BrittanyMakes

You never quite realize how amazing your readers are until you hit a rough patch and ALL OF THEM chime in to cheer you up.  THANK YOU! Seriously, you all are so sweet and you really helped boost up my spirits this last week.

I’m being melodramatic, for sure, but our move has been quite an adjustment.  Even though this is a short stint situation (6 months – right babe?!) it’s been hard for me trying not to worry or stress over all these changes.  I’ll get my groove back… you know, once I unpack that mountain of boxes! I’m totally one of those packers who does a poor job labeling boxes, so of course I can’t find anything right now.

For real tho, let’s reminisce together and check out all the work we did on our loft, some fun before and afters, and a few forgotten glimpses of how we made this place our own.

THE KITCHEN

When we first moved in, our goal was to get the kitchen in order.  You wont realize how important a kitchen is until you move into a place that has only like half of one.

Sad, sad kitchen.

We added a cabinet and topped it with butcher block, then added shelves for additional storage.  This was by far the biggest improvement.

LIVING ROOM

I fell hard for this loft for one reason: natural light.  Just look at all that light!  Dark spaces really bum me out, so obviously saying goodbye to this space was super hard.

Our living room went through a few stages, from pillow changes to wall decor changes, from framed paper to Lack shelves, but this is pretty much how it looked before we started packing.  The Lack shelves were great for this space, but I don’t think I’ll use them again – I just don’t trust them.

The wall to the left looked like this when we moved in:

This is the wall we situated our TV on top of our coral dresser.

Let’s not forget about the beveled moulding “built-in” Billy bookcases we put up as a grand entrance into our living room! I thought for sure I’d have to leave these behind when we moved, but some how my brother and husband magically fit that bad boy in the elevator.  They were not too happy with me afterwards, but hey, at least we get to keep it!

BEDROOM

Here’s our bedroom before, we situated our humble queen sized bed under the exposed wood and galvanized metal beams.  It was a cozy nook, but in a big room.  I’ll miss this!

I just loved all the windows in our bedroom, despite having to install custom drapery rods which we fashioned from plumbers pipe.  I never actually photographed this direction after we updated our curtains to Ikea Anita curtains, which was a significant upgrade from what we installed when we first moved in <cringe!>

We were so focused on our wedding that we weren’t able to finish our bedroom until after our honeymoon.  Our bedroom was by far my favorite space, I LOVED sitting in bed staring up at our gallery wall.

It’s so easy to remember all the good things about the relationship you have with your former house, loft, apartment, condo, girlfriend, boyfriend, cat, etc.   I need to be realistic and keep in mind the many negatives about living in an urban loft, some of which will shock you I’m sure!

Here are a few crappy things about where we lived: 1) BART was literally IN our windows, I could wave to the trains as they passed, and I can’t promise you I never undressed while a train was zooming by!  2) We lived in West Oakland.  ‘Nuff said. 3) The apartment completely lacked storage, we had to block off a corner of our bedroom for all the stuff that should go in a garage – bikes, ladders, spray paint, wood scraps, etc.  This means we had one side of our room designed in style, while the other side looked like a dump.  It was definitely a challenge.  4) Although there was an abundance of natural light in the living room and 2 bedrooms, the dining nook and kitchen were void of natural light.  It was a bummer not to be able to photograph these spaces.

I think this calls for a “home tour” page now that I’ve put all these spaces together in one post :P