Home Tour: A Chicago Apartment with Rustic Touches

Surprise! Today's home decor feature is my apartment! I was inspired by Compass, a real estate website in NYC, and their Starter Stories project to share with you my new apartment and all the work that my boyfriend and I have put into making it home. Since it's our first apartment together, it's most definitely been a learning process that has involved a lot of compromise. We've only been in the space for about 6 months, so there are still a lot of things that we're figuring out how to make work, but I am finally ready to do a little unveiling and let you all into my world! Especially since I've been talking about this new apartment constantly (like here and here and here, for example).

Monday Design: New York Chic

There's nothing I love more than a home tour of an interior designer, because I always imagine that they live perfectly - no book out of place, no dirty laundry on the floor, no dishes in the sink. This is, I realize, a perfectly unrealistic point of view, but the magazine spreads make me believe it's true! Anyway, I found this home our of interior designer Rodman Primack, Californian living in New York, and was instantly smitten. It was definitely cleaned and staged, but something about it still feels beautifully lived in. And not lived in like my apartment is lived in, where you're constantly tripping over someone's shoes. No, not like that. See for yourself.

Interior Design: Gallery Walls

I'm moving into a new place June 1st and I couldn't be more excited to have the ability to plan and decorate this time around. When I moved into this apartment, my first apartment, everything was kind of rushed and I didn't take time to really plan out the space. It's come together in the three years that I've lived here, but now not only will I have time, I'll also have space! I'll get to have space and lots of white walls to decorate. So I've been imagining a gallery wall above my TV for a long time and just haven't gotten excited about anything. Now that I'll have the space to fill, my love of gallery walls has been renewed!

Interior Design: Rustic and Modern Swedish Apartment

If anyone knows how to style a living space, it's the Swedes. It's not a secret, I'm sure, but when it come to interior design the Swedish always have their finger right on the pulse There is a reason that people flock to IKEA every weekend, right? This apartment in Gothenburg is no exception, but usually when I think of Swedish design I think of a very modern look. This apartment has a beautiful combination of modern and rustic, just like I love!

Interior Design: Living in a Library

How is it November already? I think I blinked and missed all of summer this year. It's strange how much faster time flies the older you get. With every immaculately designed house I find, I think about the bits and pieces I'd like to incorporate into my own home one day and with every day that goes by, that becomes more of a reality. How weird is that? To think that one day I could own a living space that's not the size of a shoebox is crazy. 

Anyway, the point of all that babble was this home design. Ever since I was little and I saw my first high shelves with a rolling ladder, I decided that one day I was going to have the same thing in my house. Mostly because it reminded me of that magical library in Beauty in the Beast and that's what every little girl who reads wants to see (amirite?). The dream has not died for me and when I saw this home design it screamed my name.

Monday Design: Holy Skylights, Batman!

I've been kicking myself for not writing more lately and nothing keeps me motivated like a challenge, so thank you to everyone that's doubted me. This post is for you. Without further ado, I bring you this week's edition of Monday Design: Holy Skylights, Batman!

Let's talk about how much I love light for a little bit, shall we? I LOVE light. Like, a LOT. I lived in a basement for about 4 years, so nothing is more precious to me now than daylight. It's the main reason I have a tough time deciding to leave my current apartment because I have windows in every room and a skylight in the bathroom! Can I just tell you that going to pee with the morning sun filtering in through the ceiling is a magical experience. It's really brought on a new love of skylights, which is why this property caught my eye.

Monday Design: The Classical Space

It's been a very long time since I've blogged here and it feels good to be back. In the midst of a rabid job hunt I had to put blogging on the back burner. But I've now found a new job (go me!) and here I am! So let's get right back to it, shall we?

Now this is an apartment in Barcelona and I'm having a love/hate relationship with. Obviously, the rounded living room is a huge draw, but really it's those windows! The stained glass window details throughout the apartment really make this place feel opulent and unique.

Monday Design: Country Home

I think I might secretly be a small town girl at heart. Although I wouldn't really know since I've only ever lived in big cities. I probably would get bored if I moved out to some town where the downtown consisted of 6 city blocks. Unless of course I could live in a little country home like this one.

Monday Design: New Blog Obsession

I'm on here all the time chatting about my design obsessions and my photography obsessions and my fashion obsessions, but never do I really talk about where I pull a lot of this inspiration from. I am a blog hound and I'm sure many of you can understand that. Working in online media makes it really easy to "stumble" across new blogs and awesome content curators. I can say I have favorite blogs, but I probably can't count them on two hands. Today though, I wanted to share a new interior design blog I found that I cannot stop browsing through.

Monday Design: White and Brown Interiors

Ah white wall inspiration. Ever since I decided that I'm going to repaint my technicolor apartment and just make the walls white again, I've been scouring the internet for white wall interiors. I do love color, but I guess there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Can you believe it? Well I have to repaint my apartment if I'm ever going to move out anyway, so I figured I might as well do it while I have the chance. But I've become obsessed with the idea of having white walls with wood trim, just like most old Chicago apartments do. Alas, inspiration for white interiors with brown details!

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Monday Design: 8 Living Rooms Designs

So I bought a new lamp over the weekend to replace a hobbled one that was way past its prime and it got me thinking about rearranging my living room. Which of course got me thinking about redesigning my living room entirely. And when inspiration hits, what do we do? We hit Pinterest! As well as my secret stash of other design sites. And then spend hours on the internet dreaming of living rooms that I will never have and getting nothing done in the way of reorganizing. Gotta love technology right?

On the plus side, I did pull together some fun living room design inspiration to mull over.

Bright and Colorful Living Room