Channeling My Inner HGTV Design Star
I’ve always been a fine interior decorator. When you walk into my bedroom here in my apartment, you can tell I had a color scheme in mind and that I have a penchant for hanging things on the walls. But that’s all I could take credit for until a few months ago.
When Liv and I moved into this apartment almost three years ago, we “decorated” the living room with the basics: couch, coffee table, television, TV stand, dining for two, and a lamp. The coffee table was free from someone moving out of our building. To find the rest of the furniture, we sorted search results to see the cheapest options first. The pieces were all black, which made the tiny space feel even smaller. We bought a colorful rug and added throw pillows, and about a year in, I put one picture on the wall. Despite the [minimal] effort, it always felt somewhat dorm-ish and lacking.
But it was sufficient—there were places to sit and lay and eat, and that was enough. Though I was never too comfortable with the vibe of the space, we let it be. If it ain’t broke…
Then Liv moved out, about three months ago, taking some of the furniture with her and opening up the possibility of a fresh design start for the both of us. With my new roommate’s permission, I have taken on the task of redecorating our living room with gusto.
I bought my first power tool—a drill—to hang a floating shelf in my bedroom, and this weekend I plan to use it to hang a gallery wall of mirrors above the couch. I bought a new coffee table, TV stand, dining table and chairs, and an armchair. I bought a fake plant (because keeping one alive is enough responsibility for me right now). I bought an end table and a table lamp and a floor lamp to match. I bought three new throw pillows and a blanket. I bought two stick-on, battery-powered sconces. Oh, and my mom and I spent hours applying stick-on wallpaper to the flex wall. TaskRabbit who?
I tried (and somewhat succeeded) staining the coffee table and end table a shade of wood that was slightly closer to the TV stand I put together. Was that necessary? Probably not. But suddenly I was channeling all those hours spent watching HGTV with my mom, and I understood that to really make a space feel like home, there’s no half-assing it.
That said, I am still living on a weak salary in the most expensive city in the world, so I did some bargain hunting along the way. This is likely not forever furniture. I’ve traveled both lengths of Manhattan to grab furniture and mirrors for a better price. I set some pretty tight price filters on Amazon and Wayfair and Target and Walmart.
And now, I am almost done. The mirrors will (hopefully) go up this weekend, and then my roommate and I need to decide on some final art prints for above the dining table. With those tasks complete, my time as an interior designer will come to an end, for now.
I am sharing all of this here, because I had such a great time decorating, which is not something I’d ever taken real pleasure in. It was something new, something I had never done in earnest before, something that broke up the everyday sameness. Who’da thunk it? When I got a package, whether it was a pillow cover or a lightbulb or a chair, I could not wait to open it up and add it to the puzzle, to make the room and the apartment feel more like home. I wanted to see my decisions made physical and interact with one another.
And it looks really nice, if I do say so myself. I’ve become a master at reading instructions without any words. I can change a drill bit like nobody’s business. I own a stud-finder, for crying out loud! And I’ve learned how to really embrace color—including pink, which used to scare the crap outta me—to liven up a space.
I will be happy when this phase is over, when I can sit back and just enjoy the apartment and when I don’t have to spend any more money. But for now, I am soaking in the creative and practical challenge that is small-space interior design on a budget.
I may not be the next Design Star, but my efforts will put a smile on my face when I return home at the end of each day, and that’s all I can ask for.