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Name: Amy
Location: Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Years lived in: Rented for 2 years

The timing of this house tour, in concert with Apartment Therapy's September Art, Craft, and Collections Month, is fitting — and a great segue into October's Color theme and Room for Color contest! Walking into Amy's first floor, one bedroom apartment is a delightful experience. The colorful walls and bunches of large and small collections make it impossible to feel gloomy here. In fact, I had to tear myself away from taking photo after photo.


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My favorite elements of Amy's home: Her unabashed, playful, and successful combination of bright colors and youthful decorations; the color-coded organization of her amazing Pez collection; the clever implementation of using a closet for a recessed TV and stereo zone; Amy's myriad collections (frogs, cars, singing cows, mirrors etc.) are able to take center stage as her primary decorative element instead of diluting the collections or visually overstuffing the space with lots of non-collection decorations; the references to the sea (octopus pillows, lobster mirror, etc.); and of course, her bedroom "canopy" - how could you not wake up in a good state of mind lying beneath two giant green leaves?

Apartment Therapy Survey:

My style: My bedroom at age 8 meets the Home Depot paint center.

Inspiration: Great color combinations, my collections, and most Wes Anderson movies.

Favorite Element: My Pez wall. I’ve been a collector for a long time. At different times, I’ve had them arranged in a few ways. First it was chronologically and then by set, but now they are organized by stem color and I love how it looks. It also adds a new challenge when I get new ones because it takes me a while and much consideration as to how to work the new pieces in.

Biggest Challenge: A toss up between lack of natural light and lack of storage. Indoor plants struggle in my place and the apartment only has one closet, so coming up with efficient and eye pleasing storage ideas has been an adventure. The positive is that it forces me to stay organized and I have a pretty eclectic set of lamps.

What Friends Say: They say it’s like my own personal museum…about me. And that I seem to have a lot of "things"....

Biggest Embarrassment: 1.The chandelier in the living room. My plan is to replace it with a dark wood ceiling fan/light. Currently, it has blue light bulbs inspired from "The Border Cafe" and a toy monkey light pull since I can’t reach the actual switch. 2. Probably just the lack of furniture I’ve actually bought/picked out myself…I only purchased my mattress from Sleepy’s and the pale pink bookshelf I picked up at IKEA. Everything else has found me.

Proudest DIY: This summer I installed jars underneath my cabinets for some extra storage in the kitchen. My grandfather had this over his workbench for screws and nails, and mine hold tea, etc. I also love reusing glass jars so I have a million saved. I spray paint the lids white.

Biggest Indulgence: Purchasing things I might need, just in case.

Best advice: 1.Trust your gut. If it looks good to you, then it works. I think the only common theme about my apartment is that I like everything in it. 2. Stay away from tan.

Dream source: An estate-sale of an old, rich, eccentric lady with great taste and color sense…that I get to shop at first.

Resources of Note (furnishings, hardware, appliances & materials): Yard sales, friend’s hand-me-downs, childhood toys, craigslist, IKEA, my mom’s house, the curb, and the North East Pez convention (held every April in Stanford, Connecticut).

Thanks, Amy!

(Images: Kyle Freeman)

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