A 560-Square-Foot Rental Apartment Has an Effortlessly Cool Vintage Art and Decor Collection

Name: Meghan Fitzgerald, husband Jeremy, and two dogs Hank Wiggleyams Sr. and Alliegator
Location: East Hollywood — Los Angeles, California
Type of home: Apartment
Size: 560 square feet
Years lived in: 5 years, renting

Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: Jeremy, our dogs, and I moved to this apartment in Los Angeles five years ago from Louisville, Kentucky, bringing only two vintage pieces of furniture and a large collection of art, records, and books. Our apartment is a Spanish-style bungalow that’s been recently renovated in a very walkable area in East Hollywood. In the last few years, we’ve worked to make our apartment not only good-looking, but designed with function in mind to maximize the small space. As lovers of mid-century design, we’ve incorporated both vintage pieces and new vintage-inspired pieces to create a more modern feel.

As two creatives who are passionate about art, our collection of art prints, concert posters, and original pieces are the highlight of our space. Our large collection of books and vinyl also really define how we decorate, and we’ve even had furniture pieces custom built to fit our collection.

Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: Vibrant art-filled, and mid-century inspired.

What is your favorite room and why? Our living room is where we spend most of our time, and it also is where our gallery wall and vintage 1960s Philco record cabinet shine. Due to the pandemic, we also had to make space for an “office” corner since I started working from home, and after painting the arch mural over my desk, it quickly became my favorite corner in the whole apartment.

What’s the last thing you bought (or found!) for your home? I recently bought my dream lamp from a vintage reseller, a ’70s Sonnenheim waterfall lamp, and it was the perfect addition to my favorite corner near my desk. Also, we gave our old boring grey IKEA couch an incredible facelift with a custom vegan leather couch cover from comfort-works.com. It was the best way to tie in the room without having to spend a fortune on a new couch!

Any advice for creating a home you love? The best advice I have is to live in your space for a while before you decide how to decorate it, and if you want to overhaul your space, focus room by room. Our apartment looked totally different five years ago, even two years ago, but by living in the space for a while we were able to make decisions on furniture and decor based on how we used our rooms, not just based on what we felt like needed to be in there. Also if you can invest in hearty furniture, be it vintage pieces or pieces that are more heirloom and built to last. It’s better for the planet and will last so much longer than cheap and fast decor and you’ll appreciate it so much more!

This submission’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.

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