If you’re new here, my husband and I recently relocated from Knoxville, TN to Silicon Valley/the South Bay Area in California. This has come with lots of culture shock surrounding numerous things, but one of the biggest changes is we’ll now be living in an apartment instead of a home. Today I want to share our quick apartment inspiration, and a few things on our mind as we get ready for this new chapter.
I’m not going to lie, moving into an apartment right now comes with a lot of mixed feelings. Preston and I owned our home in Tennessee for 2.5 years, and it feels like taking a step backwards now to be renting. On the other hand, there were parts of our home in TN that we really wanted a different situation/upgrade, and I think a lot of those scenarios will be resolved in our new apartment in Mountain View, CA.
We were in the middle floor with our previous home- it was a condo and set up in an apartment style building built in the 60s. Preston is an extremely light sleeper, and we could often hear our upstairs neighbor walking around a lot at night. We also desperately needed to update the bathrooms further in our unit because the flooring and tubs hadn’t really been touched since the 60s.
All that to say, it does feel like we’re upgrading our living situation in many ways with our move into a top floor, recently constructed apartment, but we obviously don’t own it, and that’s bound to be frustrating. It’s hard to just see a lot of money (cost of living in this area is actually painful) essentially go down the drain each month.
Anyways, besides that ramble, I wanted to share what we are thinking in terms of apartment inspo today and just share a glimpse into my mind with decorating, curating our space and more.
We have no furniture, so we’re starting from scratch completely on that front. We have almost all our kitchen items from our house and a few decorations we kept, but otherwise we are pretty much starting over. This is all so exciting, but it’s also very daunting and expensive!
Here’s what we’re thinking for our space- p.s. this post also served as nice motivation to finish up our mood boards!
Apartment Inspiration
Bedrooms
Shop this room: Wooden, upholstered bed // Rounded Mirrors // Simple Dresser // Small Desk // Metal Bed frame
This looks painfully simple, but I really just wanted to put in the items that we are purchasing! We can decor in terms of baskets, blankets, books, trays, etc. coming in our packed boxes, so just imagine all of that sprucing it up a little.
My goal for our bedrooms is honestly for it to feel like a hotel. I love the feeling of all white bedding, overstuff comforters, lots of pillows and texture! We picked up this bedding from Target for the guest (bed frame you see on top), but I am still debating on which bedding for the master. We’re currently deciding if we need to splurge or save- always the hardest decision.
Living Room 
Shop this room: Desk // Prints // TV Center // Couch // Ottoman // Lamp
We actually have a “dining room” space in between our kitchen and living space, but I think the bar seating will work for us in this season of our lives. For now the plan is to actually put Preston’s desk there (and hope we can find a nice looking one + he can keep it nice and tidy). He is still working from home almost full time until at least January, so we really want to prioritize this space.
Also, my mom has worked at LaZBoy for more than 35 years, so I just don’t think we have it in us to purchase a couch from Ikea or somewhere like that. Joybird is actually owned by LaZBoy, and they have some really modern furniture that’s not too outrageous (still a small fortune but it could be worse for an actual couch that won’t fall apart in two years). The ottoman and couch should be the same color, but it’s not showing up like that online in the photos I’ve pulled for some reason! Just imagine they are the same color as the couch.
Kitchen + Coffee Bar
Shop this room: Sideboard // Bowl // Soap Dispenser // Barstools // Floating Shelf
When we were packing up to move here, I majorly cleaned out a lot of our stuff. The only thing I couldn’t get rid of though? Kitchen items. So we really aren’t starting from scratch here- we had such nice stuff, and I knew it would be a very long time before we could afford the extremely nice pieces we got from our registry via our generous friends and family.
However, we do need barstools for sure. I actually ordered two sets of these, and I am hoping we can fit three, then sit one to the side by the coffee bar for when we have guests over.
We will also have room to put a sideboard for extra storage, and I think it would perfectly double as a coffee bar!
Patio Inspiration
I’m not sure what our dimensions will allow for (our apartment complex isn’t great with providing detailed floorplans), but we know we want some type of set to allow us to eat outdoors and take advantage of our amazing weather in Northern California. If we don’t have a lot of space, I think we will go with something simple like this, but if we have more space, we’ll make the most of it with this.
You know we will also have to work in some kind of bistro lights– I feel like that’s a must!
Home Inspiration + What’s in My Cart Right Now
Lastly, I will share some of our home inspiration right now and a few smaller things I have in my cart but haven’t quite purchased yet.
I think we have all been a little obsessed with Emily Mariko as of late, and by a little I personally mean a lot. She is living in the Bay Area, so it’s been really fun and a happy coincidence that I can actually go try a lot of her recommendations. Our kitchen actually looks very similar to hers, so that’s made me excited. She also shares some neat kitchen items, I’ve been tempted to buy a toaster oven (still researching which one we want), salad spinner, oven gap covers and parchment sheets because of her!
This is much more bohemian vibes than we’re going for, but this is the sofa I think we want in one of the fabrics we’re leaning toward.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUk2rDfpICf/
This is somewhat my inspiration for the guest room, just in a modern twist! We got a black metal bed frame, and I want to do some kind of fun art above the bed instead of a headboard. We also are going to do darker wood throughout, as opposed to the lighter look. I love this account by the way!
This account is major, major inspo for me. It’s obviously pretty unattainable for me right now, but it’s fun to seek inspiration here.
Lastly, I love all things Studio McGee. Her line at Target is perfection!
Thanks for coming along on this apartment inspiration journey with me. That probably feels like I have barely done anything to get us prepared for move in, but even finding the apartment felt like a major win, so I’m happy.
I can’t wait to keep you guys in the loop with all things moving over on my Instagram!
