"Loving What You've Got" Home Tour {31 Days: Day 7}

I've been putting off this itty bitty city apartment tour for way too long. I've thought of every excuse under the sun: our apartment is so tiny and hard to photograph or this room's not finished or ugh, I don't even like what's going on with that room! But it's time to put all those thoughts aside and realize that it's never "done," and as the Nester says, "it doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." After all, this 31 days series is all about using and loving what I have and our home really does fit all of our current needs (and many wants too!). It may be tiny, but it's ours, and I am so grateful for it. So with all that in mind, I'd like to welcome you to our home! You'll see a couple of photos of each room/space today, and throughout the rest of my 31 days series, I'll show you some details of certain areas and some of the creative things I've done to make the most of them. 

First of all, it's helpful to understand that our apartment has a really funky shape. Here's the floor plan to give you an idea of what I'm working with here:

We jokingly call it our triangular-shaped apartment. See why?

Now that you've seen the floor plan, let's get started!

ENTRYWAY:

Walking through the front door you head into the foyer/entryway. There's a coat closet by the door and a nice storage pice with a hutch that has great kitchen storage in the bottom part.

LIVING ROOM:

This is where we spend the vast majority of our time. We love this space - even though it does have a funky shape to it. Furniture placement along the TV wall area is a little tricky due to the triangle shape, but we're workin' with it. We love having people over, and having this one "large" space (ahem, large as far as DC apartments go) to hang out in is awesome.

DINING AREA:

If you made a u-turn from that last photo of the living room, you'd run into our dining table. We designated this as dining space by installing that pendant light fixture over the center of the table. We didn't have space for a dining table in our last apartment, so I'm glad we can at least put a real table in this one and not eat all of our dinners on the couch! Who am I kidding, we still do that most of the time :).

We also have a multi-functional secretary desk on the wall opposite the dining table. We've repurposed the pull-down desk part of it into something that I think is pretty awesome, but you'll have to wait for another post to find out what it is! 

BATHROOM:

Tiny, tiny (so there's not much to show you!) - but it's nice and organized. We're making the most of it by adding happy touches like the yellow floral fabric lining the back of the etagere.

BEDROOM:

I'm still loving the headboard I made a couple of months ago. I replaced the pleated paper wreath with the sunburst mirror I made (the how-to for that is over on Kayla Aimee's blog). See the second photo for that addition. If you look back at the floor plan, you can see that the wall our bed sits against has some interesting angles that make bedside table placement difficult. If you have any ideas on how to make these more functional, I'm all ears.

OFFICE AREA:

This sawhorse desk with upholstered top I made awhile back sits in the corner of our bedroom opposite the bed. It's a great workspace, and I especially love that it sits in front of a big ole window. I'm so glad we have it.  

That'll doe it for the tour of our itty bitty city apartment. Hope you enjoyed it! Thanks to those who took my reader survey that suggested I add a home tour. I always love it when blogs have one, so it was high time I added one to my blog! Let me know if you have any questions about our home. I'll be going into more detail about some areas in future posts during this series, but I'm happy to answer anything you'd like to ask in the meantime!

Read the series from the beginning...

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linking up to: DIY Showoff, Rain on a Tin Roof, Home Stories A to Z, Uncommon Designs, If It's Not Baroque, Liz Marie Blog, Blissfully Ever After, Design, Dining and Diapers, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Craftberry Bush, The Shabby Creek Cottage, Tatertots and Jello, Serenity Now, It’s Overflowing, House of Rose, Love of Family and Home, Dear Creatives, Madigan Made, First Home...Love Life, Simply Dream and Create, Whipperberry, Sparkles and A Stove, Making Home Base, Naptime Creations, Southern Hospitality, Remodelaholic

June Project Round-Up

It's that time of the month again - no not that time of the month! (bad joke?) - it's time to take a minute to look back at the projects I did on this little ole blog over the past month. This is a great way for you to catch up on anything you missed, or if you're new here, it's like a highlight reel, so you can click around easily and find posts that are of interest to you.

If you find you like what you see, you can always have my posts delivered to your inbox (fill in your email address in the "follow by email" form on the sidebar), follow MRFB using an RSS feed reader like feedly or Bloglovin', or find me on Facebook and Twitter. I'd love for you to stick around awhile.

So what did I have going on here in June? Well, let's start with my favorite projects...

The appliqued onesies and customized burp cloths definitely topped the list. I gave the two sets I made to a couple of my cute pregnant friends, and they were definitely hits! I love giving handmade gifts.

My other favorite project was the coral and gray dipped side table. It's just such a fun piece!

I started a new semi-regular series called "Defining My Style" where I'm showing off some pretty photos of homes I love - room by room - that I feel represent my style. Last month I covered exteriors and entryways, and showed the current state of our tiny entry to our apartment.

I DIY'd a whiteboard out of an old frame to hang on that little sliver of wall on the right side of the door to liven up that space as well as add some functionality. We've definitely been using it a lot!

The most viewed post in June was on how to create a font out of your own handwriting. I was actually pretty surprised by that - and I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking that was a pretty darn cool idea :).

Operation {Re}Organization continued kinda casually this month. I conquered some little things like the freezer and a trick to speed up your dishwasher routine.

And lastly, I designed this little print for the Lilly Pulitzer Style Soiree Series and it makes me smile every time I look at it. You can download it for free here if you've got a spot for it in your home, or if you'd like to give it as a gift.

Before I go, I'd also like to give a big thanks (and a virtual hug) to some wonderful blogger ladies who featured my posts this month:

Serenity Now

House of Hepworths

Love of Family & Home

DIY Showoff

Sparkles and a Stove

Rain on a Tin Roof

Tatertots and Jello

And of course, thank you for reading my little blog!

Defining My Style: Entryways

{Better Homes and Gardens Magazine}

A little over a week ago, I started a little mini-series on "defining my style" for my home. This is just as much to help me think through my style as it is for y'all to get to know my design taste a little more. It's a sort-of behind-the-scenes look at my ideas/desires/goals for when we have a place that's larger than 684 square feet :).

In the first post of this series, we looked at exteriors, and today, we're moving just through the front door into the entryway. Since this is the first area people will see when they walk in, it's essentially your home's first impression (besides the outside, of course) and gives you a chance to make people feel welcome.

One of my main goals for our home is for guests immediately feel comfortable when they walk through the door. Hospitality is really important to me and I thoroughly enjoy having people over. I want our guests to come in and feel like they can kick their shoes off and put their feet up without worrying about "messing something up" - ya know what I mean?

So what do I want in my entryway? Regardless of whether I've only got a small "piece of wall" or a formal foyer (we've definitely got the former in our current apartment), there are a few features I'd love to include in this area of the house.

Oh, and P.S. I'm treating the entryway differently than a traditional mud room, but you'll probably notice some overlap in purpose/function. I'm imagining most of us probably don't have a designated mud room(?), so I figure most of us will need the entry to function somewhat like a mudroom without actually being one so it doesn't turn into a dumping ground for a ton of stuff!

Alright, let's get started.

1. A Dresser or Console Table.

Having one of these in the entry serves several roles: storage, a place to put things down when you come in the door (think keys, purse, etc.), and a place to throw in a little style. I love the idea of putting an antique piece or something with character here, because my style leans a little towards traditional, and I like a "lived in" look. The photo at the top of this post is a favorite inspiration, and I'm also loving the green dresser below from The Hunted Interior.

{The Hunted Interior}

2. A Light Source.

What the first thing you usually want to do right when you come in the door? Turn on a light. You gotta see where you're going! :) Having a lamp or the switch for an overhead light within a couple of steps of the front door is important. I'm a big fan of a cool pendant light or a table lamp with a bright bulb (check out the horse lamp in the photo below...super awesome). Right now in our apartment, we've got a dinky little boob light stuck to the ceiling. It desperately needs a brighter bulb or something. I'll have to work on that!

{Capella Kincheloe Interior Design}

3. Hooks.

A clean, clutter-free entry is ideal, but it has to be functional too. Hooks can be a great solution for hanging a purse, coat or hat and gives guests an obvious place to put their things (no need to make room in a coat closet if you don't have the space). 

Of course, if you don't have space for a rack of hooks in the entry, but do have a coat closet, use it! We keep a couple of extra hangers in our front hall closet for just that. In the future though, I love the idea of having a few hooks to make it easy to corral the "just walked in the door" clutter.

{Style at Home}

{Albertsson Hanson Architecture}

4. Art or Photos.
Lastly, I like to personalize that wall space right by the door. Family photos, a piece of art or two...those things are what make your home yours. It gives people an insight into your world and what's important to you. The gallery space below is a great example.

{House Tweaking}

Isn't it fun to dream about spaces like this? I love pulling inspiration from others who've "done" different parts of their homes so well. Though I don't have a ton of space right now, I want to incorporate the ideas I've talked about today. It's all about living where you are now, not about coveting the spaces others have created! So while I can't wait to have more space to do some of the things like in the photos above, I want to make sure I enjoy where we are now, in our tiny space. In the very best of "keeping it real" fashion, in the next couple of days, I'm going to show you the current state of our entryway (small as it is). Stay tuned!

Have a great Monday!