Name: Alyssa B
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Size & Type: 453 sq ft 1 Bedroom (rental)
Favorite resource: Move out days!! You'd be amazed at what students will leave behind when forced to pare down their belongings to fit in their parents' cars. Target and Ikea are also great on my budget!
Pitch: As an engineering student, designer and dancer my place has to handle all my activities. Bookshelves in the hallway store my textbooks and class materials, the third closet I converted into a sewing/supply room, and the open floor plan of my living room provides ample room for dance practice and major design projects when I move the furniture against the walls.
Pitch Cont'd: When I finally decide to relax with friends my 'guest room', the twin loft over my bed, is always ready for the emergency crash. The space may seem small to some, but it's just my size!
Your favorite element: COLOR is my favorite element! I've grown tired of the white walls impressed upon me by residential living and landlords for the past 4 years. When I found this apartment and the landlord said I could paint I was ecstatic! I wanted an invigorating yet relaxing space, so I decided upon a twilight color scheme for the living room (hence friends call my place the twilight lounge). Then the engineer in me kicked in and I was off calculating paint color ratios for gradations, digging up my laser level to tape out the grid, and creating a digital representation of my feature wall.
The state of the bathroom walls when I moved in made me hesitant to paint them. So after finding a funky color patch shower curtain I put my thinking cap on. In the end I bought several packs of multicolor acetate dividers, cut them up, and attached them to the walls using spray adhesive. Continuing with this theme I use multicolor containers (from the dollar store) on an over-the-door shelving system to add much needed storage space.
As for the bedroom I wanted to play off my existing bedding. The pattern consists of tones of four colors: teal, blue, purple, and green. So each wall got a pale version of one of the colors. I left a 2" border around the edges of the walls unpainted. This draws the attention away from the uneven corners of the plaster walls and helps the room feel larger.
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Love the bedroom - great solution for occasional guests. Love the LR wall, though I think that solid coloured cushions might work better (because the wall grid is so perfect-looking by comparison).
I love the grid-wall and the way you painted your bedroom walls. The border in the bedroom is a great idea! I also think your bathroom looks bright and cheerful, but having all those small additions (on the window, radiator, lavatory) would make me worried about knocking something off or make me feel claustrophobic. If in reality they don't get in your way, great!
i like the layout but the colors aren't to my taste. i might have preferred some more monochromatic bursts of color--like instead of having all those tea candles being multicolored, have one collection that's bright red, another that's all green, etc, like the four different blue towels you have in the bathroom. but i like the idea of what you did, and the bunk bed is really neat: where did you get it?
Nice to see some student apartments on here.
I love, love your use of color. Your apartment is fantastic and looks like a lot of fun,though I'm not a huge fan of purple, but what matters is that you love it too. Isn't the toilet paper a bit far from the toilet seat? *shrug*.
I love it! As a fellow engineering student, I really wish my apartment looked that nice.
I love the lights on the bed- a great solution to the problem of lighting a bed when there are doors on either side that seem to preclude floor lamps.
Instafinalist IMHO - i love the colors, the bathroom, and the fact that your apartment is crash-ready (we have a rolled up futon in the closet for such occasions ;) ).
student apartment really face more difficulties - not only less money to spend, but also more activities to handle; on top of entertaining guests ala dinner/cocktail party, relaxing (reading/tv), hobbies, and work there's schoolwork, entertaining ala "drinks after last exam", guests staying over often.
Great job Alyssa! Wonderful lounge :)
also - love the way towels in the bathroom mimic the pattern. and i think the candles are really cute.
Beautiful!...from a jealous Philly dweller.
glad to see someone using hues of purple...
my only comment about the whole place (which i absolutely love) is that i think it would look a little less cluttered in the bathroom if you did the same design with the squares, but much bigger. i think that would even it out some. but i love it and i'm super impressed at how well you've done, being a student myself.
Finally! A coordinated color scheme: the antithesis to all the cold white boxes. - And from a student no less...
This place is brilliant. After all the voting is over could we get a more thorough slideshow tour? Pretty-please?
There seems to be some tension between the oak cabinets in the kitchen, the orangey-wood coffee-table and and the pink that the (otherwise pretty fantastic) grid is.
But I really do like the bedroom and the bathroom a lot.
Love the lavender and LOVE the bubbles of color in the bathroom! Delicious unexpected repeat of pattern and color! Great use of space! Well organized doesn't look cluttered.
hey, i live in philly also. i move into a new place at 20th and fitzwater. one bedroom studio, about 300sf i believe.
always looking for new design minded pals in the city.
There's so much here I really like. I don't mind the inexpensive furnishings as you do so much with them. However, I keep looking at the coffee table wishing it were painted a hot pink or coral color that would pop a bit. Or painted more to blend in.
The grid wall in the living room are great. The bathroom is way over the top for me though. I'm having some serious flashbacks to the 80s. Sorry.
This is great. I like how the kitchen pops out, actually. It makes the whole room look bigger. When I initially saw the first picture, my eyes were focused on the sofa and colored wall and I had assumed already in the back of my head that the kitchen was in its own separate room. Only when I looked more closely did I realize that the kitchen was really in a small nook!
Jen6776 - So far the candles haven't been a problem, but they are generally only put up when company is around.... on a day to day basis I my makeup, brushes, and other commonly used items on them.
Thinkingwoman - The loft is the tromso loft from Ikea
Lizz - Tee hee, the bathroom is small enough that the TP is close enough at hand :)
Tessa - after voting is over I will sift through my collection of photos and gladly share a link to some more (even before and after) photos.
Curtis - the coffee table was an addition from the previous tenant... I've been eyeing some other possibilities for when the cash flow picks up, or i get my hands on a DWR gift cert :P
Love this. You have so much talent! Will your landlord allow you to paint the kitchen cabinets?
Way too many colors. It's making my head spin. I would not vote for this. It feels like a crayon box exploded.
Wow! and fearless. I like the kitchen and living room best.
Look's awesome Alyssa.
AWESOME. It's even better in person, if you all can imagine!
Love it - but make the sticky squares in the bathroom larger :)
YAY! - you said gradations! - YAY!!
LOVE the mobile in the bathroom window, and the wall color in the bathroom done with something other than paint! Way to be bold (and resourceful!).
I love it! Definitely an inspiration! Just wondering-- is spray adhesive removable? I would like to try something like what you did in the bathroom with the acetate dividers, but I'm also a renter and don't think my landlord would appreciate something permanent glued to his walls. Thanks for the info and sharing the pics!
Dinna- the reason why I used the spray adhesive is becasue I'm in the same situation you are. Just make sure to follow the directions on the can for a temporary bond =)
Nah. Not feeling it at all. It's too busy and too contrived.
The color blocking thing went out with Miami Vice.
I like it. . . well organized. Like the top of fridge storage and storage over kitchen cabinets, storage mission accomplished without it looking cluttered. The coffee table looks high enough that you could add a couple of wicker baskets underneath to store stuff in too. . . Wish I could see the entry foyer. . . . . . you said student budget. . .can you share how to get all those snazzy co-ordinated colors in the bathroom without spending a small fortune?? You're good
I love the purple color scheme, and the rainbow-colored accessories in the bathroom! Awesome!
hey, but Miami Vice can be cool! this is the 5th time Miami Vice has come into conversation this week...must be a trend.
Not a fan of the living or bath colors. Sorry, but it feels really cluttered and ill-matched to me.
Why can't I vote???
Love the use of color and and the fact that you are not afraid of combining colors in dramatic ways. I especially like that you have taken a space which most would consider difficult if not impossible to work with and made it into something special. You must be a chip off the old block.
O.K. I can vote now...thanks admin.!
On a student’s budget, which I assume equals not very much extra cash, I think you have done a very inventive job. I really like the grid wall; it is very neatly painted. Gradation painting, I’d love to try that myself, but really wouldn’t know how to get started. The look of the room is warm and comfy. Unlike all of the “white boxes†I’ve seen on this site. I can hear the jazz playing and the interesting conversations. So when are drinks served? The idea of the bunk bed is great for having guest quarters and using air space instead of floor space.
But doesn’t that double bed have a little sway to it???