Name: Edyta Szyszlo and Jared Grellner (with cats Boris and Desher)
Location: Laurel Heights, San Francisco
Size: 650 square feet
Years lived in: 1.5 months
Edyta Szyszlo and Jared Grellner just moved in to this charming Laurel Heights apartment, but it's not evident by the looks of it. Edyta, a professional photographer with a knack for design, and Jared, an architect wth a knack for DIY, have focused their carefully trained eyes on their shared space, and have managed to put together a gorgeous home for themselves and their two cats.
Edyta and Jared have chosen an energetic color palette with bold red accenting cool minty greens and bright yellows. In what could be considered a small space for two people and two pets, they have carefully appointed their home and selected their accessories carefully so as not to create a cluttered appearance. With finely curated color, some great DIY projects, and routine purging, Edyta and Jared fit nicely into their cozy Laurel Heights landing.
AT Survey:
Our style: Balancing approachability and functionality with a splash of color and coziness. Customizing less expensive items with a little diy to let our style flow through.
Inspiration: Using certain restrictions found in apartment rentals to find that singular element that ties it all together. It's not always a rug.
Favorite Element: Charming details such as rounded ceilings, patterned wainscoting, a wood-burning fireplace for chilly summer nights and nine windows that let plenty of sunlight in.
Biggest Challenge: : The challenge wasn't so much what goes where but transporting everything from A to B without owning a car!
What Friends Say: Most can't believe how quickly we were able to put it together! Warm, cozy, inviting and lived in.
Biggest Embarrassment: A 'space-saving' louvered, bi-fold door better known as a closet door installed as our bathroom door. Lets just say it gives a new meaning to 'living in close quarters'. (Jared, you still need to come up with a solution to fix that!)
Proudest DIY: Edyta: Turning our drab aluminum $100 Ikea bed frame into sunburst yellow, stubbornly purchasing, measuring, cutting and sewing a lovely oversized duvet cover (thanks for the help Dana!), sprucing up a simple cabinet's glass doors with patterned paper and using leftover interior paint to primp picture frames.
Jared: Designing and building a small, yet heavy-duty coffee table, made from an old sheet of poplar plywood, discarded base-trim, 1" all-thread & bolts (serve as the legs) and some old ceramic tiling, which he found in a St. Louis architectural salvage yard.
Biggest Indulgence: Edyta: Finding the perfect, custom paint colors.
Jared: Trying to find the functionality of a large entertainment center by putting it in a small footprint... Splurging on a mac-mini 'media center' and flat-panel television.
Best advice: Routine purging of belongings keeps small apartment living fresh and manageable. If you haven't looked at it, touched it, worn it or used it in the past 10 weeks do you really need it? (Jared: excluding books!)
Dream source: Edyta: fabulous flea markets and thrift stores...or Anthropologie's storefront stash.
Jared: A custom built metal and wood-working shop with endless supplies and materials.
Resources:
Bed frame - Ikea; bed linens - Crate & Barrel; couch and chase lounge - EQ3; white fish cabinet - Ikea & Paper Source; vintage pot, coffee prints and vase - garage sale/Salvation Army; various illustrations and drawings by our friend, Jeff Broekhoven.
(Thanks, Edyta and Jared!)
Images: Edyta Szyszlo Photography
Before & After: From Ceiling Space to Playing Space
Danielle's Charming, Classic Walk-Up
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
White Enamel Flatwa...
How To Cook Fluffy, Tasty Quinoa
Perfect Summer Cocktail Recipe: Honey Bourbon Lemonade
links to house tour don't work :(
Um, the house tour is not coming up, 404, file not found. Please fix.
Thanks
I love the moulding around the top of the doorways, I wonder if I could incorporate something like that....
File not found. :(
sorry about that! it should be fixed...
i think the house tour works now guys!
absolutely LOVE this apartment makeover. what a warm, inviting, beautiful space!
This is lovely. I have been looking for something like that red wire jewelry holder. I think yours might be vintage but if not could you say where you got it?
Gorgeous cats! The aby is stunning.
Love what you did with the coffee table and the cabinet with the fish paper. Is the cabinet a mass-market item (e.g. Ikea, per chance? I recognize a couple of other swedish items...) Usualy I don't go for the bookshelves with nooks-in-crannies, but I really like the way you have it set up; it's nicely balanced. Looks like you did a great job with that duvet cover, Edyta!
You can tell a photographer lives here - those shots are really great! :)
thanks for the nice comments everyone! glad you like! lesley - i wish i could say it was vintage but it's an urban outfitters purchase from last season. they have white ones still i think. kushkush - yes cabinet is ikea, we tried finding vintage/thrift but nothing could house all my photo equipment/office supplies :)
Beautiful kitties!
Really like your kitchen. Where did you get the wicker looking stand your cat is on?
Thanks for sharing!
So so sweet! I love the red accents, not to mention the shots of Palahniuk and Vonnegut... I love getting lost with them! :D
i love the architectural details and wall colour. nice.
Love this place! Can you say what the paint colors are? Thats exactly what I'm looking for!
Beautiful still life photography. The apartment, I don't get.
Beautiful paint color in the living room!
I am impressed with what they've done in one and a half months!
Oh I just *heart* the sofa - have to have - could you share where you got it from?
How are rugs like the one in the living room in terms of cat hair? I've been thinking of buying something similar, but we also have two... well, two and a half (we're trying to find a home for a kitten) cats.
I really love that cute mustache mug...where did you find it?
Love the colors on the wall!! The apartment is so cute!!
Are those french doors painted glass? I was actually thinking about doing that with the set I have between my living room and den. I love the look!
Yes, please tell me the name of the paint colors if you can -- I've been wanting something similar for my living room!
I know that moustache cup! it's from Urban Outfitters! :) I've been wanting to get one for my hubby.. it's really quite cute.. :)
Wow...gorgeous paint colors! What a lovely house tour, really like what you have accomplished here. It looks very cozy and inviting. Also love that the kitties were incorporated into the house tour.
The kitty stand is from Ikea:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60095316
I love the red and white dresser knobs, where did you find those?
Please, tell us the paint colours!
I love the little Russian Grey cat, too.
Wow your place is gorgeous!! Thank you for sharing. I'm so going to get that lovely cat stand from Ikea!!
love your space! what is the paint color in the living room? gorgeous!
sorry for not checking back!! paint colors are from Valspar: living room is 'heavy metal gray' and bedroom 'pine mist' - mixed at my local hardware store on Sacramento and Presidio. our walls were not white but this warm beige (no primer used) so the living room isn't as cool-toned as the paint color itself. cat pedestal from ikea, dresser knobs from ikea. sofa and chaise from EQ3 (eq3.com)
oh and the rugs - our kitties don't shed much at all so it's hard to say. but the rug seems to repel it because of it's shiny satin texture. the sisal carpet has the texture of rope so it also does well hiding cat hair.
I love your apartment.. Looks great!!
I especially heart your book case in picture 9. Where did you find it?
pooter - it was a last minute sale item purchase from target a few years ago.
I have searched every where for Valspar 'Heavy Metal Gray' and 'Pine Mist'! I can't seem to find it anywhere! The colors aren't on Valpars website.