functional duality

For the sake of starting off on the easy foot, this post will be extremely picture heavy! It will also be text heavy...


For the sake of starting off on the right foot, please enjoy this musical treat while you read! (Or before or after you read, for those of you who have troubles listening to words while reading other words): 

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Studio living is so luxurious. It's almost like living in a hotel. The fridge is smaller, the bathroom has that lingering wet smell, the closet space is perfectly sized for a weekend away. One of my favorite aspects of studio living/hotel staying is the combination of the living room and bedroom all in one. Except, with this studio, I have room for either the bedroom OR the living room. Which to choose?


The Problem: Well, I refused to choose between a living space or a sleeping space. I also (being a poor college student, as they say) had limited money to find a solution.


The Solution: My quick and easy fix was to purchase a daybed with a trundle, that way if a guest ever braved the stay over here, they would not be forced to sleep in the bathtub. I could find many viable daybeds on craigslist, though few included the trundle. After figuring the amount for the daybed, the separate amount for the trundle, the cost of a mattress (Elliot's parents, thank goodness, donated the second), and the cost of all the pillows to make the cast iron bed frame more comfortable, I was in over my head.


Why not just take away the bed frames, stack two mattresses, and call it good? It'll be easy enough to slide one mattress off of another to make a bed (or two) at night and stack them to make a couch at day! And here is what I came up with:

Two king size pillows make a perfect 'couch' backing (the white pillows seen here).
They also are the perfect size for a pillow hugger like myself.

My move is still in progress, but I have big plans for that white ledge up there.
Picture-less frames will serve as a fine filler for now :)

Oh, hello. Did I mention I am obsessed with Ball Jars?
Not only are they good for containing delicious jams an other preserved and pickled products,
they make fine candle holders, battery holders, and I'm thinking for this tall one here - perhaps a summer vase?

Of course, no self-respecting couch in any living room stands alone.
Since I went with a crazy (I mean, AWESOME) pattern for the couch/bed,
I kept it simple but ultra comfy for the chair.

How does one achieve ultra-comfyness?
1. Line it with a (faux) furry blanket,
2. Make sure there's a second blanket
3. Add a pillow

I am so happy with this quilt I found for the couch/bed.
I worried at first the pattern would clutter the eye while it viewed all of my other clutter.
On the contrary, the consistency of the pattern makes my space look rather organized.

Also, I am so glad I went with a quilt rather than a comforter. The stitching makes it really durable and the lack of fluff (which originally concerned me, for I love fluff) allows the blanket to make really clean lines on the edge of the mattresses. No fluff also means no fluffing! I've not yet had to wipe out wrinkles or bulges in fabric.

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Hold onto your hats, kids! While this post was exhilarating to say the least (hah!), the next post will be sure to document a disaster: a chronicling of my first attempt at making a VEGAN cake (type of cake is yet to be determined), alongside of my first attempt at baking in my pigeonhole of a kitchen. Stay tuned!

SSB

prologue.

I naively did not listen to my mother when she said to me: "Sam, there is going to be a time in college when you live in a really crappy, cheap place." Surely, I thought, it would never get to that point.


Well, now it has gotten to that point. What's that old saying? Mothers know best? Or...


All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That's his.  

[Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest]

Well, in the true spirit of becoming like my mother, I am taking this crappy, small, cheap, and currently cold studio apartment and making the best of it. I have roughly the same amount of space as my freshman dorm, and somehow I have acquired loads more of possessions, but I can make this place snug as a bug in a rug, and with much more flair. 

Because as "crappy" as this place is, there really is a lot of beauty in it. Sure, the fact that the house was built roughly around 1910 makes it creaky and oddly proportioned and climately challenged. Yes, there are quirks about the electricity - like the fact that I can't run the coffee maker and microwave simultaneously without blowing a fuse. Of course I will have to deal with the musty 'old' smell. But the place is well equipped with very charming aspects as well: the 10 inch white floorboards and wide white trim around doorways and windows, the built-in yellow vanity in the bathroom, the oversized and older-than-life-itself tree outside of my window. 

This blog will be an exploration of how to live in a little place but with limitless expectations. I will reveal how to cook in the tiniest kitchen known to man, how to creatively furnish a bedroom/living room with no couch or bed, and how to deal with grandma's favorite pastel yellow tiled bathroom (that happens to also be carpeted). I think most intriguing will be the adventure of fitting all of my things into this cubbyhole and keep it from looking too cluttered. 

Because friends, I have big plans. I want to try cooking gourmet things, I want to do yoga in the morning, I want to have friends over to share a meal or a good conversation. I want a space that will nurture me on my journey, that will take care of me during the sleepless study nights and the slept-in summer mornings. And I will do this all in my little, limitless place.

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Coming soon: a couch bed!