(Re)Making Home

I've been scouring my Pinterest boards lately, trying to figure out what practical sorts of things we can do to shop the house, repurpose what we own, and make a few of our spaces feel a little less chaotic.

I've shared on here before that when we arrived at WillowBridge, we had only seen our apartment one time. We walked through it (rather quickly, at that) the day of our interview, and that was the last we saw of it until almost two weeks after we arrived at our new job. We had zero room measurements and no idea how things would fit. (Or if they would fit.) We got rid of quite a bit before we came, and we worked with the rest.

But now we've been here over a year, we've settled in, and I'm getting the itch to switch some things around and breathe new life over the same space.

We have the blessing of some freedoms that renters don't ordinarily have. We could paint the walls if we really wanted to. I don't think we want to. We like the colors and we spend so much time painting to repair tenant apartments that it's not as much fun as it used to be. We have the freedom of putting holes in the walls within reason. We use Command strips where we can, but we are permitted to make things more permanent if we choose. 

Our limitations? Can't make structural changes. No altering windows or walls. And that's okay. We probably don't have the energy for that much of a redo anyway.

So I've been scouring Pinterest, trying to find ideas for making new the areas we have - trying to use as much of what we have as possible. (This makes Ryan's heart happy.)

I think I'll start in our entry area, which is one of the most awkward spots in the entire apartment. (Here is a link to the post about it last year.) On the blueprints of the apartment, this space was supposed to be the dining room, but we put that in another corner that made more sense for us. So the entry is really big...for an entry. And it has ended up collecting all the hodge-podge furniture that didn't fit anywhere else. I'd love for it to be a little less boxy and a little more purposeful.

Here are some of the ideas I have so far:

- I would love to create a more purposeful "mud room" entry right inside the door. We have a little tray for our shoes and a coat hook we got for free. We learned last winter that the coat hook doesn't bear weight as well as it should. Our coats are too heavy! I'd love to figure out something that has a little more strength and purpose for when we first come in the door. 

- I'm thinking of swapping the mirror and table that's just inside the door now for a mirrored dresser we have in the guest room. I think it might just be a fun trade to look at something different for a while.

- I've also toyed with the idea of moving our coffee nook into the living/dining area where it can be more accessible, since we use it multiple times a day. If we do that, the buffet (which we basically use for storage) could move into this spot instead. 

- We have some wall art that we never hung anywhere (trying to be conservative) that I might like to add in - and possibly a rug? I have really grown to love rugs since we moved into this apartment. We don't have any carpet at all in our apartment, and the area rug we got for our living room has been a game-changer in looks and sound. 

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And here is my other conundrum, which you can also see in the post I linked above.

Because of the construction of the building, our "front door" is actually a heavy duty metal industrial door. No window in it, nothing pretty about it. I do have an over-the-door wreath hanger and I change out wreaths seasonally, but otherwise our door is pretty lackluster. I've tried to create a porch feel in the foyer outside our door, but I would love to do a thing or two more up next to the actual door. Maybe a faux plant or something else. Haven't figured it out yet. Ideas welcomed! 

Any of you like to shop the house and remake your space so it feels new?