After moving into our apartment back in February I wanted to be active in sharing regular updates on how we’d decided to decorate our place, ~the journey~ new things we added to our home along the way or how we’d decided to set our place up for a particular occasion. I had so many ideas way back before the summer, such as 'How to utilise and make the most of small outdoor spaces in the warmer months' or showing you how I set up my table in order to have a 'Midsommar themed party' but quite often I've found myself struggling with the balance between savouring and enjoying each and every moment we spend here to ensuring I photograph and share all those elements either on here or social media in general.
Halloween was also an example of that, I spent the week before preparing a table display, picking up pumpkins, baking, buying flowers ensuring it all looked perfect I planned on taking photos of everything and sharing them ahead of the day but when it came to it, it came and went so fast that I didn’t have time to share any of that a quick snap was all I got not to mention I've only just carved the pumpkin's yesterday, though that is my own fault for prioritising everything over carving the pumpkins (they can be so tedious to do though sometimes right??) ... but that's just life isn't it? I'm not about to start beating myself for not sharing content, I've spent years doing that already. From now, however, I am, starting now, going to plan on sharing a few more home bits on here as we go along. In particular, as this is my first time living with Jay I'm so very excited to get preparing for this Christmas, hopefully, I'll be able to share our set-up and all our Christmassy decorations.
Right now for this post, I wanted to share a few new bits we've added into our place just recently. When we first moved in a lot of our stuff we either already had or it came in thick and fast. Things we needed, things we had to have simply because we'd never owned our space before or had an opportunity to buy things for say the kitchen or the bathroom, everything excited us. Eventually, that calmed down once we had everything we felt we needed for the time being. Now we are just adding little bits in where we feel things are missing or where we feel like we could utilize space. That's the beauty in owning your own place right? As you grow the place grows with you, you surround yourself with the things you love and the things that say so much about you, we are having so much fun with that. So here are a few bits we'd added that we love that I hope you do too.
Let there be light
We moved in with minimal lighting. We have of course the lights on the ceiling which still need light shades but until we get them they are a bit too bright to have on whilst we settle down for a night in front of the tv. I did however bring with me a desk light I bought from Ikea that I've had for a few years, back when I did in fact used to have a desk in my bedroom. That's served us well for a few months, it's actually surprisingly bright enough to light the room but not too bright that it's distracting, but we kind of liked the idea of getting a proper light I visualized it sitting nicely behind the sofa so when we stumbled upon this one from Argos as part of their Habitat range I could sit it slotting in there perfectly.
Not only does it fit really nicely into the space but it's very characteristic and modern looking so it sits there nicely regardless of having any light coming from it, but when it is lit up it looks right at home. It's quite a bright light, again not distracting, not too warm or too cool it's actually kind of perfect. It's one of the pieces we've added to our place that's really made me say 'this is home'.
Make use of the space
In addition to that, when we got the light we had to readjust and position the sofa so that the light could slot in perfectly just behind it which did mean moving it out and slightly across which was no problem but after doing so we found a little space had been freed up next to the window. We discussed the idea of a tall plant going there next to the light for a while but at the time we had a lot of plants that had gathered on the dining table that we'd run out of space for, plants that had come from my old bedroom with me. Jay being the sensible one though that instead of adding a new addition in plant form to that space much to my dismay I must add he considered the idea of placing in a table of some sort that would solve the problem of lack of space to put our plants and provide another storage option to utilize our space so we went with this magazine stand from Wayfair. Our plants LOVE it being right next to the window and drinking in the light, our magazines look great in there AND it also provides a space to pop your cup of tea when you are sat next to it, so it's a win, win situation all around.
Add a little height
This addition is exceptionally small but in some way mighty. It's also one of those things that makes you question exactly why you haven't had one all along and that is this plant stand for our beautiful 'Sharon a Parlour Plant' from Patch Plants. We've had Sharon in this place since almost the beginning actually. A nice little spot between the window and our 'reading' chair and for all that time she sat on the floor. Despite her getting quite a bit of light in front of the window we felt she might benefit from that little bit of extra height. We'd been looking around at plant stands for a few weeks, we had our eye on one from Patch Plants but found it a little out of our price budget for buying plant stands so found a very similar one on Amazon instead. It matches the wood of the chair next to it almost perfectly so we're chuffed with that and since she's been on her stand she seems to be thriving.
No more time-wasting
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned how I missed having a clock, mine used to tik-tok in the bedroom much to Jay's annoyance but having that sound present I found to be quite soothing. Turns out the clock we've bought doesn't actually make a sound when it 'tik's', but it is still a rather cute little addition to our home and also an excellent nudge to get me out the door at the moment, I've set our a little faster than normal so that I strive to be ready earlier than I have to be to save me rushing like a maniac, though that's still quite often the case.
And finally...
I arrived home from work one day this week actually to find this in the bedroom. Jay had gone out for the evening. I walked into the bedroom to see a huge box by the side of the bed and puzzlingly tried to work out what it was for when it occurred to me that it was quite possibly a box for a locker. I turned around and there it was.
Jay had been on about getting one a few times actually. A good couple of weeks ago we'd gone for a wander around Urban Outfitters and found them out on display there and Jay had asked me then what I thought of them.
I actually think they are very cool, very nostalgic, very 'hipster-high-school-vibes'. My main concern however was where we would put it and if it'll make our already fairly small bedroom look even smaller, BUT it actually fits very nicely in the corner of the room next to the wardrobe. It helps keep things tidy, but mostly it's for Jay's clothes (I have the whole wardrobe, I know I'm terrible) Jay bought it in the hope that I'd love it, and I do. He also opted for a neutral colour to go with our theme in the bedroom, initially thinking it was white but it is definitely grey which I actually prefer more. I also store my workout mat in there which I take out most mornings and say 'I've got gym class now' in an American accent, just cus.
What's your opinion?