This Baker Turned a 1925 “Landlord Special” Rental into a Dreamy Home

The bakery moved out of the apartment, but Ashley’s been renting the space for seven years now, and in that time has created a warm, colorful, and creative space. “When I moved back to Philly after living in Tanzania for two years, I knew I wanted to find something I could really make a home and put some roots down in,” Ashley begins.

“I had some prerequisites: an apartment in a Victorian building, a bay window, and a claw tub. It took me so many months to find a good place. I searched and searched online for almost a year, but no one was listing what I was looking for. Eventually, I decided to try it old school and I walked around the neighborhood I wanted to live in and took down numbers off ‘For Rent’ signs. After many cold calls and viewings, I eventually found a place.” 

Ashley reports that the second-floor apartment needed a lot of work, and while it was technically a one-bedroom, because she couldn’t afford to live by herself when she first moved in, she arranged the space more like a two-bedroom so that she could get a roommate. “[T]he living room and bedroom were both so big that I sold it as essentially two studio bedroom arrangements, which totally worked,” she writes. “For the first half of my time here, my bedroom also served as my living room, which it’s still arranged as today.”

These days, the busy business owner needs all the space for herself, and so the other room is now a den/office space, but she made sure to have the kind of seating arrangement that also acts as a sleeping space because “having space for out-of-town guests is important to  me.”

Ashley’s passion for design is evident in her home, but it can also be seen in the bakery as well as the apartment above the bakery, which Ashley rents out on Airbnb. “I recently color washed all the walls in my new bakery as well,” she begins. “It took FOREVER. But I’m really proud of them. Secretly I wish if I wasn’t a baker, I would be an interior designer. So when people come into my apartment, or bakery, or Airbnb and compliment the design, I get really proud and want to cry (happy cry).”

• Kitchen — Valspar “Plaza Green”

• Painting — PSTR Studio

• Daybed — Target
• Bookshelf — Urban Outfitters
• Coffee Table — Target

• Amber Mugs — Bespoke Post

• Bed Sheets — Crate & Barrel
• Cat Scratcher — Myzoo
• Map of Bullhead City, Arizona — Carto Curio

Thanks, Ashley!

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

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