Name: Sarah, Steve, and Otto (our greyhound)
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Size: 2-bedroom rental, 1,000 sf (more or less)
Lived in: 4 months
As we come to the end of a month dedicated to “setting up home” on Apartment Therapy, I thought I’d offer a peek inside my new home that I share with my husband and our retired greyhound racer, Otto. We live in a renovated attic apartment on the fourth floor of a brick building. It's the third and best home we've had in three years...
... and we're hoping to stay here for a while. Moving so much (due mostly to landlord issues) has helped us to pare down what we own, and we're finally at the point where we love pretty much everything we have. Our new apartment and landlord are great, and we have to give our landlord extra props for doing such a great job laying out and renovating the attic space. Our kitchen is small, but it contains a strategically placed dishwasher in the wall; the bedrooms are so big that we repurposed one into a den; and skylights make every space feel open and airy.
AT Survey:
Our style: Second-hand modern with a minor in IKEA
Inspiration: Our friends’ and families’ homes, Apartment Therapy house tours
Favorite Element: The natural light. We’re on the top floor, and the entire east side of our apartment is lined with skylights.
Biggest Challenge: Working around the angled ceilings. Our low furniture luckily suits the space, and we incorporated lots of shelving and storage along the low walls.
What Friends Say: “You get such great light!”
Biggest Embarrassment: The ugly gray carpet in the living room and bedroom. Also, the fact that our dog has his own chair that’s pretty much unusable by humans at this point. We’ve cleaned the upholstery a couple times with the Bissell SpotBot, but it’s a losing battle.
Proudest DIY: Our friend Dave designed the dining room shelves and Steve helped to build them. Dave designed them so that they’d fill the wall and wrap the corner. They’re made of six different modules, so that we’ll be able to reconfigure them whenever we move again.
Biggest Indulgence: Our bed. It was our first “high-end” purchase that we really saved up for. It’s the Leggero bed from Design Within Reach, and we got a good deal on it at the DWR warehouse sale a few years ago.
Best advice: Since we started buying less and spending more time waiting for the right piece, our home has improved. Also, having people over regularly makes us enjoy our home (and our friends) more.
Dream source: Wright Auction House, international travel
Reality source: Craigslist, IKEA, family heirlooms
Resources:
Artwork
• The grid of vintage flashcards is from Ipso Facto in Three Oaks, Michigan.
• The hanging ceramic piece in the entryway is from Sprout Home.
• The embroidered portrait in the bedroom is by Jenny Hart.
• Steve bought the reproduction propaganda posters in Russia.
• Sculpture next to the Warhol book was made by Sarah's uncle when he was a teenager.
Dining Room
• Shelves designed and custom-made by Dave Ksander: dksander(at)gmail(dot)com.
• The pink lamp is handmade, from bright lights little city.
• The secretary belonged to Sarah's grandma.
• Sarah’s mom found the Danish modern dining table and chairs on craigslist.
• The tulip chairs were also craigslist finds.
• The orange shell chairs are from an antique store that I can’t remember the name of.
• The purple throw pillow is from Unison.
• Record cabinet is the IKEA PS.
• The speakers are handmade from Exeluxe.
• The white side table is the Componibili by Anna Castelli Ferrieri.
• The blue entryway piece is a hand-me-down that Sarah painted.
Living Room
• Coffee table is the Peakaboo from CB2, a gift from Sarah’s brother.
• The Case Study Daybed was a wedding gift from Steve’s parents.
• Otto’s armchair is from craigslist.
• The side table is a Shaker piece from Steve’s mom.
• The lamp was Sarah’s grandma’s.
• Sarah bought the sewing desk at an antique mall many years ago.
• The stool is the Prince Aha from Design Within Reach.
• The Gubi plywood chair was found second-hand via the Apartment Therapy classifieds.
• The media stand is the Smadal from IKEA.
• The “credenza” behind the sofa is made of Akurum kitchen cabinets from IKEA.
Kitchen
• The kitchen table was found through the Apartment Therapy Scavenger column!
• The kitchen chairs are also craigslist, from our dining room set.
• The light blue pantry cabinet is a hand-me-down.
Bedroom
• The bed is the Leggero, bought at a DWR warehouse sale in Hebron, Kentucky.
• Bedside tables are the Offi Mag Table and the IKEA Tolga.
• The bedroom hooks are from Urban Outfitters.
• The chair is a hand-me-down.
• The laundry baskets are TubTrugs.
• The pink bedspread is a quilt from Unison.
• Sarah made the pillowcases.
Bathroom
• Shower curtain is from Target, the white waffle weave.
• Bathroom shelf is the Grundtal from IKEA.
• Towels are old lines from CB2 and Zara Home.
Deck
• The table is the Bollo from IKEA and the bench is the Molger.
• The Orbit chairs are from CB2.
Images: Sarah Coffey
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
I love your vintage secretary!
view bepsf's profile
All that light and your own deck--lucky ducks!
Great-looking place. Those bookshelves are fantastic.
view slowdown's profile
It's a beautiful and well thought out space. The dishwasher in the wall is pure genius! Lovely!
view RedMaiko's profile
cute! I love the bookshelves!
view devotchka138's profile
Understated, well organized, pieces put together beautifully and a graciousness about it, as well. No wonder you are enjoying it so very much.
http://sparky-youngbloodstudios.blogspot.com/
view youngbloop's profile
So where the sofa and TV are is part of the bathroom? I love this tour- no space wasted yet paired down and no clutter still feels airy.
Love Otto napping on his chair. They are such sweet dogs been through so much and so nice they can spend their last years in a loving home..sorry went off subject here it just tears me up.
view LoriSF's profile
One of my favorite house tours, ever. Everything is so beautifully laid out and organized. I love the way you work with the slope of the ceilings, particularly on top of the blue cabinet in the kitchen.
view MisaL's profile
nice... just bought an old attic-turned condo and are wrestling with how to make use of the funky angled walls and unique space. my first thought appears to be on the right track -- skylights! i love the modular bookshelf/cubes that fit the vertical wall perfectly.
view ghunt's profile
wow. what a well planned space. I have the same secretary...I may have to bring it out of hiding. I had thought it was too traditional for the rest of my house. You have proved me wrong!
Also, your Zeisel pieces look great in it!
view jen64's profile
Well done. I must say I'm incredibly jealous of your space! Your attic has a deck, high ceilings, and so much lighting, wow! Love the custom shelving too!
view KidMoe's profile
i love this too--brilliant idea to swap chairs for your very different kitchen and dining room tables. makes for a clean, deliberate, integrated look.
and ditto on having a dog chair unusable by humans. can't bring myself to get rid of mine either....
view monaery's profile
I love how pared down and clean it is. I wish I knew how people can keep spaces so spare. I have very little, but it seems to take up every square inch I do have.
I'll definitely return to this post. It has given me a lot to think about.
Weird way the dishwasher is installed, though! Never saw that before.
view Charlotte's profile
is that a mini hang-it-all? where did you get it?
view jmeg's profile
It looks fabulous!
view cassielynn's profile
Great looking space, you planned it well! and so lucky to have that deck/balcony. It does look like you have a landlord who cares.
Otto looks so content and so sweet....
view sassydo's profile
Reminds me of the attic room we stayed in while staying at a pension in Budapest during our honeymoon.
The slanted windows that bring in the light especially remind me of it. I'll have to remember the name and post on it in the next few days. :)
view MODERnestS's profile
It looks great, well done! I love the pale blue tile in the shower...
view JeffC's profile
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
The Eames Hang it All was purchased at DWR several years ago.
The bathroom is actually off the hallway between the front and back parts of the apartment. It's a little hard to tell from the photos, but the bedroom is on one end of the apartment, and the living room is on the opposite end, with the dining room, hall, kitchen, and bath all connected in the main, big open space.
view sarah c's profile
Oh, and thanks for all the nice comments about Otto. I have to plug the rescue group that we adopted him through: Greyhounds Only. They do a great job.
Lots of people ask us if Otto has a hard time living in an apartment, but greyhounds are surprisingly good small space dogs. As long as you give them plenty of walks, they usually like to hang out in a corner and sleep all day.
view sarah c's profile
Cute place! I love it.
Maaaaaaajor bonus points for being Sox fans!
:)
view chicagirl's profile
i LOVE this apartment. so much so that I actually geeked out and took notes on the things that made me swoon:
- the colanders above the sink...perfectly worn and a great color!
- I even love your dishrack (weird)
- the laundry hamper...fantastic! was it a find or can you share the source?
the only thing that would irk me are the kitchen cabinets. I think they'd look great if they were white! but hell, the rest of your place is stunning, so you've no reason to complain. it's been great moving to Chicago and discovering other apartments with amazing style...thanks for sharing!
http://mylittleapartment.blogspot.com/
view my little apartment's profile
What a beautiful space to begin with - and what you've done with it is just lovely. It is obvious that you love what you have, and everything you own seems to be on good terms with each other (not easy to accomplish).
Well done, and hugs to Otto!
view ele's profile
The vintage flashcards look amazing hung over the stairwell! Such a great, non traditional idea for a large wall.
view talldrink's profile
What a lovely apartment! You guys really lucked out! I absolutely love attic spaces - the architectural details, the sloped ceilings, the intimacy of the space! You did a great job in decorating - not cluttered, but the space doesn't feel cold. Love it! And, kudos to your landlord!
Debbie
http://girlwhimsy.blogspot.com
view dykelly625's profile
Love your home. What happen to that awesome vintage credenza you found at Jubilee? Did I miss it in the photos?
view JaneLane's profile
You have done a great job, love it and your Otto is a real sweetie - kudos to you for taking him in..
view Betty14's profile
So glad to see an actual 'apartment' on Apartment Therapy!
As non-owners too, I am totally jealous of your clever landlord and impressed with your use of the space. I'm having a sense of parallel lives in different cities though too -- we used to rent a top-floor walk-up in Boston with skylights, my grandmother's secretary, and two mis-matched Jacobsen Seven chairs with our IKEA country kitchen table. Now I can see 'what could have been' if I pared down all of the 'stuff' carried through the years between my husband and I. And also had a talented friend to design/build shelves for us. :)
The moral of story ... BRAVO on a great place and a cute dog too!
view marisa125's profile
I love your attic it looks very fresh, cozy and bright. Could you let me know how have you hang the group of shelves in the small wall?
view emal's profile
Love the vintage secretary too.... Love the first shot... very organized and that is more than I can say!
view gottahaveit555's profile