Live in a city apartment? Chances are, you’ve got a few spaces that you don’t quite know what to do with. They’re definitely not closets, and they seem like rooms… but still, something’s off. We all have them, and I’m excited to share how I transformed two of mine into cozy, colorful spaces for hanging out.
a brand new series
If you’ve been following the series, than you know that my husband David and I have a thing for all things blue, green and teal, and love finding ways to bring the outdoors in. Five years ago, we decided to leave New York for San Francisco, specifically in search of a city that celebrates the natural beauty that surrounds it. So, when we found an apartment with a porch that opens onto a small den that leads into the kitchen, we were SOLD. Or whatever the equivalent of “sold” is in renter’s terms ;) The thing is, the porch door opens into the apartment, making it difficult to figure out what to do with this little amount of space.
Follow along to see how a few small style moves totally transformed these two tiny spaces.
First thing’s first: You need to define your space, and decide what you want to make out of it. If it needs to be a space for storage, make it that way. If you love the idea of having a cozy TV-less nook that’s separate from the living room, do that. If you get a dog, you’re going to need a place for his stuff as well. For us, we wanted all three of those things in one — and we wanted to be able to leave the door open on nice days. Oh, and this room is basically an extension of the kitchen, so that needed to be taken into account as well. We took the color of the dining chairs and found the closest paint shade possible for the walls, then riffed off of that color to bring the rest of the room together in a coordinated way.
IS IT A DEN, A STORAGE AREA OR A DOG HOUSE? ALL THREE!
Paint
Update your lighting.
If you can’t update the lighting that’s hard-wired into your apartment, consider adding string lights. A strand or two of these babies is an easy to warm up the vibe of a room without having to contact an electrician.
3. Choose larger statement pieces as decor. It may seem counter intuitive, but large pieces of art or decor can actually make a small room or space feel larger. Behind the couch, we hung up a tapestry I found in India more than 10 years ago. It actually hung in my college bedroom senior year, and I rediscovered it at my parents’ house this past Christmas. I knew it would go perfectly with the color palette of our apartment. We also found this pair of vintage wooden skis at Alameda flea market. They’ve been leaning against the wall of this room for about three years — now they’re finally on the wall! Gotta love mixing the old with the new.
Coordinate your textiles.
Patterned rugs FTW.
Be smart about storage.
Add shelving.
8. Bring the outdoors in. If you’ve got a door you can open, open it and literally bring the outdoors in. Since this door opens into the room, we chose to use a lightweight bench as our coffee table. It’s super easy to move when we want to open the door, which conveniently brings us to the outdoor portion of this home transformation ;)
So, you signed a lease for an apartment that boasts outdoor space. And guess what? That sun-drenched porch would be better described as a landing or a glorified balcony. Well, fear not — we’re going to show you a few simple ways to breathe life into what little outdoor space you have.
OUTDOOR SPACE YOU CAN ACTUALLY HANG OUT IN
It’s a little unfair that the before shot was taken on an overcast day and the after shot on a sunny one, but hey — weather’s weather, and this updated porch is a whole lot brighter! When it comes to outdoor space, it’s tough to update when you’re a renter because you can’t refinish the wood or add anything permanent. So, this is all about adding pops of color and styling your little heart out.
1. Make brightly-colored planter boxes. You need to figure out how exactly you’re going to add color to your space. Because I’m a renter and our porch was built with unfinished wood, painting the actual porch was not a possibility. We had to figure out how to add pops of color without making any permanent changes. Planter boxes to the rescue! We created boxes that would work atop a porch railing, hanging off the edge of the balcony or in a window. Check out the video below to see how it’s done.
Materials:
— wood cut to desired size
— sanding block
— paint brushes
— paint
— drill
— screwdriver
— flowers
— soil
Instructions:
1. Figure out what size window boxes you have space for. Get each piece cut to size at Lowe’s. You’ll need four long rectangles and two small squares for each box.
2. Sand all pieces of wood.
3. Grab three long rectangles of wood and drill holes that are a ½ inch each from all four corners of the wood. That’s four holes per piece. When drilling, place a buffer piece of wood underneath, so you don’t damage your work surface.
4. Use a drill or screwdriver and screws to attach the long pieces of wood to the short, thick end pieces. Leave a gap at the top of the box so you can slide the base piece in.
5. Once you’ve screwed in the wood to make the perimeter of the box, slide in the bottom piece and screw down into the thick ends of the box.
6. Drill four holes in the base piece of wood for draining.
7. Paint with your favorite colors using outdoor paint.
For paint, we used a few colors from Lowe’s HGTV HOME™ by Sherwin-Williams collection: FF 07 Tame Teal SW 6757; FF 16 Jay Blue; GS 20 Intense Teal SW 6943; and FF 09 Amaryllis SW 6591.
We love how they look sitting right on top of the railing, especially against that bright blue sky.
You can also use these plant hooks to hang your planter boxes off a railing, window or balcony.
Turn barstools and a tray into a café for two.
Top the yellow stool with a tray, and boom — a café table is born. A sweet little breakfast scene, coming soon to an Instagram near you.
Add large potted plants.
We also recommend considering cacti and succulents instead of water-hungry plants. They look just as lovely and happen to be drought-friendly.
Choose an unusual doormat.
And there you have it: two rooms totally transformed with just a few small but impactful changes. Three cheers for coordinating color palettes, patterned textiles and sunny afternoons.
