apartment crashing

I recently took a trip to Seattle to visit friends, and my sister.  Part of visiting friends means crashing at their apartments and scoping out their personal style.  

I stayed with my friend, Margaret.  She's an interior designer, and in the process of getting her own business, Margaret Mitacek Interior Design, off the ground.  She's talented and such an inspiration.  Margaret is especially fabulous at creating rich looking spaces on a budget.  She furnishes her apartment using hand-me-downs, Goodwill finds, and Ikea, Target, and Cost Plus upgrades.  Margaret breathes new life into old, stale pieces by giving objects a new paint job, or adding a bit of flare.  I am always getting ideas for my own apartment when I visit her.

Check out Margaret's inspiring, and surprisingly low budget apartment.

Hand-me-down arm chair

Goodwill lamp and Target votives

Lamps from Goodwill were repainted to be a bright shade of raspberry.  Hand-me-down desk repainted gray with updated hardware.

Vintage photograph of one of Margaret's old-timey relatives and an Ikea couch with a cozy blanket over the cushion.

Gorgeous straw bench on loan from Margaret's mother.

Dining table and chairs on loan from Margaret's neighbor.

After my lesson in how to be poor, but look rich at Margaret's, I went to my sister's to learn how to live in an antique showroom.  She's in college and lives with three other girls.  This was my first visit to her apartment, and I was seriously distracted by all the amazing treasures.  They've only been in the apartment since August, but it looks like they've been living there for the last decade.

There were shrines to cowboys, cats, and vintage posters.  Books looked cozier and more inviting.  Cosmetics were artistically arranged on trays.  Everywhere there was a surface, something interesting was sitting on it.  I'm sure whatever my sister was talking about while I was there was interesting, but I wouldn't know it, I was way too busy checking out every detail of this three-story house.

Books on an invisible shelf, capped off with a toad.

Cosmetics and manicure set-up complete with baby face and figurines.

Cat shrine

Cats

Bedside light from local vintage shop

The best piece: vintage string dispenser.  I must have one of these.

I left Margaret's and my sister's feeling ready for a new household project.  Time to take a visit to my local thrift shop or Goodwill and do some bargain hunting and updating.  Great apartment inspiration from two, very different homes.