DIY Projects Fill a Bright Rhode Island Rental Apartment

Name: Faith Carbon and sweet and sleepy dog, Fig
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Type of home: Apartment
Size: About 1000 square feet
Years lived in: Almost a year, renting

Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: This is my first apartment on my own. I moved here shortly after wrapping up graduate school, where I had been living in a small, dark, studio apartment, so I was insistent on moving into a space that felt airy with lots of sunlight so that my plants would have an actual chance at surviving. I moved to Providence for graduate school from NYC where I am from, into a fully furnished apartment because I originally intended on moving back to NYC the second I was finished with school, so I didn’t move anything with me. Things changed, I ended up really liking the quieter, smaller city vibe — I know, as a New Yorker? How blasphemous — and landed a job here.

It took a long time to find an apartment that I really had the feeling that would feel like a home for me and my sweet dog, and this was the one that really felt like it. Because I moved here with no furniture, it was both overwhelming and exciting to have the opportunity to tap into my creativity to design my apartment to look the way I wanted. It took forever to get to a somewhat finished product, and I love the way it turned out.

I was so picky about selecting pieces for the apartment and feeling like I couldn’t find furniture that I liked, so I ended up doing a lot of DIY projects, which was a fun way to keep busy when it felt like there was nothing to do because of COVID. My partner and I spent about three months making the coffee table out of a slab of raw wood we bought from Facebook marketplace and hairpin legs from Amazon. We also painted the dining table yellow, and I bought the bench from a random thrift store and reupholstered it and reupholstered the dining room chairs as well, which were a Facebook Marketplace purchase.

Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: Clean, artsy, light, fun

What is your favorite room and why? My living room because my labor of love, the live-edge coffee table is the centerpiece, and I swear every day I marvel at this thing that I made with someone I love. I love the vibrancy that the blue velvet couch brings to the space, complemented by the African-print pillow-case that my mother made on a weekend that she came up to visit. Above the couch hangs a portrait of Toni Morrison, which I chose to place there because as a black woman, her work has been so foundational in my own self-discovery. It is only fitting that she adds so much color and inspiration to my space.

Any advice for creating a home you love? I think that it is rare that we see black people as makers and designers of home spaces, and that generally home-making is not within our domain, that designing is not the space for us. So my advice is to take up space, and just go for your vision. Even if what you are looking for is not out there, you can create it. Even if you can’t find space in this facet of the world that feels like one you fit into, there is space that you can create for yourself, that feels like home. There is no rule book. There is no guide other than what makes you smile and sleep easy at night — follow that, and nothing else.

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

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