apartment tour
We might have moved in 3 months ago but it’s better late than never, right? I’m so excited to finally share my (okay okay… “OUR'“) vision for the apartment! I’m proud of Keith and I because we really utilized every square inch of the apartment. All 850 sqft… We have a dining area (Ashley Furniture discontinued the set we have 😕), kitchen, bar, island, office, living area and balcony!
I have to say Keith and I worked really well together to make the apartment feel like a combination of the two of us. It happened so naturally and we worked well together as a team! It was such a fun experience and I can’t wait until we can do this all over again for our future HOME -- even if that’s a large condo in Lincoln Park (we’re not a traditional family lol).
When I first moved in Keith had also just moved in and he had these horrible couches. Think, “Year 2010 mancave with brown ‘leather’ + cup holders and wait for it… automatic recliners”. We had just gotten back together so I said I could handle it. Then 2 weeks went by and Keith called me out of the blue while I was out of town and said, “I just realized if we keep my couches I’m going to have to hear you complain about them for the rest of their existence”. I’m glad he came around to the right idea… my idea.
We went to West Elm for our couches. Originally I wanted a cloud couch and he wanted a super modern stiff couch. This was a great compromise. The Harmony Sofa can be made to be “extra deep” to give it that cloud couch feel but, because I’m in a relationship, we compromised on the standard depth. We also had just recently gotten a puppy so we knew we needed to pet-friendly material. We chose light taupe.
The surround sound and tv were all Keith and tbh, I’m not sure how the hell he got that 72-inch tv to fit on the pole but I’m really happy he did. All of our walls are windows, we only have one wall in the living room so 99% of people use that wall to mount their TV. I hated that because it means you have to face away from the city when watching a movie! Gross. Now we can face the John Hancock building and the beautiful city of Chicago while watching TV!
The rug, coffee table and barstools came from my old apartment and matched perfectly. Originally we didn’t want a rug because we knew Stringer (our Frenchie) would have accidents. We tried it and it looked horrible, the rug was crucial for dividing up the “rooms”.
The barstools were my prized possession. To this day they are one of my all time favorite Amazon finds. I had 4 and actually sold them because I thought we didn’t need them at the new place. Wrong. I ended up buying two more for the same price that I sold all 4 for. That’s how much I love them. They also perfectly match the…
WALLPAPER. Yes you read that right. We have wallpaper in our apartment and it looks AMAZING. It’s from the great Joanna Gains. Keith reluctantly put it up but now says that wallpaper is his favorite part of the apartment! It makes the entire space that much more homey.
It wasn’t an easy process but adding wallpaper gives the room more depth and we picked a design that wasn’t too noticeable.
Next is our bar that looks like a piece of art.. Because it is! We didn’t want a dainty bar like most people have but we also didn’t want something that looked cluttered (again, not much space to work with lol). Keith found this amazing piece that actually opens UP into a bar!
It holds everything we need and at the moment we have candles on top along with our bar mats (so we don’t ruin the wood) but eventually, we are going to put an entire drink “system” on top so we can make fancy cocktails! I also want to add spotlights on either side and potentially two vases on either side filled with “wispy” plants (I’m not a plant person so wispy is the best adjective I can think of).
The office was the most fun to decorate but it was also where we disagreed the most. We searched HIGH AND LOW for a desk that would work in the extremely small space that we had. I saw ladder desks on Pinterest and became hooked. However, there are not that many variations of ladder desks that are available.
A lot of oak wood, which I hate. We already had a wooden dining table that was dark and dark wooden legs for the couch so we had to stay away from wood. There were literally no other options until we got to CB2.
Then, we found all black. Perfect. The legs of our barstools are black and so is the bar so it was pretty much a done deal.
I was worried about the amount of space I’d have to work and that’s when Keith thought of the computer monitor and mount. Now I have two screens without having to actually put them on my desk!
The last thing that is worth noting is the MASSIVE custom mirror we have on the only wall in the living room. The reason for the mirror is to make the room feel bigger. Plus, it’s nice to see the city skyline from every direction. Fun fact, we had another mirror the exact same size on the wall before the one we have now but it ended up falling… while Keith was in the bathroom.
He said that he heard a MASSIVE bang and came out to a mirror shattered on the floor… that’s like 7 years of bad luck, right? Whoops. The mirror we had wasn’t meant to be hung and we tried anyway (bad idea). So when we got the new mirror we made sure that it wasn’t going anywhere.
That’s it! Well, tbh, I could keep going but I know for a fact y’all are not as interested as I am lol! Comment below if you have any specific questions or if you want me to find something for your own apartment/home! I love design and would love to be a part of your process :)
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