Caitlin & Dave’s “Victorian Eclectic” Apartment in Oakland
We live in a two bedroom, approximately 900 square foot apartment in beautiful Oakland California. My husband Dave and I moved here from NYC almost two years ago and we share the apartment with one roommate, Patrick, who is a good friend of ours.
It was a challenge leaving NYC, if not for me, my husband would certainly have never left, but I grew up on the West Coast and always knew I wanted to return, so after 8 years in NYC I finally convinced Dave to move with me to Oakland, where my twin sister lives.
We found this great apartment after a long and emotional search, we were overjoyed to get our place! It’s above Lake Merritt, has hardwood floors, (we were horrified by all the carpet we saw during our hunt – NYC rentals are not typically carpeted), great light and an eat in kitchen. Since we are both visual artists it was important to us both to get an apt with good light, and a large enough living space that I could have my art studio and Dave could do photoshoots inside.
Our style is something of a Victorian Eclectic, we both love collecting art, oddities and beautiful objects, but Dave definitely has a more traditional Victorian style while I tend to be the one who adds in more colorful contemporary pieces. Given his way our house would probably look much like Miss Havisham’s of Great Expectations fame ; ), but we work together and balance out our aesthetics.
We do a lot of house projects together and are always looking for DIY solutions to transform our rental space. We work with artist budgets so we often have to be creative to furnish and decorate our home.
We have worked hard to create a space that is an escape from the world, a cabinet of curiosities, a place to inspire wonder, and it’s still a work in progress!
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