The view of our living room
As you may or may not know, I got married last year and a few months later moved into our first apartment in a new city. Both my husband and I had absolutely nothing to furnish it with. For many this would be a wonderful opportunity to start fresh, like having a blank canvas; but for me, an interior designer, it was a little more complicated. Although I loved the idea of getting everything new, I don’t know if you remember me saying this before but, it’s easier for me to help someone else with their space than to do my own, because I like too many things, a lot of different styles of décor and furniture, and way too many colors! It was not going to be an easy project.
A week before our move, my mother-in-law was a lifesaver and got us kitchen essentials. A day before our move we went shopping and got the basics: a mattress, bed sheets, pillows, a blanket, and towels. For a few months we ate all of our meals sitting on the floor, though this made dinners sort of romantic. The only piece of anything we had was a mattress on the floor. It was our sleeping place and my work place, where I did work on my laptop. Months later we got a dining set that was a hand-me-down from my husband’s family and then the dining table became my office until a couple of weeks ago.
The mattress on our bedroom floor
As part of our design and project development process, I’ve used the wonderful tool that Pinterest is, along with old school magazine browsing and online shopping. I’ve made some inspiration boards on Pinterest of different pieces I like. The good thing about those boards is that I have all those images in there and I can see them all at once and decide which ones stay and which ones go. Those boards have helped me tons. We’ve also taken a couple of 3-hour drives to our closest IKEA to get some pieces as well as doing some online shopping at great websites which have weekly sales events. Technology makes things much easier nowadays, but I still love to go through the pages of a magazine and stick on some post-its or tear out anything I like and make a record of it.
Little by little we have started purchasing some of the pieces I had pinned and our place is starting to look and feel more like a home. I have to tell you that it’s not easy being an interior designer, having an architect for a husband and doing your own place. We’re both very anal and design oriented in everything we do. Both of our design aesthetics are similar but different. He’s much more modern and minimal than I am, even though I am a modernist, but with a touch of warmth. I have discovered I kinda like some vintage pieces and I like to incorporate old with new. We both like mid-century-modern furniture, and have compromised in defining our home’s style: an eclectic-modern space with lots of personality.
The mess that would later become our home office
It still is a work in progress. We already have the big ticket items: couch, arm chair, tv media cabinet, dining set, sideboard, bed and nightstands, and we have finally started to create our home office (yay!). A couple of weeks ago we were thrilled to get a mirror for our dining room and a side table for the living room. We still need auxiliary furniture pieces like side and coffee tables, an area rug, lighting, shelves, window treatments, toss pillows (these last two I’m going to make myself!), accessories, art work for our walls and paint. Even though our apartment is a rental, we want to paint it to make it feel ours, even if when we leave we have to paint it back to the way it was.
It’s gonna take a few more months to have it finished, but I won’t despair. I’m sharing some of the before pictures of our place and will continue to share our work in progress, so keep reading for more updates.