I’m still easing my way back into a normal schedule after the holidays, and after two mid-week holidays I don’t have a regular Friday round up post to share today. So instead I’m doing something a bit different and sharing a little glimpse into my home(s), with a quick tour of our old apartment and a little introduction to our “new” house. First up, our old apartment! Considering it has been more than nine months since we moved out, this is way way way overdue – but better late than never, right? Also, I ran around taking photos of the apartment as we packed it up the last couple of weeks before the move, so these aren’t styled photos. You’ll see cords, remotes, and some ugly appliances – but hey, that’s life, right?
Starting in the front of the house with our living room. We spent most of our time in this room, and it’s probably the room that I miss the most now. It had three large southern-facing windows that let in the most beautiful morning and afternoon light, and it was just the right size for having friends and family over. Sigh. The furniture is a mix of flea market finds (like the brass tray and tribal rug), heirlooms that I inherited from my grandmother (the couch and chair on the left, both of which I’d eventually like to restore and recover), and modern items. If you have any specific questions about where we found something, please leave them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer!
After Sophie arrived, we converted the second small bedroom into a nursery and I moved my office into a corner of the living room. It wasn’t a huge amount of space, but it worked at the time!
Moving towards the back of the house, we have our dining room. This room had a giant skylight, which avoided the typical dark middle room of DC rowhouses and made us feel so incredibly lucky to have a second floor apartment. The landlords exposed the brick wall years ago, and I painted the rest of the walls in black chalkboard paint to showcase our art collection. The large china cabinet and ornate chair are more heirlooms inherited from my grandmother, which she inherited from her mother. I love carrying pieces of them with me into my own home.
I didn’t manage to get any good photos of our kitchen, which lies directly to the right of this photo. The kitchen was pretty basic and small, so we moved the microwave and toaster oven out into the dining room to avoid taking up precious countertop space. The campaign dresser is one of my all time favorite flea market finds! Oh, and you might notice that we have a bit of a thing for antique maps and globes. It comes with the territory when two people with international backgrounds decide to get married.
Our bar cart! I found this vintage brass beauty on craigslist: it was missing the original glass so we had pieces of acrylic cut down to fit the shelves instead. I used a combination of double-sided tape and painters tape to hang toile wallpaper (in a renter-friendly removable way) on this short little wall that connected our dining room and kitchen. This was another favorite nook of our old apartment.
Next up, Sophie’s nursery! This room was so very tiny – we could barely fit the glider in next to the crib – so in retrospect I’m glad we didn’t have to use this room once Sophie was mobile. Hidden just to the right of the Expedit is a small vintage dresser that we used as our changing table.
And finally, our bedroom! Also a small room and difficult to photograph without a wide angle lens (oops), but the room consisted of our bed, two nightstands, a dresser opposite the bed, and a closet with hanging storage and another dresser. This room had three north facing windows and also let in the most beautiful morning light. I do miss all those windows!
And that’s it! Photos of our new house coming up next!
Photo Credits: Nole Garey for Oh So Beautiful Paper
