Earlier this year Ben and I moved into a new apartment…and then moved right out. Some of you may know the story and some may just wonder why I posted photos of a new place one day in February and then suddenly we were back in our old spot *face palm.*
For those who don’t know the story, the general gist is that we packed up our place and moved into a new apartment about 15 minutes from downtown Austin. Our thought process was that we would sacrifice location for a newer place, slightly less rent and a quicker work commute.
Within a few days of being in our new spot, we realized that we made a huge mistake. On top of the secluded location, some bad construction (I’m pretty sure the walls were made of paper) and neighbors who thought 120 was a good decidable to keep their EDM music at, we realized that we really just wanted to be back in the city. We missed being able to walk out our door and around a little neighborhood, we missed being close to restaurants and bars, we missed the sound of the train horn that blared each day as a quick reminder that we were in the middle of the weirdest, coolest city out there.
So we called our original apartment complex in a moment of panic and found out that our unit was still available. Yes, the exact some one. It had been on the market for months, so we couldn’t believe no one had leased it out yet.
They were so sweet and understanding and ended up giving us our original renewal rate (instead of making us pay market) and tossed in a free carpet clean and general apartment refresh to help make us feel at home. They even gave us a new fridge #praise. Everything just came together so perfectly that it seemed like moving back was the right thing to do.
Even though the stars aligned and we had a clear path back downtown, I was a little hesitant to move back into our old place. When we lived in the apartment the first time around, neither of us were in love with it. The apartment was really dark and everything–I mean everything–was brown; the cabinets, the counters, the flooring. The lights all had a yellow hew to them as well. So between that, the brown-on-brown, and the long layout of the apartment, it just felt very dark and gloomy at times.
But as graduation goggles often go, the second we were moving somewhere new—we missed the old. Suddenly those dark brown finishes weren’t so bad, the lighting could be fixed, and we could buy some new pieces to counteract the darkness of the apartment. It’s funny how your perception of things can change so quickly and that the grass isn’t always greener.
So we ultimately made the decision to move back into our old spot (wish you all could have heard the reaction of the moving company—wait, you want to go back? Didn’t we just move you? The exact same apartment?).
A few days later, we were back though and so happy with our decision. As we unpacked…again 🙂 we realized that we were a few pieces short. We had sold our dining table and a few other things that the new apartment didn’t have room for.
Before we repurchased/replaced, we wanted to make sure that we were being intentional with what we were buying. A lot of what we had came from apartments prior, so we decided to pick out a few pieces that were specifically for the space. We also decided to tackle some home projects that would allow for quick, drastic and affordable changes.
And that brings us here! We’re back and settled and so I wanted to share a few of the things we bought and the projects we did that really helped spruce the place up and make this new-old apartment a home.
How To Brighten Up Your Space
1. Change The Light Bulbs: If you feel like your space has a yellow tint or dimmed feel, try switching up the bulbs. We went with Philips Hue lights that allow us to adjust the brightness and color.
2. Remove Some Cabinet Doors: We decided to remove a set of cabinet doors in our kitchen and our bathroom and create our own exposed shelves. It broke up the insane amount of brown in the space and we were able to add pops of color with our own decor. Below you can see the before and after of our kitchen and bathroom. Don’t mind the before shot of the kitchen – forgot to take one, so had to pull it from an old Instagram video lol
3. Pick Out New Wall Decor + Invest In a Mirror: Mirrors are a great way to add light to your apartment and an easy thing to do to brighten up a space. New art is another way to change the look and feel of an area–I love downloading prints from Etsy and framing those!
I have a whole blog post about that here. It’s usually under $10 to purchase/download them and then you can get the pieces printed locally.
4. Add Plants: Adding real or fake plants to your apartment is great way to add some dimension to your space and get a pop of color. If you’re looking to add real wall plants, I would highly recommend WallyGro planters. They’re thebomb.com and come in a slew of cute colors.
If you’re looking for fake plants, then AFloral is the way to go! Check out the post I have about them here along with a discount code for 15% off.
We decided to go with fake plants and created a vine wall above our TV!
And that’s it–for now! I feel like we’re constantly finding new projects to do and ways to change up our space 🙂 I’ll be doing an updated home tour within the next few weeks, so stay tuned for that!
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