The Hoff Apartment Tour!

Welcome to our apartment!  Come right on in and make yourself at home.

Our front windows face the south and Kern and I can see the Capitol dome--it's truly lovely at night when it is illuminated!

Our TV console used to be a dresser, but with a few minor adjustments a new coat of paint, it now holds our TV, DVD player and record player.  Remember that cane back chair? 

Our coffee table was an Ikea Hack, and it also came with this wonderful side table--which got the same treatment!

This orchid was my Valentine's Day flower--and it's been fun to watch it continue to blossom.

This is my reading nook.  On any given evening I can be found curled up here reading.

The lamp was a birthday gift from my in-laws and I love it more every day!

Here's a close up of the curtain valance.  I ordered neutral long panels but then found material that coordinated with the other fabrics in the room and had the valances custom-sewed.

These Wolfe bird love birds were a gift from Kern to me and featured on the top of our wedding cake!

The kitchen area and the living room area are basically one long room.  It makes it easy to talk and be a part of the action in the living room even if you're cooking!

This oak table was originally purchased by my mom in the 1980's and updated by me in 2011.  It bridges the gap between the kitchen and living room.  The Janie Davis original watercolor was a gift to me from my parents when I graduated from college.  It shows my best friends and me eating outside at our favorite college spot--Bottletree Bakery.  Just typing that makes me crave a blueberry muffin!

After we moved into the apartment, Kern left one afternoon and drove to Community Forklift in search of a piece of furniture to fit this odd alcove of space between the front door and the refrigerator.  We needed a "catch-all" area to serve as a storage place for keys, papers, cook books and other miscellaneous items.  He came back with this perfect shelf--complete with a cabinet at the bottom.

Our bedroom is adjacent to the living room.  The bedside tables are identical and very functional with three drawers.

I re-did this dresser in 2012 and it's still one of my favorite pieces to date.  The jewelry box was built by my grandfather as a gift for my 6th birthday and the watercolor painting is from a trip to Florence, Italy.

I found long drapes online and picked custom fabric for the valances in our bedroom.  It really adds personality and interest to an otherwise drab window.

Kern uses this dresser, which is one that I re-did before the move.

And last but not least, the bathroom.

These framed prints are very special to me because the original photos were taken by my great-grandmother when she visited Washington in 1913.

So that's it--all 700 square feet of fun.  The space feels very personal to me because so many of the pieces and artwork have meaning.  It has been such a joy to breathe new life into some of them, repurpose and pull it all together in one space.

Before we moved in, I wondered how we would co-exist in a small space, but it has honestly been perfect--space is plentiful thanks to my pre-moving yard sale last fall.  My favorite part about small-space-living is that it motivates me to fully consider every purchase I make and encourages me to continue going through closets to minimize our belongings.

Oh, and did I mention that we happen to live above a grocery store?  That is merely the icing on the cake!