Remember these photos? The before of the pristine floors and white walls? I loved that first day when everything was new and fresh and waiting for us to put our stamp on the place. And we did...
Welcome to our home!
This is the view from the far corner of our living room (by the big window). The area is quite small, but with all of the open spaces it feels very comfortable.
The couch is from Macy's (from a collection that shall remain nameless here, given that I vowed never to go over to the dark side, but couldn't help it when we fell in love with the couch. If you really want to know...click here). We were really lucky that our house closed at the end of January, for a number of reasons: 1. Our families gave us much needed gift cards to places that we really love - Crate and Barrel, Ikea, etc. and 2. We got to catch all of the great after Christmas sales. Our couch was 30% off, and we got a great deal on the shag rug and our appliances.
When we were living in Florida, we had a huge dining area, and Herman and I saved up to buy this beautiful table and these chairs. We loved it and were sad to leave it in storage when we moved to Providence. We figured we'd move it back to CA, but as soon as we moved into our place we realized our space would not fit our beloved table! So we bequeathed it to our good friends Larry and Amanda, who needed a dining set. That still left us without so I eventually found this great little table from West Elm, which fits perfectly in our space and opens to seat at least six. Plus, as an added bonus, one of Herman's aunt and uncle's bought it for us as a house warming gift. So nice! We loved the look of these chairs with the table, but didn't want to pay that much, so we opted for the Ikea version.
Awhile ago, Herman and I decided that we really wanted to fill our home with mostly original art that supported independent artists (think etsy, blue flip art, tiny showcase, etc.). With so many affordable options available, I've been collecting pieces for the past year and a half. We created this art wall to showcase a lot of it.
This is the view of the landing that goes down to the front door and up the stairs.
The kitchen. Still loving the subway tiles. And yes, our fridge is huge. Sumiko likes to say that all of our appliances are on steroids. She might be right...
Herman and I've been married for almost seven (7!) years, and I would get so tired of hearing him ask me, "Where are my keys?" or "Have you seen my wallet?". So, before we moved in I thought and thought about options that would keep me from hearing those questions again. What I finally landed on was getting this shelf and placing it on the wall directly in front of the garage door. You come in and voilà! You automatically have a place to put your keys and wallet. I also put a small dish on there for coins, and pretty-ed it up a bit with a small letterpress calendar, a print by one of my all time favorite artists, a letterpress postcard proclaiming that picky eaters need coffee, and (my favorite) a little postcard from this great kids store in Montmarte, Paris (roll my chicken!). It's become one of my favorite little spots in our house, and really, it works like a dream. Herman hasn't lost his wallet, keys, or phone once since we moved in!
Cot! Cot!
For a town house with less than 1200 square feet, the space is really well planned. 3 bedrooms and three full baths. Lucky us!
I took a ton more photos, but didn't want to overload the blog with them, so I put them up on my flickr page. Enjoy (if you want, that is...)!
Tomorrow I'll show you our office and my studio space. Thanks for looking!