This post has been a long time coming, and I’m excited to finally share a tour of our newlywed apartment with y’all! I’m so glad I’ve gotten into the habit of taking photos of the places I live before leaving them–it’s really sweet to look back at my college apartment in Austin, my “bachelorette pad” in Chapel Hill, and now, the first home I got to share with Dave, in Cary, NC. While we couldn’t be more in love with our new house, I know this apartment will always be super sentimental to us, and we have so many sweet memories there. It’s the first place we picked out together, it’s the home we came back from our honeymoon to (one of my unexpected favorite days ever), and it’s the place where we found out about our baby. It’s hard to leave, but comforting knowing how many more memories will be made in our house!!
So, welcome! This was the view when you walked into the apartment. I had the custom crest designed as a Christmas gift for Dave while we were engaged, and love that it was the first thing you saw walking inside. All the walls were that taupe color when I moved in, but we painted the living room and bedroom white (Olympic Delicate White) to brighten things up.
My two biggest complaints about this apartment were the lack of natural light and the lack of storage space–there was one closet in the entire apartment that housed everything from our clothes to our suitcases to our vacuum cleaner. To help with the storage shortage, we made a “media stand” for the living room out of four Ikea Kallax shelves. It made a big difference, and we’re now able to repurpose the shelves in totally different ways in the house–a win! My favorite parts of the living room were the canvas above the couch (a favorite picture we took on our honeymoon in Lake Como), the Notre Dame painting (a gift from Dave while we were dating–it had belonged to his grandmother, and is our most special artwork!), and the coffee table–a Target clearance find that reminds me of my longtime dream coffee table. We also loved using the tray that held all our guest book postcards at our wedding as a place to corral remotes, coasters, etc.
Another example–maybe the best–of wedding goodness being reused in our apartment was our bar menu! The lovely Moya Minns brought my calligraphy sign dream to life, and we purposefully left our names and the date off so that it could double as artwork post-wedding. It makes me so happy every time I see it above our bar, which Dave’s brother made us for Christmas a few years ago.
The living room and kitchen opened up to each other, separated by a big island. The kitchen was one of the biggest reasons we picked out this apartment in the first place–the finishes and appliances made it feel a lot more like a “grown up apartment” than some places I’ve lived in the past!
No where was the weird corner apartment layout more apparent than in our heptagonal bedroom :) The long far wall gave us enough room for each of our desks, our king-sized bed, and our West Elm nightstands. It was a little unconventional, and we’re happy to now have separate work and sleeping spaces in the house, but I’m pretty proud of how we made this room work for us. A few highlights: the Vienna map Dave gave me as part of my wedding gift (the coaster I first wrote my phone number on for him is in the back!), the gallery wall across from our bed, Dave’s DIY standing desk by the window, and about a bajillion wedding photos :)
Last but not least, the bathroom, and for a small apartment, it was a treat to have such a big one! Our beloved shower curtain (which I talked about here), a North Carolina Thimblepress print, and the white ceramic elephant that has followed me around since my Austin apartment in college made the room to me.
Sources
Living room
Couch: Macy’s
Coffee table, ottoman, rug, side table, blush pillow, blanket: Target
Shelves, baskets: Ikea
Lamp: HomeGoods
Floral pillow: Caitlin Wilson Textiles
Trays: West Elm
Kitchen
Pastry board, marble paper towel holder, marble utensil crock, chalkboard: Crate and Barrel
Bar stools: Target
Bedroom
Black frames, laundry basket: West Elm
Bookshelf: Ikea
Blue chair: World Market
Lamp: Target
Duvet cover, blanket: Restoration Hardware
Pillows: H&M and Caitlin Wilson Textiles
Art prints: Southern Weddings Shop, Rifle Paper Co, Oh My Deer Handmades
Loved reading this post and seeing pics of your first home together! I’m sentimental and took photos of our first home too! :) I know you’ll make lots more wonderful memories in your new home and am so excited for you!
Thanks, girl! Can’t wait to see your new home come together too! :)
Loved this apartment! So many good memories! :)
I’m so happy you got to visit it so many times!
What a cute place! Odd shapes of rental apartments can really be challenging sometimes but you surely made the best of it. Now I can’t wait to see how you decorated the new house ;-)
Thanks, Kristina! Looking forward to sharing! :)
Adorable! Can’t wait for the house tour! (All the confetti emojis!)
Come over! <3
Where did you order your photo canvas from? I’ve been looking for a high-quality service to order photo canvases but haven’t been able to decide where to try- it’s such an investment, and I’m afraid it won’t turn out how I imagine!
I ordered it from easycanvasprints.com–it’s the second time I’ve used them, and I’ve been very happy both times! Plus, they have huge sales super often :)
I love that you shared these photos! What a sweet place to start your marriage, and a wonderful way to memorialize it as you take the next step!
[…] shared our newlywed apartment tour right after we closed on our new […]
Hi Lisa!
I’m new to your blog, but I absolutely love it already~you are so inspiring! I am a recent college grad from Syracuse, NY (I saw your husband is from there too! :)) and I’m planning to move to either Chapel Hill or Raleigh this coming June, just to experience somewhere new. I see that you have lived in both Chapel Hill and Raleigh, so I am wondering if you have a recommendation for which city might be a better fit for a (single) recent college grad? I don’t have any commitments for work yet, so that is not an issue, and I would love to be totally immersed with Southern culture (being from Syracuse, that is one aspect I am so excited for!) I imagine you are incredibly busy with your new baby, so no rush at all in responding, I just wanted to see if you had any recommendations for me as to where I should look :) I appreciate any advice you could give! Thank you so much for your time, and congratulations on your baby boy, he is beautiful!
Hi Caitlin! Thank you so much for your sweet comment! You will be in great company when you move–there are tons of people from Upstate NY in the Triangle. I personally would recommend Raleigh over Chapel Hill…I lived in Chapel Hill right out of college, and while it’s adorable and definitely Southern, it’s very much a college town. Raleigh has been a better fit for me personally, and there are lots more restaurants and things to do here that aren’t geared toward students. Also, I’m not sure if you’ve considered Durham, but there are some really fun parts of Durham as well! There are tons of amazing restaurants, breweries, etc., and I would consider it the most popular area in the Triangle for 20-somethings. The good thing is, all three cities are within about half an hour of each other, so it’s easy to live in one and spend time in another as you get to know the area–that’s what I did!
Hope this helps! :)
Hi Lisa! This is all so helpful, thank you!! I truly appreciate you taking the time to respond :)
Hi Lisa! Do you remember where your white desk is from? I’ve been hunting one down and my dream desk, the West Elm Parsons, isn’t really in our budget right now (or so I keep telling myself). Yours looks quite similar aesthetically so I’d love to see if it might be an option for me. :-)
Thanks!
Hey Shannon! The West Elm Parsons was my inspiration too, haha–it’s the perfect desk! I found mine on Amazon but it was probably eight years ago now. Dave has one that looks really similar that we found at Target more recently, if that helps! :)