Living with strangers seems to be some kind of necessary university experience I’ve subjected myself to 3 times already. Some of those experiences have been awesome and those strangers became my friends (s/o to you 409 suities) but other experiences were less so. Needless to say, I was pretty excited to move into a place with my best friend (and her cat), especially when that place is a 2-bedroom and we don’t even have to put up with other people! And also other people don’t have to put up with us – it’s a great arrangement.

 Our apartment building looks kind of sketchy from the outside but it’s fine because we’ve decked it out on the inside to compensate. I’d start at the front door but it makes our apartment look kind of like a meth lab.

We have a coat closet and also a storage closet on the other side of the front hall area. The coat closet looks hilariously messy but that’s because that’s where we hide things like the extension leaf for the table, boxes, and my clothing steamer.

Also, that’s rack is only my shoes. Jill has a comparable amount but her rack is on her bedroom door.

Also in our front hall area is this red bench my dad made me. It’s super convenient for putting on shoes and being the only colourful thing in our apartment.

We also had to furnish the entire place ourselves as it came unfurnished. That was both fun and a headache, just knowing that we had to look for things – especially on a student budget. It helped a lot that we were able to get some pieces from family. You’ll notice that we’re big fans of blankets in our living space.

black armchairs – from Jill’s mom // side table between armchairs – from my house // projector stool – from my house // silver floor lamp – mine

There’s also a lot of lovely natural light in this apartment, both in the living room and our bedrooms. It almost makes up for the fact that there is no overhead lighting in the living room.

The couch I found on the Free and For Sale page on Facebook. All the pieces come apart so it was actually pretty easy to move. We did steam clean it before using it, and Jill threw all the cushion covers into the washer for safety. It’s also modular so we can adjust the arm depending on the setup of our living space!

sofa – $40 from free and for sale page

The coffee table was a birthday present to Jill that her boyfriend and I split. I found it on Kijiji for $100 and it’s really lovely. Also – not that heavy because the black parts aren’t metal like I thought but wood. Apparently, the guy has a carpentry/woodworking business and makes these on the side.

The cat came with Jill. She is both adorable and a pain in my ass.

coffee table – $100 from Kijiji // grey striped carpet – $17 from IKEA

My parents gifted me a projector last year because I thought it would be easier than trying to transport a television screen wherever I moved. It makes for really cute movie nights! It’s propped up on a selection of coffee table books I’ve accumulated over the years. We don’t have bookshelves so our books hang out in the side table with some succulents and tea candles.

Our back wall features some geometric shapes from Umbra that Jill had, as well as a (very) well-stocked bar cart. I’m fairly certain it was sold as a kitchen cart but this was more necessary for us. We went into Lowes to find a plunger and came out with the cart. In case you’re wondering…we still need to buy a plunger.

bar cart – $90 from Lowes

Does the existence of such a huge mirror in an apartment that I inhabit surprise anyone? Probably not. It was on sale at JYSK and the location closest to us had it in stock so (with the help of my parents) I brought it home. It’s really good for taking pictures because we’re pretty narcissistic. You can also see the results of our yarn ball making attempts. Yarn balls are really difficult and I don’t know how Pinterest moms manage to make so many.

mirror – $50 from JYSK

Some additional shots of our decor. We have an assortment of pictures hanging up on our string of fairy lights. Oh wait, our fairy lights!! I almost forgot. Two of our walls are outlined with our lights and at night they look like this:

It also helps with our whole ‘no-overhead-lighting’ situation.

On the other side of our living room is our dining table which we use more for work than eating.The table has an extension leaf for when we have parties and need to set out a lot of food.

The contractors also juuust finished installing our new balcony railing yesterday which is exciting! Not that we have much time to enjoy it before it gets cold but because the old railing looked like you needed tetanus shots even just to glance at it.

dining table + 4 chairs – $30 from free and for sale group

And now my bedroom! I feel like this picture was pretty good for capturing how it feels inside. I have a lot of luxe textures with my carpet and my blanket, and it gets super lovely and bright in my room!

The carpet is from Costco (I think) and the log pillow and cityscape pillowcases are from Simons. A big thank you to Hannah who let me borrow her bed while she’s living it up in LA!

Some workspace details: calendar printout on a clipboard // bulletin board // cloud stress toy from my last co-op // silver lamp from a garage sale I went to with my dad // tablet // notebook // silver monogram V from Chapters that I haven’t figured out where to put yet // pack of hairties that fell on the ground and I was too lazy to retake the picture

I also forgot to take a better picture of my desk but I also got it from JYSK when it was half off. It’s so lovely and fits my aesthetic pretty well.

desk – $75 from JYSK

Back of my door with some purses/belts/scarves, and the entirety of my messy closet. If I could, I’d hang everything up but I have too much stuff for that. I don’t think anyone is too shocked to see the lack of colour in this closet shot.

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And that’s it folks – our apartment + my room because I’ve finally had the time to put this all together.

I also just want to show you the side of the apartment where the kitchen is and where we throw all of our storage things. The kitchen itself isn’t bad but since we moved our dining table to the living room and converted the space for boxes, it’s significantly less aesthetic than we’d prefer. The balcony furniture being inside while the railing was being installed doesn’t help the broke student vibes.

Take a look, then go back through all the other pictures so you can really appreciate how nice the rest of the apartment is.