In my opinion, the way a person’s home smells says a lot about them. With home decor, the emphasis is placed on making the space aesthetically pleasing; easy on the eyes. Oft-overlooked, the scent of a home can elevate it from exceptional to extraordinary.
Scent has an extremely powerful memory association component, and it is the key to having your guests (and you!) remember the feeling of your home long after they leave. Growing up, my mom always had Yankee candles burning around the house, and it felt cozy and intimate. I can still remember in the chilly, fall evenings, a guttering candle in the darkened kitchen, long after the sun went down.
In our own home, I try to go beyond the cloying, one-note scents of cheapo candles and infuse every touchpoint with a sophisticated scent journey, consisting of an elaborate mixture of reed diffusers, candles, and aromatherapy diffusers.
This past couple of years, I’ve really taken to the interior design world. Don’t get me wrong – I’ve always tried to make our home look nice with what little décor budget we had. In college, I scoured Craigslist for gently used pieces that needed a new home. When we first moved to San Francisco, I made several large trips to IKEA and Zozi’s Loft in SF to furnish our new place.
We’ve lived in the Bay Area now for over three years and have slowly been updating our home with nicer, higher quality investments. Subsequently, my interest in interior design has skyrocketed. I’ve become obsessed with designing every square inch of our apartment with cozy furnishings and imperfectly-styled décor. Plants abound. Candles guttering. Hygge aplenty.
Our New Place
It’s taken me a bit longer to settle into this new apartment (when I say “new” I mean we moved in May… lol). This latest move came quite unexpectedly, as we had just settled into our last place and were feeling comfortable in our new space. Our lease we signed was only 6 months and we thought that we’d be able to extend it. We were wrong.
After just 6 short months, we had to uproot our lives. This was our second move in less than a year and I didn’t handle it well (like not at all). I resisted packing and I was little help on the actual moving day. I had such a hard time acting like an adult, and I am so grateful for Sawyer’s endless patience with me. It took me a long time to work through some very unpleasant feelings and moods.
It’s now September and I’ve just gotten to a place where this new apartment is beginning to feel like home. In the first couple of months here, I had no desire to set anything up, hang artwork on the walls, or really try at all to make the place into a home for us. This was the actual worst because I am truly a homebody at heart. Thankfully, we signed a year lease on this new place and I was finally able to get over those initial dejected and listless feelings and breathe some life into our home.
I snapped some photos of our space last weekend and decided I wanted to share them here with you. Our new home is almost “complete.” However, the perfectionist in me isn’t ready to share a full tour until the finishing touches have been put into place.
Having a nice home can get expensive. I’ve been known to throw myself down a Pinterest-fueled rabbit hole, furiously pinning fabulous home decor and then getting depressed when I realize I can’t even afford one pillow on that velvet-tufted couch. I am the definition of unhinged (p.s. want to follow me on Pinterest?)
I’ve been wanting to share an apartment tour video with you guys for a WHILE and I’m happy to announce that it’s finally here! As you probably already know, we’ve been living in our (new) apartment out in the East Bay for about a year. I firmly believe that it takes at least a year to feel settled and comfortable in a new space. We’ve been mostly situated for a while now, but one of my goals for 2016 was to put the finishing touches on our apartment. I’ve been doing a bit of sprucing up and rearranging for the past month or two and decided it was FINALLY time to take you along with me! We really love our space and feel comfortable and settled. I tried to include links to the products I featured in the description box of the video, but please leave me a comment if you have a question about anything I forgot to include!
P.S. One of my other 2016 goals is to build up my YouTube channel. It would mean to world to me if you show me some love and click ‘Subscribe’!
P.P.S. ‘Subscribe’ is a misleading term because it implies you have to pay for something, but you do not! If you subscribe to my channel, you’ll just see a notification pop up when I’ve posted a new video – that’s it!
Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Ace Hardware. All thoughts and opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of Ace Hardware.
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Raise your hand if you’ve ever owned or currently own a certain shelving unit from a certain Scandanavian homeware retailer. Yeah, you know, the square little cubbies that always seem like a good idea when you’re browsing the aisles. So versatile! Great as a bookshelf/bar cart/room divider! Now, keep that hand raised if that shelving unit is currently serving as a junk table/dust collector/eye sore in your apartment. There’s just something about the piece that makes it look unfinished, and no matter how hard you try, the darn thing just looks like it should belong in a dorm room.
So… it’s time I just come out and say it: #ihavethisthingwithcopper. You may have noticed my Insta feed has been inundated with copper errythang recently. For the past month or so, I’ve been helping my brother shop for home decor for his new apartment in the South Bay (p.s. if you see him, make sure to give him a warm California welcome!). Much to his dismay, every time I spot copper home decor I immediately forget all about his apartment and make a beeline. My rationale: you know who would love this copper tray/basket/dish/trinket? Me.
Therefore:
If you have an obsession appreciation of copper, then learn how to make these tiny + adorable DIY copper planters! It takes under a minute, which I think is a DIY record!
