Introducing Apartment 103

What a weekend it has been. Last Wednesday was our move in date to our new apartment. {Apartment 103} The apartment is a HUGE downsize for us! Going from a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, IKEA kitchen, 2 car garage and full basement house.....to a 742 square foot apartment - WOW!!! Moving day itself was fun. A friend and my uncle helped Cody & I move. I had really gotten rid of a lot of stuff. They all teased me all day about all my "bookcases" and furniture. They did not see how I was going to manage to put everything into a 1 bedroom apartment. I kept telling them to trust me.


{Boxes at the house before we loaded the moving truck}

I had a layout of the apartment that I had been studying for 2 months! I was well prepared. What I wasn't prepared for was all the unpacking. With the apartment being so small, once everything was in it there really wasn't any room to walk! The first few days were very stressful. Tripping on each other and everything. We kept losing our car keys and shoes. I just had to make myself focus and do one room at a time.

The one thing I forgot to do was bring my camera with me! I wanted to take photos of the apartment EMPTY. Sadly I didn't get to do that. So, I have pictures with just a bunch of stuff and boxes. Here is a photo of the hallway taken from the living room....



The hallway was blocked with boxes for the first 2 days. We would just walk around into the dining room and go through kitchen when we needed to get to the other rooms. In the picture above you can see my MALM dressing table that I had in my bedroom at our house. I actually did give that away. We ended up really not needing it. It wasn't functional enough for me to justify losing a whole wall in my bedroom for it. We also gave away our treadmill that is in that photo. I had high hopes of running on it a lot while Cody went to boot camp! Again, I couldn't justify losing space in the walk in closet for it. Those were the only 2 things that we didn't keep.

As far as decorating the apartment, this is a lot different then anything I have done before. When we purchased our house I bought all new stuff and had a design plan for each room. The apartment is just a combination of all the things I have collected over the years and the things I felt were worth keeping. As I unpacked the last few days I basically decorated the rooms as I went. I have not decided if I am going to paint or not. Now that I am here and my stuff is in the apartment I would love to paint it all a light shade of pink. With all that said here are pictures of the apartment as it looks today! We'll start with a photo taken from the entryway looking into the living room...





I plan to change my painting that is over the sofa. It reminds me to much of the house and I really don't want a lot of black & white in the apartment. Basically I decorated the room with Cody in mind. Okay, not all the pink and girly decor, but I have a lot of photos of us together and my love print on display. We are going to be apart for 8 months and I want to feel like he is still there. {Even if its just the 50 thousand pictures I have of us plastered everywhere!!} I love my bookcase from IKEA! I displayed my favorite vases, Marilyn Monroe books and photos of Cody & I in the bookcase. It took me almost 2 hours to arrange everything in a way I finally liked...


End table & Billy Bookcase display

Here is a picture from the corner by the bookcases looking into the front entryway...


Another shot from the bookcase corner, looking at my "office" wall...


As you can see I am using a end table as my desk. I will be purchasing a desk in the next few days. Unfortunately the desk I had wouldn't work on this wall. Below is a photo of the wall we put the TV on. It is directly across from the couch. We may hang our wedding picture above the TV. {Again, another photo of Cody & I! lol}


Lets move onto the Dining Room Area. I found a place for my vintage pink cabinet! I placed it in front of the window because I wanted my plants to get a lot of light.




Cody hates my pink cabinet, but now is happy that I kept it! Since storage is limited in the kitchen the cabinet is giving us extra space! It is functional and decorative! Woo-Hoo!


I ended up not using my vintage round table in the dining room. It took up way to much space. It will be put in storage for now.



Above is my $20 bookcase from an antique mall. I am not really happy with the way I have things displayed. I plan to redo it. I kinda just threw everything on the bookcase. I think the bookcase would be pretty painted pink or yellow. We'll see!


Here is a photo looking into the kitchen from the dining room...


I did not intend to have a "Hello Kitty" kitchen, but the kitchen ended up being a perfect place to display my hello kitty collection...


I used vintage vases to hold my teabags and the pink canister holds doggie treats!


That is the tour for today! I will share pictures of the bathroom & bedroom another day! I am still working on unpacking stuff in the bedroom.

*Moving*

Well Wednesday September 29th is our moving day! I can't wait to take photos of the apartment and post them. We are really excited to move into a smaller place that is much easier to take care of! Less house work makes me happy. No more home improvement projects, just happy decorating!!!! I have a lot of ideas for the apartment but nothing is set in stone yet. I plan to NOT buy new things, just use all that I already own. We'll see. It will take me forever just to unpack everything! That is the 1st step! We are setting up our internet tomorrow, so it won't be but a day before I post pictures! lol :)

Arrangement by Jonathan Adler

Jonathan Adler inspires me more and more everyday. I have been looking at his designs daily to really see what draws me to his design style. I find that most everything that I love about interior design he has incorporated into the spaces he decorates. I stumbled across an article that he wrote about arrangement and found it very helpful. I wanted to share it with you!



I think when you have a pile of stuff and you start to place it on a dresser or in your bookcase, it can be very overwhelming. Hopefully these images and Jonathan's advise may be helpful to you and myself! Enjoy :)

{Artful design is all in the balance}

For arranging, this means juxtaposing silhouettes and colors – highlight differences between pieces or draw out their similarities.

Start by establishing framing

Items in a room or on a surface should be composed as you would paint a canvas, with scale, sequencing, and balance conceived from one specific vantage point. Consoles, bookshelves and artworks are generally viewed from a frontal perspective, while furnishings – such as dining room tables and coffee tables – are viewed in the round and should be accessorized accordingly.

1. For fool proof arrangements, start with SYMMETRY.



A pair of blue glass lamps anchors either end of the white dresser to establish the tone. Although the lamps are different sizes, symmetry comes through the repeated color.

I balanced the different lamp height by pairing the taller one with a shorter cluster of objects – and vice versa.

Hang plates in unusual locations to fill up white wall space and round compositions.

2. Symmetry is the easiest and most logical way to accessorize, while ASYMMETRY is more challenging – but also more fun!



Here, I grouped numerous items into series of little moments: one book is propped up vertically, like a painting; a stack of plates anchors a bud vase; another vase gets a lift from a Lucite box; etc.

3. Mix SYMMETRY and ASYMMETRY



One half of the tableau is arranged symmetrically, the other half is asymmetrical. Look at the overall composition, but break it down into constituent parts.

SOURCE: MSN
Visit his website: Jonathan Adler

MOSAIC - September 2010

My Life Recap / September 2010
*Visited the Cincinnati Art Museum
*Still waiting to sell our house officially
*Watched Season 4 of Dexter
*Cody finally got his boot camp date & job for the Air Force
*Moved to our apartment
*Visited the Air Force Museum
*Planned another vacation to Disney World

My Carebears

I collect many things. One of my favorite collections that I have are my vintage Carebear stuffed animals. I got them all out so I could snap a photo of them all together...


It looks like I have a lot, but there are still many of them I need to complete the collection! When you have things packed away it is hard to remember what you have. These pictures are going to help me a lot! :) I really need to start hunting them down again...




Most of them are from flea markets. I have been lucky though and found about 5 of them at the thrift store! I think one of them was only 29 cents!

Inspiration: Bookcases

I have a lot of bookcases going to my new apartment and I can't wait to start displaying my stuff!!! I am in love with the image below!

Image source: Odie et Amo


Image sources: Xjavierx's {flickr user} & Apartment Therapy

Image source: Elizabeth Ann Designs


I can't wait to start decorating my new place! :)