A Moodboard For Alleigh
Today, we are taking a road trip! Everybody loves a good car ride where you’re cramped in with the suitcases, travel games; windows down with the road trip mix blaring. Right? Or is that just me? As long as I can have either shotgun or a seat by a window (I get car sick), I’m pretty much game for anything. Today, we’re headed to the apartment of a friend from college. Everybody, meet Alleigh.
Don’t you just want to give this girl a high five? She’s as peppy and fun in person as she looks in that photo. 🙂 Alleigh and I interned together back in school and have stayed in contact since then. She has a website where she posts all sorts of fun videos… life stuff, vlogs, music… you should go check her out! Anywho, Alleigh emailed me a while back asking if I could take a look at her new apartment and give her some thoughts and ideas about making it into her new home. Um, shopping and designing where I don’t have to lift a finger (except to scroll)? YES PLEASE. I should note that Alleigh lives a fair number of states away, so I took the virtual tour. 🙂 After all was said and done, I asked if she would mind if I blogged about some of our brainstorming, she said “go for it!”, and here we are.
Let me show you around… when you walk in the door, Alleigh’s family room/sitting area/den greets you.
And looking back the other way, at the door…
The space has some great natural light, thanks to the door leading out onto the balcony, and it opens up to the dining room and into the kitchen.
What a great space to work with! Alleigh was looking for a few specific things… more storage, a space to do office-y, work-related things, and ways to add a personal touch to her space. As she is in an apartment, there are a few restrictions of course, but I think we came up with a plan that can still accomplish all of the things she was hoping for. The first thing I did was draw a quick layout of Alleigh’s space, to get a feel for how things are divided up and flow into each other. In the (very) rough drawing below, the green area is her family room/den and the purple is her dining room.
Then I started some brainstorming. After thinking through some options, here’s where I ended up:
Ok, I know. It’s a lot. Let me explain…
Essentially, I just took the open concept layout that she has (which I love!) and broke it into a few “zones”, two of which she already had. Again, the purple shaded area is her dining room and the green is her family room. To align with what Alleigh was looking to get out of the space, I added one more zone… the orange is her “hallway/office”.
The current family room is a good size (which is nice), but may be so large that the furniture seems spread out and not as cozy as it could be. My first suggestion was to scoot the couch out from the current wall she had it on… maybe as far as the porch door is. The idea here is that she’s making her family room space smaller and cozier AND freeing up space behind the couch to create a “hallway” to the door, as well as space to put a shallow desk on the wall that used to house the couch. SO, I would move that couch, coffee table, and rug up… still facing the same direction and add a coffee table… BAM, instant cozy family room, utilizing only half the space. From there, all that was left to do was put together some decor ideas into a moodboard to see how things could potentially come together!
Let’s jump right in!
- You saw in the photos above that Alleigh had the wall in her dining room painted a sky blue, so I used this as the foundation for the rest of the design inspiration.
- If you are looking at the blue wall in Alleigh’s house, the wall to the left is a great candidate for some larger scale art. This particular one is just the painting I did for our gallery wall (you can read all about it here), but imagining it blown up and stretched over a large canvas. I like the pinks and yellows it has to balance out the majority of blues that are in the rest of the design. The bottom line? This part of the plan can easily be DIYed… just grab a large canvas and some paints from the craft store and go to town with whatever colors tickle your fancy!
- I’m loving this basket pendant light from Ikea and I think it would be a unique accent over the dining room table, provide the light you’d want in that space, and not be so visibly overwhelming that it’s all you see in the room.
- The blue wall is so fun! I think a set of chunky floating shelves would be perfect. In the second floor plan drawing, you’ll see that I rotated the table to accommodate for the depth of the shelves. At least two, and maybe three of these would provide the perfect spot to house extra dishware (one of Alleigh’s requests was more storage), plus it would give her another space to put decorations and mementos. At first I was thinking white, but I really like the wood look of these ones from Ikea!
- Ok, moving into the family room. In the floor plan, I added a chair next to the fireplace. This one from Target caught my eye (loving that blue pattern!), but it’s a bit on the pricey side and I’m sure if she hunted around, she could find something just as unique and eye-catching and a bit more affordable.
- Ottomans. We’re huge fans. We’ve got two of this exact one from Target and LOVE them. Extra seating, extra hidden storage, and they don’t take up too much space. It’s a triple threat, really. 🙂
- I’m a firm believer that some sort of plant (living is great, but anything is better than nothing) in each room is key. This faux succulent from Target is adorable and fits the color scheme just perfectly!
- Nick nacks are important! They add character and personality and help your space tell your story. These two from Target are super fun… I like the patterns and angles of the geometric shape and the playfulness of the game piece!
- Moving onto our office area… the orange in the floor plan. I really like this floor runner from RugsUSA because the green ties in nicely with the painting, but also feels like a close enough relative to the blue to pull everything together. Again, with some hunting, I think you could find something a little less pricey, but when you’re just gathering inspiration… price doesn’t matter as much!
- Every office needs a workspace and this desk from Ikea is great for the “hallway” space, thanks to its thin frame. Being that it is white and has an open frame, it won’t take up too much space visibly. It’s like an office incognito!
- Finally, to wrap things up, I added this teal storage caddy from Ikea to help corral any extra office supplies that don’t fit in on the desk or in its drawers. I’ve had my eye on this cutie for awhile and have been waiting for our house to grow an extra room so I have an excuse to go and buy it. Maybe someday.
And there you have it… a moodboard and some apartment decorating ideas for my lovely friend Alleigh! Anyone else in an apartment and figuring out how to design around that security deposit? 🙂 There are ways to do it… sometimes it just takes a little thinking outside the box! I hope you enjoyed our moodboard road trip together. I sure did! If you’re in the mood (har har) for some more posts like this one, you can find the moodboard we did for our Downstairs Bathroom here and our Mid-Century Modern themed one here. Until next time, have a great day!!
Psst. Don’t forget to check out Alleigh’s website… most recently, she shared the top five favorite foods she’s loving right now. Food? I’m in. 🙂
