Category: Apartment Living

Our Pine Shelves are Installed!

This post’s alternate title: “It’s Been A LONG Time Coming.”

Ever complete a project, step back and it seems like you can hear the angels singing?

Completed Pine Shelving

Ever since the day we moved in and realized our faux-tolix barstools wouldn’t work with the kitchen counter overhang (overhang is too short/ stools are too tall), I wanted built-ins here under the overhang. However, given that we’re simply in an apartment and not in an owned home, I thought that we wouldn’t be able to install anything permanent or semi-permanent like shelves. So we got a few IKEA units (on sale in the as-is section) to act as a stopgap solution…

bookcase_after

This looked OK– better in photos than it did in person, though. Since they were on carpet and hadn’t all been assembled identically, they kind of leaned back or forward from each other and didn’t look as neat and clean as what I had in my vision. So little by little the area underneath here was altered…

Living and Dining Area

One unit was removed to make way for our turntable… then all three units were relocated to the west wall when we got our green couch and reoriented the whole apartment.

After hanging art

Now… Ahhhh. This is so much better!! They are only ten inches deep which actually gives us five more inches of floor space in that area when compared to the EXPEDITs. Five inches may not seem like much, but it’s almost half a foot, and the space is so much more streamlined, as the photo below makes clear. The pine warms up the space in a very honest way. Somehow, yeah, “honest” seems like the word for this simple solution. Here’s a few more shots:

Pine Shelving

Pine Shelving

Completed Pine Shelving

I feel like purposefully leaving the area underneath the bottom shelf empty makes it seem light and creates the illusion of more floor space. The best part is that the project was affordable, there aren’t many screws in the wall, and the whole thing can be taken with us to our next place next fall! I will have a how-to and budget breakdown here for you Wednesday!

IKEA MOLGER in the Bathroom

Today’s post is a quick one because there isn’t a ton to say on the subject. As part one of our intentional effort to bring a bit of pine into every room, the bathroom was outfitted with an IKEA shelving unit. Inexpensive and very easy to put together, I like the modern lines mixed with the natural wood look.

bathroom shelf

Before hanging it, the brown wicker box that you can see on the top shelf simply rested on the back of the tank filled with bathroom-related items. Now those items are concealed (for the most part) in those cute green tins, also from IKEA. I can’t seem to win with the shaving cream, though. Leave it in the tub? Rust city. Put it in the cabinet? I will forget to use it. So there it sits, easily reachable from the shower, in all its glory.

bathroom shelf

Once we got the unit up on the wall, it seemed way too high (it seemed that way because it was) but I didn’t want to take it down and reposition it. Instead, I decided that what the room needed was a little 3-D artwork. Ever since the steam from a shower made a black picture frame bleed down the wall (at my parents house) I’ve always been a bit gun-shy about hanging actual artwork in the bathroom. Luckily the idea I had envisioned in my head came to fruition with a quick trip to World Market. I got this Indian hanging garland and “swooped” it nicely to fill up the negative space and add some prettiness to the area. It adds such a nice brightness and cheeriness… I love it.

Honestly, the tacky wicker basket on the back of the jon was working out just fine functionally… but it feels nice to dress up the space a bit, doesn’t it? Putting a little intentional effort into a room, even one that is the size of a glorified closet (seriously, that part of the bathroom is tiny) makes a big difference.

Bugs, be Gone!

I will say one thing about our apartment complex–the maintenance guys are very attentive and quick to respond, when we place a service order through our company’s website.

For a week or so I had been seeing some straggler ants on the linoleum by the front door. I would just kill them, scan the area for their buddies, then go on my way. I even saw a stray in the bathroom a few times, but didn’t think too much of it… a nuisance, but probably just looking for moisture, as bugs tend to do.

One day, though, I killed 10 in the kitchen before work and decided to put in a service request. Living for over ten years in Temecula, which is notoriously bad with ants, has instilled a paranoia in me that once I see even one in the kitchen, nothing is safe anymore. I put in the service request and we had an appointment set for the next week.

Kitchen Unloaded

Unfortunately for us, prepping the kitchen and bathroom for the exterminator’s attention meant (dun dun dunnn) emptying every cabinet and drawer and wiping them out.

When’s the last time you emptied your whole kitchen and wiped out every cabinet? My money’s on “not recently.” You will be surprised how grungy drawers can get (yuck!) and surprised at how much stuff fits into even a small apartment kitchen:

Kitchen Unloaded

(The majority of our pile was not as picturesque as our coffee table full of dishes from above.)

Glad to get that taken care of. Doug hemmed and hawed about it, thinking what a pain it would be to empty out the whole kitchen… then again he’s never lived through a full-blown Southern California ant invasion, so really he doesn’t know what we’ve avoided. I was at work when the exterminator came, but Doug said that he was professional and quick. Yay!

My major take-aways from this experience were:

  • So glad we’re not moving after all (read: look at all that stuff!)
  • I’m glad we can call and have something like this arranged for us, unlike with a previous landlord who was very, ahem, laissez-faire with repairs, etc.
  • Well, now the inside of our cabinets are clean and kinda reorganized!
  • I still really, really like my whiteware dishes (from Crate and Barrel).

Chalk one up in the renters’ column… you don’t have to pay for things like this! Additionally, we finally got the large burner on our stove fixed (we had been cooking with three small burners) and it’s amazing how much faster a kettle boils on an appropriate sized coil! Imagine that!

Any boring but important repairs around your place lately?