Ok, so I’ve been daydreaming. As you may recall, fellow Urban Housewives, my apartment is roughly the size of one of those adorable Polly Pocket toys from the 90s. Except it’s not that adorable when you’re trying to maintain a life, marriage and aesthetic style inside said minuscule place. So I’ve been letting my mind wander a bit regarding some awesome purchases that I think would be absolutely amazing if I had a bigger place.
The twist here is, I don’t want to just dream about buying these things – I actually want to be able to fit them into my apartment! So I’ve been doing a little brainstorming to figure out how I can make these items duel-purpose or more space efficient. That’s going to be my excuse to Husband to let me buy them – nothing like a little resourcefulness to justify a shopping spree!
Dining Chairs
I know it might seem silly to the non-urban dweller that dining room chairs are a loft dream purchase, but think about it. I don’t have a dining room. I do not have a living room big enough to accommodate a full sized dining room table. And big fancy dining chairs aren’t exactly top-of-mind when decorating a small apartment. But I’m justifying the purchase of four new love dining chairs by repurposing them when I’m not hosting friends as useful surface space. I grabbed some free spare tote bags (have so many, use almost none) and made little hooks to suspend them down the front of the chairs. Now my chairs double as magazine racks and plant holders on the seats. They line my living room wall when we’re not having dinner, surround my (collapsable) table when they do!
A Bigger Flat Screen
Ok, this wasn’t exactly the hardest one to sell Husband on. But truthfully, we didn’t exactly “need” a bigger TV. But we sure did want one. So, we went ahead and went for the big splurge – new, bigger TV and Apple TV. That was quite the initial blow to our finances, but we were able to follow it up by getting rid of cable. Now, using Hulu Plus and Netflix, we pay about a sixth of what we were paying for multiple cable packages, and we will have paid off the initial monetary investment in a matter of months. Bonus – the new screen doubles as a desktop computer. Genius!
Kitchen Art
I feel like my kitchen is always the lowest on the totem pole when it comes to wall decor and sprucing up. It’s hard – the kitchen tends to be the most practical and used room in the apartment. We’re always getting it dirty and don’t spend much time in there that’s not actively spent doing something (cooking, cleaning, etc.) But we went to the flea market the other day and finally found the perfect piece of kitchen decor. A repurposed antique window frame with the top two panels converted into a chalk board and the bottom two into shelf space. It’s just the most beautiful and useful piece – as the new focal point of our kitchen, it serves as a place to leave each other notes, write grocery lists and store cookbooks and recipes. I’m in love with it and definitely recommend hunting down one in your area or trying to make one yourself!
Photo Credit: wanderingone