Super fun, albeit slightly messy, post for y’all today! If you’ve been following along, I just moved into a new apartment and have been getting settled and unpacked. I hate living out of boxes so I’ve always tried to have my home restored and picture ready within a couple days of moving. However, one of my personal goals for the year is to slow down and just enjoy moving through life instead of always trying to get to the next thing. I’m naturally very results oriented (and impatient if we’re being honest), so I’m trying my best to take this new apartment a day at a time while I decide exactly how I want the space to look.

I was reminded of this goal recently when one of my favorite home bloggers, ChrisLovesJulia, posted about normalizing the process of decorating/renovating and showing all that happens between the “before and after”. I couldn’t agree more with her sentiments of #progressoverperfection and #dontwait. I’m all about creating a home you love and enjoying the space you have while you have it. So with that being said, this post is chalked full of mid-unpacking, pre-painting, coming-soon DIY realness as I learn to trust and embrace the process. I do have a couple projects I’ll be working on for the space that I can’t wait to share with y’all, but until then, here’s a tour of the new place and my plans for what’s to come!

Entry Way

The Good: I have an entry way now! I love having a designated area for dropping my keys and taking off your shoes when you enter.
The Bad: It’s so tiny! Ira and I can barely stand in the entryway at the same time and you can just forget about leaving your shoes at the bottom of the stairs.
The Ugly: (see picture). Just kidding, well kinda. But it won’t look that way for long!

I plan on doing a complete makeover to this area with a slim shoe cabinet, mirror, and a place to hang jackets & keys. Unfortunately, I probably wont be able to add a rug because of the weather strip on the front door, but I’m still researching to see what my options are. I have my eye on a couple slim shoe cabinets and DIY ideas so stayed tuned fro the reveal of this small entryway makeover! It’ll make the space so much more functional and of course, be nice to look at as soon as your enter.

Living Room

I’m super impressed with how this room is turning out and really excited to keep working on it. Our couch, which we’re absolutely obsessed with, was able to fit snugly against the stairs wall, but we did have to remove the center console piece. Fun fact about our couch—it has outlets! The right facing side and center console (not pictured) actually have storage sections equipped with USB and standard outlets. This makes it super easy to keep our phones and devices charged while we’re hanging out. We considered centering the couch on the window wall so that we could use the center piece, but decided we liked this layout better. Since the center piece was all storage, we didn’t lose any seating space, just a couple of outlets. Plus, this way we have space to play our favorite game, Just Dance, on the Nintendo Switch (game night anyone?).

Ira really wants to add a low console that goes across the entire TV wall to store games and the sub-woofer. I definitely want to add a floor lamp because there’s no overhead lighting in this area, and a large plant in the corner. I’m not completely sold on the console idea and he doesn’t really care for indoor plants, but I sense a compromise coming soon. Also, ignore the random items stacked in the corner by the kitchen. I call that my “Facebook Marketplace” corner. Ha!

The shelves from our previous bar setup work perfectly in this space (which is great because there was no way I would been able to convince Ira to let me buy something new, ha!). For the bookshelves, we used the Lack shelves from IKEA and added these puck lights from Amazon (affiliate link!). They were only $16 for a 6 pack and stick right onto the shelves! The best thing about them is they’re battery operated and come with a remote control. We love that there’s no wires to hide and they look great on or off!

Flipping over to the opposite side of the room—this is where the bar and my desk will be. We used our Lack shelves again and half of the cabinet from our previous office. I plan on building an L-shaped desk top that will serve as both my desk and part of the bar. The cabinet door will get changed or repainted and I plan on reframing the mirror to give it a more modern look. The desk (and the DIY guide for it) will probably be the next thing I do soon since I’m getting pretty tired of doing all of my work from the couch.

As cute as they are, the suitcases obviously won’t stay. Ira and I both have a ton of shoes; mine are in the suitcases and his are in multiple huge boxes around the apartment. We’re just waiting on the shoe storage we ordered to arrive so we can unpack those.

We moved the picture ledges into the hallway and love having them out for everyone to see. Most of our guests never got to see them before since they were in our bedroom, but now they’re right on the way to the guest bath and visible as soon as you walk up the stairs.

Office

Ira’s office was the first room that we “finished” since he works from home full-time and had a bazillion monitors that needed to be set up. This is also the only room that I basically can’t touch haha. I don’t particularly care for the super hero decor, but it’s his office so I just close the door and avert my eyes.

This room is smaller than our previous office, but still fit the furniture we brought with us nicely. We used the other half of the cabinet and a longer desk top piece from IKEA, as well as a small desk to create his working space. Another fun fact— the cabinets we use for our desks are actually kitchen cabinets (Sektion from IKEA). They were the perfect depth (24ish”) for the tabletop pieces and we found them in As-Is. Score!

As for projects, we’ll end up changing/painting the cabinet door, styling the shelves some, and cleaning up the TV area (not pictured, across from the couch).

Bedroom

This room definitely needs the most TLC. If you can believe it, this is all the furniture from our last bedroom, it just looks really empty without the striped wall behind the bed. I have BIG plans for this room, including painting, new furniture, and a few DIY projects. I’m still working on creating my plan for this space, so I don’t have anything to share just yet, but I’ll be tackling the whole thing this fall. During the One Room Challenge this October you can follow along as I transform the entire room in just 30 days.

I’m also working on finishing our closet (which is just through that closed door). Pro for the new closet is that it’s really big. And not just for an apartment. I’ve been in new homes with smaller master closets than ours. The con is that we have to share. We both have a lot of clothes (okay, I have a lot of clothes) and even more shoes, so we’re still working out how to make everything fit. So far though, it’s coming along great! I’ll be giving y’all tips on how to keep your closet organized and clutter free (especially important when sharing!) really soon.

Until then though, I’ll keep you all updated with my process on the rest of the apartment and keeping bringing you affordable ways to decorate your space. If you were able to see past the current state of my home and envision the final look, I applaud you! If not, don’t worry—you’ll see soon! Although moving boxes are ugly, the process of transforming your home is a beautiful thing. Hopefully my plans inspire you to make your home a place you love and be patient with yourself while the magic unfolds. Just remember, home wasn’t built in a day.