My Old Apartment

This house is my third residence within a year. A year! A year ago right, now we were still engaged and planning our wedding. I was living 15 minutes or so from John, close to DC. I got that apartment when I graduated in December 2007, while he still had a semester left of school. For the year following my graduation, I lived on my own for the first time.. and in the ghetto.

The nice part about living on my own, was that I could decorate however I wanted (within budget restraints of course). John still pretty much lets me decorate however I want, but he for some reason thinks that he gets input- the nerve!

My (very blurry) bedroom:

RED! silk curtains from Bed Bath & Beyond clearance pile. The curtains were insanely on sale (like $8 or 10/panel) and then I had standard BBB coupons for each panel, PLUS a gift card.

DIY headboard made from extra clearance curtains.

The dining room:

I stuck my desk in the corner of the dining room. And my landlord let me paint whatever I wanted, so I made a red! wall in the dining room. It wasn't quite the right color (too pink), but it was $10/gallon Wal Mart paint.

DIY artwork above the table. These were actually one of my studio projects. Notice the orange collage is missing? I don't know what happened to it between 2 college apartments and this one. I have it now and will be hanging this series in the house somewhere.

Also- the table and chairs were a Craigslist find- $100 for the set and the table expands to seat around 6 people nicely.


The living room:

When I moved in, I had zero living room furniture. I found a sofa/loveseat set on Craigslist for FREE! from an older couple. It was clean, COMFY and in good shape, but UGLY. I got microfiber, Scotchguarded slipcovers from Target for around $200.

Also, for Christmas, my mom gave me an IKEA Poang chair and an ottoman whose cover flipped over to be a table. If all else failed, I had a chair and something to eat on.

The loveseat with pillow fillers from IKEA. I hadn't made covers for them yet when this pic was taken. You can see some of the extra fabric from the headboard/curtains on the back of the loveseat. The end table was given to me while in college from a family friend.

The display over the loveseat: 3 boxes that my dad made me to store CDs while in college. I repainted them black and stuck a wicker ball thing in each. Underneath is a cheap display shelf from IKEA with some red tealight holders.

The sofa. With a tiny picture above. Hey- it was all I had and it filled a blank wall.

Eventually I found some curtains. I wanted them to have red in them and the walls were a khaki/tan color. These were from Boscov's wicked on sale. My mom ordered them and sent them to me since we couldn't find them in the store while I was in NY.

The red chair my mom got me. And Suzanne Wang. The TV was free from a friend at school who graduated at the same time as me and didn't want/need it anymore. The TV stand/entertainement center was free from his parent's house too!

My exercise bike lived in the living room.

The pillows after I made covers for them. I reallllly wanted to make the living room curtains from th black fabric, but it was $8/yard and I needed so much that it would have been too expensive :(

The backs. Notice the red curtain fabric again.
The other red back is from a pillowcase that I had lying around.

Apparently I never took pictures of the kitchen, bathroom or closet. I stole some from the landlord's picture site though. He took them after I moved out, so they are unfurnished.

My itty bitty galley kitchen! Originally when I moved in, the stove was right next to the fridge. We slid it over & put the garbage in between them. I also got a heavy duty metal shelf from IKEA and put that over the stove. I stored my pots & pans on it.

The kitchen base cabinets and counter (on the left) were brand new when I moved in. That was awesome.

The linen closet. It also stored bathroom items (makeup, etc), pantry items/canned goods/flour, paint and tools.

From the bedroom to the living room.

The walk-in closet- it was HUGE! I also kept my sewing table in there.

One of the corners of the inside of the closet.

And there you go.. my first and only big girl apartment.