Do these make sense?

As I mentioned in my last post, I've become ridiculously addicted to Pinterest. I saw these cute DIY t-shirt pom poms, and immediately I thought they'd look good above my front door...where I have that random looseleaf paper.

Does that even make sense? Will it do a good job of keeping Peeping Toms out? I'm not 100% sure. I'm trying to find a solution that blocks the view, but doesn't block light from coming in. It's proving challenging -____-

Little Miss Knight

I foresee an IKEA trip this weekend...

Happy Sabbath! Look what I found on IKEA's website...

I think my corner woes have been solved. And IKEA has free breakfast this weekend??? Yeah, I'll be all up in that thang.

Little Miss Knight

I've got to do something about this corner

I have very little decorating left to do in my apartment. I do have one problem area. No, it's not my abs (though they could use some work). It's a little corner between my futon and my wooden shelf tower. There you can find my dirty laundry and an old television.



I have tried selling that tv on Craigslist and I can tell you right now, nobody wants it. For any price. No one cares. I'm really tempted to put a sign on it that reads "It Works" and leaving it on the corner of D Street and 16th Street NE (not too far to walk with this ridiculously heavy tv, but just far enough away from my home). As far as the hamper, I need to find made of some sort of organic material like seagrass or bamboo. Oh, and it has to have a lid. I'm not sure my company would appreciate the scent of my week-old laundry. If they do...that's really weird.

Little Miss Knight

Quality Time

One of the best parts of putting together my studio and getting everything ready has been the quality time that I've gotten to spend with my very handy boyfriend. Q and I spent MLK weekend running back and forth to Walmart and Ikea, loading and unloading huge boxes and pieces of furniture, all while the poor thing was coming down with the flu. He's so dedicated =)

We went to Ikea to get another Aneboda nightstand. I put the one that was by the front door over by my bed, it holds my devotional books, remotes, and it's a space for my cell phone at night. The lamp is handy for when I want to read in bed. The other nightstand we put together is now by the front door. I keep house clothes and my satin scarves in the top drawer. The bottom drawers hold miscellaneous papers (including the instruction manuals for the stuff I just bought). I'm thinking of getting a plant for the top.

I also bought an Aneboda wardrobe to replace the temporary cloth one I'd bought at Walmart. It's not as big as the one I had, so I still utilize the small "closet" in the back of the apartment. I didn't really help Q put the wardrobe together at all (in my defense, I was cooking and washing dishes...lol we're a team). He did a great job. I have OCD, so I appreciate that all my furniture matches.

My futon wasn't supposed to arrive while Q was in town, but it came in early, which was great because Q took that job over as well. The futon is small, and sits low to the ground, but I have pretty low ceilings so it works. And it's red! I like the color scheme I have going here--white(furniture), mint (walls), and red (accents). Q suggested I get another Lack end table (from Ikea and super cheap) to put at the other end of the futon. Later I'll think of ways to decorate those tables and make them a little more interesting. Maybe I'll paint the tops?


The front of the apartment.



The back of the apartment.


Welp, all the boxes are gone, and my apartment is officially fully furnished! There are still a few projects that need to get done: Q was able to put up some blinds (ugh, I love him!) but I'm still stuck with college-ruled looseleaf paper on the front door. And I put up a pic of my family, but I have tons of frames to fill with photos. I still need another TV (the TV on my dresser belongs on the wall opposite the futon, so I need another, smaller TV to put on the dresser). I'm not in a rush to make any more large purchases though. Now I'll focus on decor and making the house feel like a home. It was fun getting everything set up and moved in. And I love that when I look at my blinds, or my vanity light in the bathroom, or my furniture, I automatically think of Q and the fun we had on those projects. It's like having a little piece of him with me even when I'm home alone =)

Little Miss Knight

How to create space in a tiny bathroom

My bathroom in my last apartment was HUGE. I had an enormous tub, plenty of space under the sink, drawers, a linen closet with 4 or 5 shelves, a medicine cabinet...ample space for all the STUFF I'd acquired and all the products I'd hoard. It was perfect! As a hair blogger, I collect A LOT of random products, and my old bathroom gave me lots of room to stash stuff.

Not so in the new place.

My new bathroom has no drawers, no linen closet, no medicine cabinet. I don't even have a bathroom counter. There was a white shelving system put in by my landlord, thankfully, but that was the only storage in the bathroom when I moved in. To add insult to injury, the bathroom is already cramped, so I had to find a way to add storage without adding bulk. Super difficult.


I put up my shower caddy from my last apartment and added another one on the side wall of the shower to hold all the products/tools I would ever need while washing my hair. I also purchased an over-the-toilet organizer from Walmart to hold everything that had once been in a drawer or in my medicine cabinet. To organize the different products and keep tiny things being all over the place, I bought a few grass baskets, also from Walmart--they're both decorative and practical.


I bought a few more of the baskets to put on the shelves that my landlord had put in the bathroom. I use that space the same way I used the space under my sink and in the linen closet. I put extra toilet paper and and *ahem* lady products over there. I also have a basket for my combs, blowdryer and flat iron and another one for my makeup. The plastic bins that hold my rollers and nail polish also call that area home, and I bought a bucket to hold cleaning supplies, which sits on the bottom shelf.



The finishing touches in the bathroom were a full-length mirror, which I hung over the door on the outside, and a makeup light for over the vanity. Quentin is super handy! He got the light for me and put it up. Such a sweetie :)

Little Miss Knight

Moving On Up

When I put together my list of Thirty "Somethings," I cheated a little bit on one...low-key. I had already determined that I was going to live alone at this next stage in my life, and was looking for places, but I put it on the list anyway because it's something I've NEVER done. This is a huge deal to me! I think it should have happened much sooner, but God works in mysterious ways...

I now have a 300 sq.ft studio (tiny) in Northeast D.C. It's a very quiet street, which is nice. It is a basement apartment, but you'd never be able to guess because it gets so much light (from 1 small window! it's amazing). I was looking for apartments literally with days to go before my lease was up. I remember it was like 1:00 AM when I found the listing for the studio on Craigslist, and I sent an email right then. I got a call the next day and went to see it with checkbook and credit report in hand. I was approved that night (praise God)! Then I got right to moving.

The view from the front door.

The view from the back door.

Told you...my apartment is tiny. But, it's really well-designed. The corridor shape makes it seem much more spacious than it is, and as you can see in the first picture, the "bedroom" is sectioned away from the rest of the living space, which again makes it feel bigger--it feels like there's more than one room. I'm even able to dim or completely turn off the lights in the "living room" while keeping the lights on in the "bedroom."


The studio didn't come with a closet, so I had to purchase this temporary wardrobe from Walmart so I could hang my clothes. I'm going to get this wardrobe from Ikea, which matches the rest of my Aneboda bedroom furniture. No closet also means no space for shoes, so I got this super handy over-the-door shoe rack. That door leads to the laundry room and is hardly in use, so it was the perfect spot for the shoe rack.



The kitchen came with those great built-in racks and the frosted glass back splash. I put my plates and cups up on the racks, along with my dish rags and oven mitts. The kitchen didn't come with any drawers and only one cabinet, so I keep silverware on the shelves under the range. There's a Lazy Susan in the cabinet, which makes it easy to get to things. I bought that kitchen mat at Walmart. It's actually a bathmat, but it's made of memory foam, which is so soft and cushiony. I stand in that spot for long periods of time (because the kitchen is so small--there really isn't the room to move around) so it's nice to have the memory foam.

Getting to work is SO MUCH EASIER now that I'm commuting from DC and not from Laurel, Maryland! And I'm really enjoying the quiet time alone. Sigh...so nice! I won't be able to entertain large groups, but I do have a great barbeque space out front that will be PERFECT for a summer fish fry. And now that I live in the city, I don't anticipate spending much time at home anyway. I want to explore all the different District neighborhoods, starting with H Street Corridor, which is literally a few blocks away. The space wasn't anywhere near being done when I took these pics--I'd only been in the apartment five days! I've been there for 3 weeks now, and it's starting to look more put-together--I'll post an update on the studio soon...

Little Miss Knight