Our friend has been renting a "too small but it's easier to stay" apartment for 12 years. She simply gave in to her apartment dwelling instead of embracing moving on and up to a bigger place - until now.
She recently moved into a two bedroom condo and is calling herself a new renter, almost starting from scratch when it comes to setting up a home, getting comfy and interpreting her design style in her space. As she's been unpacking, she's shared some of her thoughts with us, aka confessions of a new renter.
Confession #1: No idea where to start when it comes to design.
Apartment Therapy tip: We suggest creating a mood board. Sure, flipping through home magazines and design blogs can offer a spark of inspiration but it can also be very overwhelming. The styled features can sometimes be too much for new renters. Tear out your favorite images and make one board featuring you favorite looks - color, texture, style, etc. You'll soon see a pattern emerge and this can guide you as you create a design for your home.
Confession #2: Wanting to use all of your existing furniture.
Apartment Therapy tip: Yes, reusing your own pieces is definitely resourceful and it can also be design-worthy. Repainting and retexturing your furniture is a great way to find new life and new style in old pieces. We absolutely encourage using what you have to make your new home look great!
Confession #3: Too much of one thing - vases.
Apartment Therapy tip: In our friend's case, she has tons of vases in different shapes and sizes. But other people may have too many lamps or tons of mirrors. Whatever your collection is, find new ways to use these everyday objects. What is a vase, could be a utensil holder or used in your office. Take this design time to look at all your things in new ways.
Confession #4: Handling more space - help!
Apartment Therapy tip: We've often talked about slowing down and living in your space when you move. It's important to get a feel for your space, for example, things like where does the natural light hit? How are you really using your rooms? How do your existing things work? Take a few weeks and live in your space. During this time, develop and create your design plan from tip #1. You'll really know what your need vs. what you want and can buy pieces accordingly. Also, you don't have to fill up all of your new space. Sometimes more things are just more things instead of complementing the space.
Confession #5: Placing furniture in bigger rooms.
Apartment Therapy tip: Best thing is to pick or create a focal point. This is the point in the room where your eyes are drawn to first and creates an anchor in the room for your furniture and decor to go around. Make a floor plan and don't be afraid to float some pieces. You don't need a wall to place a chair or couch against. Just make sure the room feels balanced when you are done. Consider your lighting and scale when doing this too.
What about you, Apartment Therapy?? Can you share some great new renter tips for our friend and others out there?
Check out more ideas for home from Apartment Therapy:
(Image from South Austin Sunny & Sophisticated House Tour)
Alexis' Modern Glass House 
Before & After: A Bathroom Goes From Pinky Peach to Sleek and Chic
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Tom Black Espadrille
20 Scrumptious Brunch Recipes 
Magic One-Ingredient Ice Cream 5 Ways: Peanut Butter, Nutella, and More
Comments (15)
In terms of accessories, fewer and bigger/bolder pieces look better than a million small pieces (this goes for vases, art, lamps, tchotckes, etc.)
These are great pointers for moving into a new space! A mood board is an excellent idea and act as a way to visually organize the direction you are heading and therefore help keep you from feeling overwhelmed. Also, I like to create an excel spreadsheet and add each item as your realize you "need" it, along with approximate cost, etc. As you live in your space and with your mood board, you will see different priorities emerge which will allow you to modify your spreadsheet accordingly. Also, as you do purchase items here and there, paint walls, etc. you can fill out the spreadsheet to help you track costs and maintain a record of the important details such as model number or paint color! You never know when you'll need it!
Rebecca
http://blog.17thandRiggs.com
http://www.17thandRiggs.com
tip for paint:
I save paint can lids with the paint formula on top, and dried paint on the "wet" side. I carried these 'swatches' of colors I love with me from my last place and it's great to be able to match some of the perfect colors that took me forever to find.
You are living in it, not some random design expert, not someone a foot shorter than you, not someone who has frat parties every night. (Unless you are one of those people.)
For me the biggest thing has been making sure My place is comfortable for Me. Seriously it is mine so yeah the mirrors are to tall for even my mom (who is 5'10"!) to use without standing on her tiptoes. The seating makes everyone else's legs dangle. My common storage spots for stuff I use every day is on top of things. The out of the way stuff? It's on the bottom shelf.
If you watch a lot of TV go ahead make sure it is comfortable to sit around and watch it. If you do projects (like knitting or sewing or miniatures) that need good lighting definitely invest in what other people would call way to much lighting for a room.
Don't let someone talk you into something you don't want because it is standard. Standard is just a starting point.
Nice post!
This is a fascinating post! I had the opposite problem. I moved from a large place to a small, and we've read about that 100 times! I had to get rid of a lot of stuff, etc.
I feel the smaller place has been great training in restraint and would now like to move to larger place, and I don't want it to become full of stuff. I'd like to appreciate something that is much more valuable - space. I believe when I move to a larger place, I will only use what I currently have.
P.S. I would love to see updates as you adjust to a bigger space. Good luck!
@loudlyquiet, you are quietly wise.
Don't be afraid to paint the walls.
If your lease says "Don't Paint", then either don't rent or plan to paint the place beige again when you leave.
In addition to Rebecca's excellent suggestions...
Repurposing/using old favorites is great, but moving into a new space also allows you to dream up a whole new way to live. If you let go of a few items that no longer fit your style, you can purchase pieces that make a statement about who you are now (as opposed to who you were when you acquired the old pieces). Take cues from the architecture or view, start with a piece of fabric or artwork and use the colors for inspiration. As you learn about your new home, you'll know what speaks to you.
As for the overabundance of vases, either keep the best and give away the rest (perhaps a vase as a parting gift from your housewarming?), or if you want to showcase all, group them in interesting ways (by color or shape or theme or texture or origin, for example). If you have the room, create a space just to display the collection--perhaps in a shelving unit or on shelves run along one wall or around the room below the ceiling. Light the display well and curate a bit and you'll have a feature that's uniquely yours and more cohesive than vases randomly placed around the room.
As others said, it's your space, and should fit your lifestyle and aesthetic. Keep tinkering until you love it. Congratulations on your big move. Enjoy!
I just moved at the beginning of this month (yes, still lots of boxes!) and am still trying to figure out what pieces I'm keeping/selling/tossing. I'm not sure I'm going to stay more than a year so I've got in the back of my mind. I'm all about the mood board right now!
loudlyquiet, you ROCK!! Thanks for some of the greatest advice ever.
I had the same problem. I recently moved from a 460 sq ft junior 1 to a 700 sq footer. It initially felt like a mansion with absolutely nothing in it. Also, our furniture was bought to fit the old place, and everything was now too small in proportion to the larger space, which didn't help any.
Like LiLiZ mentioned, reusing furniture is great if you have pieces you like, but don't feel like you are handcuffed to your choices from 12 years ago just because you paid for them. We ended up getting rid of several pieces that were no longer suitable for the space and the way that we were now feeling. Plus, we were also ready to do a bit of upgrading so this helped in our decisions.
i have a small space and it is dominated by kitchen/dining area because i am a baker so i really need it. i can do with a very small living room but i might go crazy with a small kitchen.
my advice would be to really think and analyze what you need and what fits your lifestyle and work. and as loudlyquiet has pointed out, go with what fits your height and size because that is essential to achieve what's comfortable for you ;)
For some of us who have inherited furniture and can't afford to reupholster just yet, new decorative pillows can make a big impact.
They're even nice if you just want a quick, easy, inexpensive way to add a new look to the room. I have three sets that I rotate between the living room and bedroom and like to mix n' match them to keep it interesting.
Can anyone identify that coffee table? I like the legs and the proportions.