knew that not only would they look incredible and serve as a perfect holiday centerpiece, but they smell like Christmas! Pine needles, nutmeg, paper whites are literally my definition of the smells of Christmas.

Planting paper whites is one of my parents long standing Christmas traditions, so I’ve grown to love – and look forward to – the smell each holiday season.

What’s your favorite holiday smell?

Tonight after work, I returned home to find a large package with my name on it in the foyer. For about 30 seconds I was in panic mode, as I could not for the life of me remember purchasing anything online. But as soon as I read the return label, my panic subsided and a smile spread from ear to ear. The package was from L.L. Bean. I certainly haven’t purchase anything from there (no offense to Bean lovers), but then it hit me.

Every December (since I was a freshman in college), my grandmother has a holiday centerpiece shipped to my dorm or apartment. A simple way for her to make me feel at home. My mother even reminded me a few weeks ago, hoping that I would keep an eye out for the package, but how quickly I forget.

Anyways, the centerpiece is beautiful. In years past the gift, although incredibly thoughtful, has been a bit of a nuisance. College dorm rooms are small, very small, and I never had desk space to spare, let alone an empty dining room table. And more recently, when I did have an apartment of my own, well holiday decorations weren’t exactly on the top of my to-do list. But this year, well this year my apartment is special because it’s no longer just my apartment but our apartment. And we’ve put a lot of work into making it a home.

So it was a great pleasure setting up this year’s holiday centerpiece, sent with love from my Gram.

And what do you know? This year’s holiday centerpiece isn’t decked out in plaid ribbon like years past. This year it’s decked out in gold. Perfect, classy gold to match my fabulously gold Christmas tree.

I recently mentioned my high hopes for decorating our first Christmas tree with all gold ornaments. Well this weekend the boyfriend’s parents paid us a visit and during their stay they purchased said tree! We bought our first Christmas tree across the street at a small store and carried it down Beacon St. to our apartment. When the family was here we wrapped the little tree in lights and placed the gold star on the tippity top. But we saved the ornaments for when we were alone.

Sunday I added my arrangement of gold ornaments to the tree and I just love, love, love it.

In honor of it suddenly being December (absolutely crazy, if you ask me), I’ve been thinking about about how to decorate the apartment this holiday season. Holiday decorations can be a lot of god awful things: gaudy, tacky, overwhelming. So this year I’m trying to keep it simple with holiday decorations. And since I’ve been obsessing over all things white for our new apartment (I find it airy, clean, simple), I think it’s time to introduce a new color. Unfortunately I hate the traditional combination of green and red, and I’m really much more drawn to monochromatic decorating schemes, so I’m being somewhat boring, yet beautifully classic with the color gold.

This holiday season, I’m attempting to decorate our apartment with gold accents. The first step will be to decorate our Christmas tree with all gold. Inspiration was everywhere, especially on Pinterest.

Image originally found here on Pinterest.

But I shared the idea with the boyfriend and he kind of looked at me sideways with a look of sheer confusion on his face. Hence the word: attempted. So it’s time to strike a balance. A balance that appeals to my simplistic, classic, timeless yet modern taste (sorry, I had to), my boyfriend’s familiarity with big colored lights and an array of mix and match family ornaments, and finally, my boyfriend’s mother’s desire to bestow upon us a handful of those classic family ornaments.

An update soon on where we land with our very first Christmas tree.

In the meantime, tell me how you plan to decorate your home for the holidays! Are you a classic white lights kind of gal, or do you go for the colored lights? Lots of classic ornaments or just a simple string of red berries and popcorn?

Since we moved into our new apartment, we’ve made a lot of progress. There’s certainly still huge projects to tackle, like our entire bedroom, and a small ‘office’ but generally speaking, I’d say we’ve been busy getting cozy.

• We painted the living room, and then hated it.
• We added a new area rug, and a ton of amazing white throw pillows.
•  After a few weeks of still hating the paint color, we repainted.
• We scored a huge piece of wall art from the town’s biggest yard sale.
• We also painted the bathroom the most gorgeous shade of blue
• And added an amazing almost shag but not really white, fluffy bath mat.
• We topped off the bathroom with a lobster boat print in a large, white matted frame.
• We even pieced together my favorite part of the apartment: our new entry way gallery wall!

What we didn’t tackle… was a dining ‘room.’ Our living room is pretty massive, so we’ve always had it in our heads that the space would serve as a living room, dining room and office. I’ve also had it in my head that there would be a round, pedestal table, painted white for our dining space.

Photos found on Pinterest here and here.

Well, turns out pedestal tables are really, really expensive. And since I don’t have the patience to look on Craigslist every day, I went ahead and visited my good friend Bob. I found this bad boy in the Pit for $79. A dining room table, made of solid wood (something you can’t say about most things at Bob’s), that seats 6 comfortably. It came in a gorgeous espresso finish so without really thinking I bought it. In the back of the car it went!

We set it up immediately and added two circular, woven place mats that (I think) I snagged at Ikea awhile back. I have a few different sets of 4 and 6 place mats, for when we actually have guests, but in the mean time I like a table for two. I’ll eventually find a great vase or bowl for a centerpiece, but for now I like my tray, also most likely from Ikea. It’s holding a few of my favorite coffee table books, but they go back to the bookshelf during dinner, when I use the tray to carry dishes and bowls from the kitchen to dining table. It all works out.

By far, my favorite part of our dining ‘room’ is the rectangular framed print that we hung on the small side wall behind the head of the table. I bought the print from HomeGoods 3 years ago. Yup, 3 years ago. I saw the old skiiers and literally could not not purchase it. This picture… is my family. My grandparents and aunt and uncle’s home is filled with pictures, just like this. So the print could practically pass as a real photo from the family. I love, love, love it. And the dark frame actually goes nicely with the espresso wood and ties in the dark framed art over the couch.  A welcome contrast to all the white in the living room.

So there you have it. Our new dining ‘room’, after it’s first few days. Noticeably missing are… well, chairs. And the old, wobbly tree in the back corner needs to be replaced by something new.  I also plan to swap out the centerpiece like I mentioned before, and I’m considering installing a floating shelf on the long wall behind the table. So, more work to be had, but it’s definitely nice to have that corner of the room start to look alive.

Long live amazing gallery walls in apartment or home entry ways! I fell in love with the idea of building my own personal gallery a long time ago. They are beautiful, personal, easy to update and of course, visually intriguing. So, I recently started pinning annoying amounts of gallery walls on Pinterest for inspiration. Then my favorite blogging family over at Young House Love made it all the more simple by sharing this how to make your own gallery wall tutorial. Too easy to say no. So, I got to work.

I intentionally started with the smallest wall in our entry way. Didn’t want to overwhelm my newbie-wannabe-but-totally-haphazard DIY skills. I used all white frames because I love the clean, crisp look, but changed it up a bit with the size, shape and width of mat. I included a cute I <3 Maine print to honor our roots, a map of the MBTA to honor, well, our current roots, and a few extras to keep a whimsical and nostalgia inducing vibe. Like a Quotable Card about finding inner peace, and a family favorite black and white portrait of my late Nana. A colorful floral water color and an amazing hand painted owl add just the the right colors: red and marigold.

Oh yea, and I also caved to the boyfriend’s one and only request for our new apartment. I granted permission for the… mounted deer antlers, to enter and live… permanently in the apartment.

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I know it’s just the beginning, but I’m pretty darn pleased with the outcome. Next I plan to tackle the opposite wall, which is rather large and in charge and equally intimidating. I have a lot of ideas for prints, photos and art to hang, but I’m short on white frames. So for now I’ll keep looking for inspiration, and hopefully soon I’ll stumble upon a wicked sale on frames!

After we painted our bathroom walls, it was time to accessorize and call it a day. We’re using my old white, quilted shower curtain that I just can’t get enough of, and hate it or love it, I wanted to go with the all white look.  I read somewhere once that using as much white as possible in a bathroom will make you feel like you’re living at a spa, and heck, who doesn’t want to live at the spa?

Photos found on Pinterest here and here.

So I wanted more white, white, white. The first fix was the swap out the old gun metal frame around our wall art with something… white. White mat, white frame.

Then it was bathmat time. In addition to white, I wanted texture. You can see down the hallway, into the bathroom from our front door way, so I didn’t want the whites to all blend together. Just like the white pillow cases, I thought texture would add dimension and contrast between the tub, shower curtain and bathmat. I had an image in my mind, but it was hard to find in the stores, so I shopped long and hard online. Despite everyone I know warning me against a white bathmat (all claiming it would get dirty, and be too hard to maintain), I ended up purchasing a few varieties online and waiting for them all to arrive.

My favorite ended up being the Simply Shabby Chic Cotton Ball bath rug. Weird name, amazing results. $25 and it’s far more fluffy than I imagined. It has also stayed surprisingly clean. It covers the area in front of both our shower and sink, so we both make an effort to drape it over the shower rod while we’re not showering, so our feet, and our visitors’ feet stay off the white when standing in front of the sink. It’s worked so far, and there’s always a washing machine, right?

Still to add include:

• a white vase with a bundle of white flowers and greens behind the towel next to our lonely cotton balls
• two white fluffy towels to the towel bar (just for show, since our towels hang in our bedroom)
• a white toilet seat cover (well, the jury is still out… something about this just skeeves me out)

Once those things are added, I’ll share an update. Hopefully with better pictures (took all of these late at night, boo).

I’ve always admired home owners and designers who can pull of festive and season appropriate decorations.  The photos are everywhere.  On everyone’s blog, on tumblr, on Pinterest.  I however, suck at this.  My parents brought me a pumpkin when they visited the apartment, and for a while it sat on my counter.  It’s ugly, and tacky, and orange, and doesn’t match anything else in the place.

So I threw it in the trash. I immediately regretted the decision when I saw Emily’s golden painted pumpkins.  Too bad.

I still wanted a way to bring something transitional into my apartment that just screamed fall.  So far, I’ve landed on two things: owls and fall foliage colored flowers. How original, right? Apparently white ceramic owls are everywhere right now. I didn’t know that when I stumbled across this cute little guy on the clearance shelf at HomeGoods.

But after situating him in the entry way, strategically near the awesome hand painted owl above, I started seeing white ceramic owls, everywhere.

1. http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/786380/list/Easy-Ways-to-Dress-Up-Your-Home-for-Fall/
2. http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/767823/list/An-Ode-to-Owls-Around-the-House
3. http://pinterest.com/pin/203038580/

Fortunately I don’t mind the fact that my white ceramic owl is following a trend.  I love him, and I love the trend.  So I win.  Now, for more fall decorations…

So apparently there is a lot to learn about keeping up a home.  Like washing the bathroom more than once every 6 months, and always keeping extra batteries on hand for when the fire alarm battery dies in the middle of the night and the beeping is so annoying you want to scream, and well, apparently, washing your windows.  Inside and outside.  I know that I’m just renting this apartment, so it’s not nearly as much work as owning a house, and no – this isn’t the first time I’ve lived on my own (7 years and counting folks). But something about living here, living with the boyfriend, something about this time feels like adulthood.

But no glimpse into adulthood would be complete without a ‘we’re here to lend a few extra hands’ visit from mom and dad. So… they spent a few days in Boston and helped around the apartment.  Dad built out two new custom closets for me, and mom – well mom told me that every single window in our apartment was absolutely, beyond words disgusting.  And that they needed to be cleaned. Immediately. Inside and out.

Okay, one quick look at the windows and I realized mom was right. As always. So while dad built out the new closets, mom and I popped out each window, one by one, and cleaned the heck out of them.  It quickly became apparent that this is not anything the landlord, his cleaners, or the previous tenants have done – for years.  While the pop out windows made the outside easy to access, this was a surprisingly long task.

Who knew being an adult meant cleaning the windows?  And who knew it took so damn long?