where we're at

I am still here! But barely. Meaning, I don't have a lot of time right now and spend more time working, eating, sleeping, and eating. In that order.

We moved to Stockholm, it was chaos. We aren't really settled in. I love my new job. Times a million. And I love our new apartment. And the trees. And Stockholm.

So this is where we're at now. In love and busy. Lucky us!

slow slow

Posting will be slow here the next few days. We're moving in less than two weeks and I have a jillion deadlines to finish before that. We still need to pack. Sigh.

See you on the flip side.
(do people still say that?!)

sthlm apt: living room inspiration

The living room will be the easiest room to decorate. We already have a great living room set up and plan on using the exact same furniture we have now. The only changes will be adding a smaller dining room table and (finally) dining room chairs. I’m guessing we’ll eventually add an arm chair and somehow figure out how to put lighting in above the dining room table…? The electric is all wonky and old in the apartment, so it’ll be interesting.

Two windows! 

View towards the office and hallway. I’m thinking a small dining nook can go right next to the office door. Probably one those expandable IKEA tables…?

This is our current living room. I like it! 

We’ll use the shelves again. Probably a different ceiling light though. Who knows.

And now for the inspiration!

1. I love, love, love this photo I found over at Emma’s DesignBlogg. I think we can create a similar look using like colors. In fact, all we really need is a green arm chair like this one.
2. I think this Kubus is the perfect statement piece. Time to save my monies. I love it.
3. We’ve had Eames chairs on our wishlist for months now. I’m not sure if we’ll go with replicas (because we’re cheap like that and we have to save up for a new kitchen) or the real thing. We’ve always wanted white but I’m a bit partial to the black as well.  Photo from here.
4. We have to downsize our dining table. A round one would be nice and it expands. It’s IKEA.
5. I’m Texan. I love all things Texan. I love this armadillo times a million. It reminds me of Texas and my dad and the time I was in an armadillo race (you blow on their tails to make them run… what? I grew up in the country!)

So there you have it, the living room and all it’s inspired glory.

sthlm apt: bedroom inspiration

Now to the bedroom! I want to keep the bedroom as simple as possible. Actually, that’s the goal for the whole apartment since it’s so tiny. Simple with good, clean storage. Lots of bright whites, smoky blacks, creamy tans, and a few pops of bold reds, blues, and yellows. But the bedroom will probably stay neutral.

This is the realtor’s photo, using a wide angle. But we have nice light in here and a lovely view of woods behind us. It’s taken from the doorway and to the right are two tall and fairly deep closets. 

This is our view. Isn’t it lovely?

The closets. We’re going to tear down the divider between them and make them one big closet. They’re fairly tall so that’s good for linens and towels. I’ll paint the shelves and floors white.

We’ll use our bed and bed frame (which is cherry wood) but I’ll switch the dark grey linens for white.

Here’s the inspiration:

1 and 2. Once again, I’m sorry- I forgot where they are from. I’m much better at sourcing inspiration images now but in the beginning I never thought I’d be putting them online. Let me know if you know where they are from.
I love the white linens in both! I like the contrast of image 1 (a bit too dark for Swedish winter) and the brightness of image 2.
3. I’ve been wanting this IKEA rug for awhile now. I think it’ll be perfect to break up the wood from the floor and from the bed.
4. We’re going to need two bedside dressers with drawers (extra storage). I know the industrial look is tired, but I don’t want to use anything wood color. I guess we could paint something black or white?
5. We already have this light from IKEA. Yay. 

I think we’ll be able to fit a dresser in the bedroom too. 

sthlm apt: entryway inspiration

I thought I'd share some inspiration for the new place. We'll start with the entry way.

This is our entry way. To the left is the door to enter the apartment. The door you see straight ahead is the bathroom door. The open door to the right is the kitchen. And the gold knob leads to a small closet. This photo is taken from the bedroom.

The photo above is from the realtor. The photo below is me struggling with the white balance. But here you can see our front door and some awesome electrical stuff…? and a shelf. I think this is where we will hang coats and winter gear.

And here is the closet. It has a small cupboard above it too. I guess we’ll use this for extra coats and boots and maybe cleaning supplies? I have no idea. I’ll be painting those shelves white though.

It’s a small space so it has to be efficient. It’ll need:

• doormat
• shoe storage
• coat storage
• hat storage
• mirror
• key and mail storage

 I’d like to use some of the stuff we already have. We already have a nice doormat (IKEA) and a good entryway mirror (thrifted). 

So here is my inspiration board for the entry way. 

1. A stool is always good for tying shoes or pulling on boots.
2. I am so sorry, I don’t know the source of the photo (if you know, let me know please!) but I love the clean white and the storage! It looks like we might be able to build something similar but smaller.
3. Cute entryway, I love the IKEA trones for shoes. I can’t find the version in white but maybe black will be ok?
4. I also like this key and mail storage from Granit, except we don’t need so many key holders. 

It’d be perfect if we could build something like in picture 2, especially storage wise. Thankfully, we won’t have to worry about our winter clothes for the next few months so it’s not needed right away.

when it rains, it pours

To say I've neglected this blog would be an understatement. Sorry!!!!
It's been a crazy few weeks from bank loans to apartments to getting a job (just happened) to traveling and traveling and traveling back and forth between our two homes. And now the craziness continues as I pack up my life here in Malmö and get ready to move to Stockholm. By May 1st. And we just moved in February.

So let me update you a bit. We bought an apartment, it's cute and needs some work. It has a view of woods and birds sing around it. It's close by a subway. I applied for an awesome job and miracle of miracles they hired me. They want me to start May 1st so up to Stockholm I go. G won't join me until July, so I'll be exploring Stockholm all by my lonesome.  May 1st is like three and a half weeks away.

When it rains, it pours.

STHLM

We've been hanging out in Stockholm for the past few days. It's been a lot of fun. It took me awhile to fall in love with the city but now I really like it here. In fact, big news, we're moving here this summer! Yup. We bought ourselves an apartment and we're set to move in around June. It's all happened pretty fast. 

We'll we've been talking about moving to Stockholm for awhile now but within the last three weeks we've secured a bank loan, found and bought an apartment, and now we're spending some time hanging out in our soon-to-be-city.  

We're heading out to our new apartment tomorrow (we've already viewed it a few times) with our camera and I'll post a ton of photos as soon as I have them. Plus more information about everything move related.

Ok. Friends are coming over soon (we're currently staying in a cute apartment right in the center of town) so I need to go.