See My Home on Apartment Therapy!

Well, after nearly a year of being in my Eastlake apartment—and after two years of writing home tours for Apartment Therapy—I finally got it together to do a tour of my own home.

Coming into this place from an apartment that was half the size, it really took some time to fill it up. And fill it up in a way that made sense. I always call myself a serial mover, getting the itch to move every two years or so, but this place was one I felt immediately like I’d be in for a while, so it was worth taking my time. And a limited budget always helps with that, too.

Here’s what it looked like, sans stuff:

How about that light, huh? That was one of the biggest draws. A whole room that seemed to be devoted to soaking up the afternoon sun.

I had a lot of the big pieces of furniture, so right away it was really more about collecting accessories and color inspiration.

The deck of cards in the picture below was the inspiration for turning one set of built-in shelves into game shelves. I wanted to fill the space with aesthetically-pleasing things, but I wanted there to be some function to it, and I also wanted it be a conversation starter. (Do you know how to play backgammon?—oh, good, because I have this here game …) Games worked perfectly.

And I definitely needed more plants. None of the ones sitting on that heater below are still there, but they had to start off somewhere. It was a nice idea until I actually needed to turn the heat on.

And I loved the colors below … the oranges, pinks, and purples together. I didn’t end up going for this color combo super hard, but I do think I ended up with more orange in my living room than I would have had without this picture in mind.

I did a house tour featuring a florist and her husband about a year ago, and I got addicted to her creations, picking up a couple at artist markets a few months apart. This one ended up in my kitchen …

And this one ended up in my TV room. If you live near Seattle and are interested in seeing more of Teressa’s work, check her out here. 

And I came across this cute kitty photo months before I adopted Franklin and Louisa… 

A bit of a resemblance, no?

And of course, there were a couple misses. There was not nearly enough light in the TV room to keep these plants alive. I knew it from the start, but stayed in denial too long.

And I could cry thinking about this major wallpaper fail. Never—I repeat, NEVER—try to put temporary wallpaper over permanent wall paper. There was too much texture on the existing wallpaper and these gorgeous floral pieces all came down overnight and stuck to each other, leaving me with no choice but to toss it. [Sigh.]

But in the end, I’m really happy with how everything turned out. Go check out the full tour on Apartment Therapy!