Apartment Decor

Wow, I just came across a blog post that I had drafted a long time ago, but had never posted!  Looking back at the content, it is definitely worth sharing now since some of the décor elements and color scheme could still be inspiring, especially for apartment décor ideas.  Now that we are in a house, we have a lot more flexibility on what we can customize, and will be sure to share those DIY décor updates in future blog posts.

Now, on to finally getting this old post updated and posted.

When we became pregnant with our first, we lived in a loft apartment in Hollywood that we just adored.  While the loft was great for us for a time, the one-bedroom layout wasn’t ideal for starting a family.  We moved from our one-bedroom loft apartment to a single-story, two-bedroom apartment in the same building.  Along with the move came some new interior design and décor (the nesting instinct hit me hard, not surprisingly, since I generally love to nest, pregnant or not). For some background, you can see the transformation of our old place (the loft) in this blog post here, and the detail of our burnt orange and gray baby nursery that we created in this new two-bedroom apartment in this post here.

Here are some of the décor photos for the two-bedroom Hollywood apartment.

Using the same dark wood bedroom set and white linens, we opted for a soothing blue/green wall color this time (we had dark purple walls in the bedroom of our loft).  The wall color is Valspar’s Spa Pool.  Bedroom set came from Macy’s, desk from Target, and lamps from Home Depot.  Wedding pictures above the bed are framed in my favorite budget frames with matting, the Ikea Ribba series.  We also used wicker baskets instead of filing cabinets under the desk.

Hand painted art for the walls.  DIY’ing your wall art not only looks great, but gives you the ability to create anything you want in any color that you need.

White accents.

Most of the art on our walls are painted pieces on canvas, but we did something different for the hall leading towards the master bedroom.  We love to camp (as anyone following this blog would know), and do it quite often.  We decided to frame our favorite photo from each camping trip from the previous year to have a series that led down the hall.  In case you are curious, photos are (from left to right) from the Salton Sea, Sedona, Yosemite, Pismo Beach, and Lake Cuyamaca.

The guest bathroom we painted in a kiwi green, and had brown and white accents.  Art was a reasonably priced DIY by framing a piece of scrapbook paper in an Ikea Ribba frame with matting.  With it being an apartment, we couldn’t do anything about the counters, faucets, or any other permanent fixtures so we made do with wall paint and some accents.

Dining room we kept yellow (though a slightly different shade from the yellow we used at the loft), and continued with the black and white accents.  The hutch you see has seen many iterations over the years.  It was maple, then navy blue, then cream, then black, and is now still in use at our current home in a pale gray color with updated knobs.  Will post pictures later!  The chairs had also seen some reupholstering in their day.

My dad made the two bookcases for us (one holds books and one holds DVDs) to match the cherry coffee and side table set he had made for us previously.  We painted the back of the cabinets Boston Fern green to match the color block we painted on the opposite wall (see below).

I am a fan for using a color block as a way to add bold color in a room that may be awkward to paint based on either having vaulted ceilings, or a flow/connection issue with an adjoining room.

Well,  there you go.  I hope to keep my décor posts a little more up-to-date in the future :).