Who Lives Here: Sophie and her husband Location: Valley Village, California Size: 800 square feet
What is your favorite element of your Small & Cool home? Everything! We lived in a house with roommates for the first five years that we were married. This is our first apartment of our own that we have been able to decorate.
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Favorite element, cont.: We have only lived here for 7 months, but when we moved in we had literally had a bed, coffee table and a chair. It is has been so fun trying to figure out what our decorating style is. We love going to estate sales and thrift stores every weekend trying to "finish" the apartment. We love the light that we get from all of the windows, the amount of storage we have, the large bathroom, and the updated kitchen. Oops, were we suppose to choose one element???
What was one of the biggest challenges you faced in furnishing your Small Cool home? When we first looked at this apartment, we immediately were turned off by the carpet. We were set in our minds that we wanted hardwood floors, but there were so many other great things (the neighborhood, the light, the updates, the price....) that we couldn't stop thinking about it. We have learned to live with the carpet (and the lack of air conditioning). The good outweighed the bad, and we know that one day we will have hardwood floors and central air conditioning. Until then, we try to focus on the things we love about the apartment and we hang out in the bedroom with the wall AC for the hot summer months.
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I love the map photo collage in your living room! A bit of a more polished alternative to hanging a giant vintage map.
super cute! love the pops of color, very cheery.
recommendations: i think the floors look a little empty. can floors look empty? i'm not sure how you feel about rugs on carpets, but i think it would help. also the bathroom walls look kind of bare.
cute place, when will landlords learn that hardwoods are the only way to go in a vintage building!
I love love love this orange sofa/chaise!! Where is it from?
I also NEED to know where that orange couch/chaise came from....It's yummy!
Super-chic sofa. The bathroom is wonderfully quaint too; I like the bare walls there.
It has a retro feel to it that I kinda like eventhough there isn't a lot going on. Loving the old Prince record on the floor.
i like all the mcm touches.
but why oh why does everyone have the 'keep calm' poster? i don't get it......
Hardwood floors are a must-have for my personal aesthetic (and everyone else's, apparently), but I didn't even notice that you have carpet until you mentioned it as one of your biggest challenges. You have put together a great home.
Nice - you really did well in working around the carpet. Sometimes renting is all about compromise. Thanks for sharing! (and to hiwelder and other "keep calm" poster haters: maybe people have the poster in their home because.... they LIKE it.)
I love your style..everythings perfect..except that tile in the bathroom.
and the tile in the kitchen..but its a rental right?
where is this sofa/couch from? its amazing and i want it! :)
Beautifully done~I am with you on wanting hardwood floor, but the way you have decorated makes the carpet seem 'right'. It's got that groovy 70's shag-a-licious thing going! Congrats on pulling that off. Valley Village is a great little enclave too. I think of the Big Lebowski whenever I'm there!
thumb up for that couch. so nice.
i agree the beige walls, carpet and tile make some areas seem a little more bland, but maybe those are beyond your control. hardwd/ less carpet would go along way.
I'll bet it took a lot of effort to make that space into your own. Your careful choices in color, accents & furniture really pays off. I love the aqua in the round velvet cushion & seat covering in living room that serves as callbacks to the kitchen. Very nice!
I also LOVE that couch!
I love the artwork you chose for the bathroom... I love this place, it's so simple!
So amazing, I don't even mind the Keep Calm Carry On poster.
If this had wood floors it would be even more amazing.
Love the turquoise tile in the bathroom! I'm inspired...
I'm completely in love with your couch!! Love the orange!
i also want to know where you got the couch.
Love the couch! Also the Prince album....Controversy was and is still a favorite!
Broken up maps, another trend?
I would love a source for that sofa.
I like the feel of this place, but it really needs some rugs to anchor everything. There are some really nice elements otherwise. Especially the amazing orange sofa.
this is a great example of taking a rental space and making it your own. i also agree that a rug would add some color and dimension to the layout - even if it is on top of the carpet.
I love your style! It just looks refreshing with the open spaces and aqua walls.
One more for that incredible sofa!
I think you've performed a miracle here -- such a small apartment -- such an open space feeling. Well done Sophie.
There's enough room in this little space to actually rough house. Nice.
I love my friend that lives in the home and have only met his wife on a couple of quick occasions... quite impressed with her use of colour and natural instinct for how wall art flow!
I feel like someone just picked me up and dropped me into the 1960s. And I think I like it!
I want that sofa. Where is it from?
@hiwelder: that's your big beef? With all the other things floating around this site that everybody and their brother and sister and buddies and acquaintances and neighbors have? I personally find the Eames/Eiffel thing tiresome, among many other classic but done-to-freaking-death MCM pieces, but obviously Sophie likes her chairs and doesn't need an "OMG, why do you LIKE that? [subtext: your taste, it is crap!]" from me. Awhile back, the "Keep Calm" print swept the web and evidently not everyone has been peer-pressured into trashing theirs.
Sophie, I like your place. Your couch is in the streamlined style that doesn't always appeal to me, but it looks so comfy, I want to flop down on it and veg awhile. Your kitchen and bath are adorable, and that is some pretty inoffensive apartment carpeting, in the grand scheme.
I can tell from the design and decor that this home must be inhabited by 2 cool cats.
Love your use of color and vintage lamps...I honestly forgot that the carpet was even there! Your couch is fab too...who would have guessed that a tufted orange sectional could work? Also where is the orange shelf/bookcase from in your kitchen??
Thank you everyone for the nice comments and suggestions! Way more sweet things than I expected! Please give us a thumbs up! I really want that book! (I keep my expectations low :)
THE COUCH: The couch is the "Melia" sofa from a store in Studio City called DWELL FLOOR FIVE, they also have a location in Pasadena. The fabric is called "Linato Gold", and I think the legs are "espresso". We love our couch and we love the shape but we do not reccommend choosing that particular fabric. It is a little difficult to see in the pictures, but the fabric gets some really odd discolorations and we have had it for less than a year. With that said, the store has about 700 fabrics to choose from. The store had a standard size, but we had it customized, and got it extra long, and added the chaise. The chaise was my husbands idea and I actually resisted it at first because I didn't want a sectional. I now eat my words because we watch TV every night on that chaise and we love it.
RUGS ON CARPET: At first I wanted a rug, but we just haven't found the right one. My husband doesn't love the idea of a rug on carpet, he says it seems "gross". I kind of tend to agree. However, we are open to suggestions!
ORANGE SHELF IN KITCHEN: this is cheap metal shelf from Ikea that we spray painted. We looked everywhere for something to fill that really akward, ugly space. We found this for about $15 and we really like it for now.
MAP COLLAGE: This was a fun project! We found the atlas at an estate sale for a buck. We got the frames at Aaron Brothers during the penny sale, so we only had to by half of them. We ended up going back to the store about 4 times to keep getting just 2 more frames...we just couldnt get the placement right :)
I am amazed that no one shredded us for our mini-blinds! That is our next project.....
Mikey1234: Yes, its a rental. Agreed, however the tile could be worse, at least it was brand new and clean when we moved in.
@SophieLynn
As for rugs on carpet, we have woven grass rugs underneath our coffee table and really like them. There is lots of foot traffic around the table and sofa so it helps keep the carpet clean. Plus it's a nice difference in texture so it's not soft on soft. They are easy too clean too and a neutral color so it helps break up the space without over powering it. Hope that helps! I love your space too!
Good for you Shophie. Love what you've done to your place.
The pops of orange is fantastic!
Sophie, you have such great taste! That is such a cute apartment. I wish I could do that.
I'm completely charmed by the blue and orange pairings. And the jadeite bowls for accent in the kitchen are brilliant! I don't think I've ever met an Eames chair that I didn't love. That's the one chair in a house I'll refuse to sit in, just so I could sit on the other side of the room and look at it.