It’s official, we’ve made the leap from renters to home owners! Okay, more like a tiny jump, since it’s a condo. We will be moving by the end of the month, and of course I’m excited to finally have a place of our own and to be able to buy a can of paint. However, the move is bittersweet and I’m having a hard time letting go. But Kat, it’s just an apartment. It’s definitely an apartment, but I didn’t realize how much it felt like home until I packed away all of our things on the walls and it suddenly felt like just an apartment again.
We’ve seen a lot of great changes during the 3 years we’ve been here. Our best friends moved in next door right after they were married and now have two kids. My starry-eyed brother stayed with us straight out of the nest when he moved from California, and now he lives just a flight of stairs away with his wife and child.
For my own sentimental benefit, and because I love the clean version of my home immortalized, I’ve been trying to put together a tour of our apartment since we moved in! Every time I’ve been able to clean and style my house (or even a room) to the point of being picture perfect, by the time I’ve got a camera it’s been destroyed… Now you get real photos because that’s all I have!
Living Room Before
I love this night time shot because lighting really does change a room drastically.
Living Room After
We switched out our free TV with an even better free TV! We inherited it after babysitting it for my brother-in-law. The shelf was my birthday present last year, and serves as a happy ever-changing place for Jeremy’s books to live.
These air plants were a Christmas gift from my husband, who knows and loves me so well! Sadly, when I moved them to this spot only a month ago they got pushed to behind the TV, so I forgot to water them and they died. This post is dedicated to them and all the smiles they’ve earned.
This is probably the most frequently used piece of furniture we own. It’s Jeremy’s favorite spot to get comfortable. It’s where I fold laundry, and where the kids like to bounce around so I get to remind them how much I love this couch.
I love how even from this angle you can see Jeremy making breakfast in the mirror on this Sunday morning. I also love that I didn’t move the bike from the background, because this is exactly what it looked like!
Before we moved in, our landlord (a very sweet old man set in his ways) touched up the paint on the walls with a gloss finish instead of the original matte finish. It used to bother me every time I looked at this wall, so I tried to cover it up with some larger frames. Now that I look at this picture, it doesn’t bother me at all, and in fact I love that it reminds me of that sweet old man.
Entry Before
The most challenging area in our apartment for me to overhaul was our entry. Our internet was at crawling-baby level ready to be slathered on.
It was a magnet for clutter and toys since the kids played in the living room and I hadn’t committed to an entire room for our little girl. And of course what to do with the 70’s spindly room divider?
There was this unusable space with an entire wall of doored closets with a narrow strip between them that Jeremy just propped random stuff up against.
Entry After
The kid stuff went to a kid room! I decluttered and organized the closets so that Jeremy had room inside them so things didn’t end up leaning outside them.
I was so happy when Jeremy was finally ready to replace his dart board with our first professionally-framed piece. This is Frans Schwartz’s “Agony in the Garden,” which Jeremy loved when we saw it at the BYU Museum of Art’s Sacred Gifts exhibit. I also thought it was a plus having a place to hide our unsightly Wifi and shoes, and finally have a place to lay my diaper bag and library books every week.
We were pregnant with our second child and I was nesting when I forced myself to figure out where to put an office. This combined entry/office was the perfect solution and looks so inviting when I walk through the door! I don’t mind doing bills or spending late nights working here. I’ve also grown to love that 70’s spindly mess, as it’s provided a ledge for me to display and change my featured artwork for parties or seasons (much like a mantle).
Kitchen Before
Most of the transformation in the kitchen was
inside the cupboards and on top of the counters. This was in the middle of my purge, but the counter pretty much looked like that normally!
Kitchen After
The toaster and all other appliances that weren’t used on a daily basis went into a cabinet. The soap went into pretty dispensers, and I loved the addition of a mirror at the sink to make it feel brighter and bigger since it caught the light. If we had stayed longer, I would have just had Jeremy remove the cabinet doors so I could try open shelving for our pretty dishes and glassware.
I blame all of my lack of time to work on projects on this—dishes. A dishwasher? Yeah, don’t have one of those, so every dish is washed by hand, which takes up all of those precious nap times, but I certainly have an appreciation for all the time I’ve spent at the sink jamming out at 11:30pm (because you need motivation to do dishes that late).
Dining Room Before
One of our most evolving rooms! You should see the photos of this room from when we first moved in. We often dressed this casual space up for celebrations and even just dinner. The dresser by the window became a funky do-it-all piece of furniture. Lily’s clothes were in there, and on top were all the plants because that’s the only place they had enough sunlight to grow, and I also had random non-working lights. I had all these extra decorations I wanted to use but didn’t have a specific place for them yet. Rather than put them away, I thought that leaving them out would motivate me to get it done. Yeah, never happened and instead it just became a clutter corner. Our cottage chairs were difficult with little kids, and felt super formal. Switching them out morphed the style of our home more than I thought it would!
Dining Room After
When baby came, I put all his clothes in it and moved it to my room where he slept and where it made sense to have it. We acquired a stationary exercise bike, and we believed that having it out and on display rather than hiding out in a basement would inspire us to use it frequently. That worked for about a month, but it was a beautiful start! I moved the telescope here since I didn’t want the kids playing with it unsupervised in their room. Our fiddle leaf fig tree (Freddy) loves this sunny spot, and I love the joy he brings me! I finally parted with my year-round Christmas lights at the window to let more light in.
Master Bedroom Before
Master Bedroom After
It’s amazing how curtains can add a finishing touch! When I mentioned that I wanted to get velvet curtains, Jeremy couldn’t see it. However, these navy blackout curtains have saved us a many bedtime and given us the gift of sleep! We had to make room for another baby on the way, and I loved that this mobile really added a sweet touch to his presence with the a big impact and minimal stuff.
2nd Bedroom Before
This bedroom started out as a storage room, became an office/storage room, and when baby was coming and our little girl was ready to graduate to a big girl bed we decided it was destined to become a kid room! These before photos are from when we first moved in, but other than the crib moving a little bit it didn’t change for a long time.
2nd Bedroom After
Welcome to the big girl bed! It still needs an actual bed with railings, but this is a good start. The corner now holds a play kitchen instead of a printer. We invested in some great cubby shelves and storage bins for toys and books. Her main wall has a shelf with stuff she needs adult supervision for, like paint and sharp scissors. We also started an alphabet with all the crafts she’s been making in preschool. It helps her remember her letters, and she gets so excited about learning new ones so she can show it to Daddy! The closet now is as organized as it can be before we move, and has a dresser with clothes she can dress herself in, as well as hanging dresses and make-believe stuff. I also fit baby’s hanging clothes that couldn’t be folded.
We will miss this place! I had a lot of fun making this apartment over time and again to fit our changing needs. I hope you had fun touring! On to new adventures 🙂
-Kat
