A Rental Apartment’s Kitchen Floor Got a New Look With Tile Stickers
Name: Elisa Law, husband Jered, best friend Emilie, and catmate Sammy
Location: Seattle, Capitol Hill
Type of home: Apartment
Size: 750 square feet
Years lived in: 5 years, renting
Tell us a little (or a lot) about your home and the people who live there: Our space is a great example of how a little care and curation can transform an otherwise rusty, dusty century old Capitol Hill four-plex. We are PNW historians, museum professionals, artists, videographers, and teachers. Our space is where community gathers for outdoor movie nights and living room concerts. “It’s the best living room I’ve ever been in” someone said recently.
Describe your home’s style in 5 words or less: Notably art-filled, Parisian flea market.
What is your favorite room and why? The living room, with its high ceiling and south-facing bay windows, gold-framed full-length mirror, hammered copper and indigenous and local art, handmade hanging shelves, a piano covered in plants, and a quartet of guitars mounted on the walls. Every room in the house has been both a living room and a bedroom at some point during the five years we’ve been here. But this front room has finally become self-realized. It’s complete. There’s nothing more to add and nothing that can be taken away. My magnum opus I guess, interior design wise.
What’s the last thing you bought (or found!) for your home? Last thing I bought was a huge print of Pegge Hopper’s, a pastel-colored scene of a beautiful Pacific Islander woman lounging across pillows with a fan in her hand. It reminds me of our time, Emilie’s and mine, in Peace Corps Samoa, where we met and became friends lounging around on the floor of an open fale house, ocean waves lapping beside us, swapping stories with all the time in the world.
Any advice for creating a home you love? Each room is a puzzle and each piece in it a treasure. You have to love the solving and the hunt! Best advice is not to rush. It’s taken years for some of the spaces in our home to evolve into their final Pokémon form.
This submission’s responses were edited for length and clarity.