The Apartment Wishlist

I thought I would change things up a little from my usual routine (not that I really have one in place... but something that's removed from beauty and fashion bits) and write about home decor. I love looking at home goods in TJ Maxx and planning out my future apartment/home (thank you, Pinterest), and have so many ideas for redecorating spaces. My room in my parent's house is a little bit of a lost cause since, one, I don't really live there anymore since I spend most of my time at my apartment at school, and two, it has been completely repurposed into my parents' storage room after they decided to clean out the living room and discovered all the space they would now have if they moved excess furniture, quilts, and my mother's collection of seasonal displays into my (former) bedroom. I thought moving into an apartment where I go to school would be a super exciting decorating adventure, but I did not anticipate how much moving sucks and the tight college budget for sprucing up a place where I usually only spend time studying, eating, and sleeping. The basic college human functions. Also considering that I will only be there for so many more months of my life (weird to think about!!) I wasn't sure how appropriate it would be to go the full nine yards.

However, a new opportunity and mind set has begun to emerge. When I return from my semester abroad and summer travels I will be moving into a new apartment in preparation for the upcoming school year (ahh, I'm going to be a senior! Time flies too fast) because one of my current roommates is graduating and moving out. That means a whole new space to organize and decorate, which I am super excited about. This time instead of sharing a room, I may be moving into a single which means more room for my own things, and that brings one thing to mind: furniture. I only had a desk, one tiny dresser, and a bed to call my own in my old apartment, but now I'm thinking towards the future and I really want to add some storage and cute decorations that I can use beyond just my college years into this new space. I've been planning some elements for my hypothetical future apartment (I was thinking post-college life), but why not start collecting some of the stuff now? It only makes sense if I will have room to put it to good use in our new abode, and lord knows I need some serious storage solutions because my lack of drawer space has led to piles of clothing in multiple places that is not my closet.

My main wish is to have the oh-so-stereotypical white gloss IKEA Expedit shelving unit. I want the 8-block one to put horizontally against a wall to serve as a storage-slash-display, and to fill half of them with boxes such as this or these to divide up and organize a mishmash of things like underwear, electronics and hair tools, school materials such as paperwork, and purses. The other four would be used as bookshelves and displays for cute knickknacks. I want to invest in an acrylic nail polish rack, a mirrored tray to display my small but adorable perfume collection on, and perhaps some milk jars and fake flowers or even a terrarium to place atop this unit and turn it into a cute, functional space. It would also be the perfect place to rest my adorable Paper Source map of Italy that I plan on getting framed when I arrive home. Paired with a cute little clothing rack a-la-Cupcakes and Cashmere to feature my favorite pieces and scarves, visions for my new room are looking pretty great!