Getting the apartment decorated has been a slow and steady creative process. I saw some fun quotes that capture my sentiments about decorating our apartment:
“Rooms are albums that provoke memories. What you decorate with should remind you of a street you wandered down or an experience that made you happy.”
—Designer Amy Hase
Yes, I love this!! I love looking around the apartment and seeing things that make me think of that time I studied abroad in Spain, or that time Rob was voted Coach of the Year, or our Wedding day. Our memories are everywhere, and I feel like there are things in each room that makes it feel like I'm looking through a photo album or scrap book.
This quote is so appropriate for NYC and for our decorating style lately:
“People think you’re limited when a space is small, but I think the key is seeing everything as somewhat in flux, never standing still, always shifting, realigning. In a lot of ways, it’s like a garden.”
— Landscape architect Mario Nivera
Even just looking through these pictures which were taken about 3 weeks ago, things have already shifted. None of these pictures are on the mantle any more. Ha!
I put a fall leaf garland across the mantle to decorate for the season!
Here are the two finished bookshelves, styled by color coordinating all the books. I love how it turned out!
Our room is still a work in progress. We love the gorgeous rug we got as a good-as-new hand-me-down from Brett and Erin. We now have some sheer curtains up on those windows, and we are starting to put some pictures up as well. Bess loves the room too!
We added the great black and white NYC skyline panoramic set above the doorway to our room. Rob got that as a birthday gift two years before we moved to NYC.
Bess's Food and Water bowl area. So cute!
We shifted the Dining Room/ Office around, and now the Desk is against the opposite wall. The Dining Table is more centered now and it feels like the room is more open. If you've seen sitcoms set in NYC, you know that one idiosyncrasy is slanted floors and ceilings (think Mad About You and How I Met Your Mother).
Our entire apartment has places here and there that are slanted, but the Dining Room is extreme. It's pretty funny, when Bess is playing with a ball in here it will roll from one side of the room to the other on it's own. As I sit at the desk right now there is a sensation that I'm reclining back in the chair, but it's just the slant. So this is a view from the front of the dining room. Eventually there will be a wine rack on that wall. Below is a view from the other side of the room. I love the shot of the little pilgrim salt and pepper shakers from behind! So cute!! That is a great painting by my roommate from college, Lauren.
Me and Rob in the Kitchen. The doorway behind us leads to the Dining Room. See that green apple in the bookcase? That was a prize we won, which I'll post about soon!
I had seen many great Gallery Walls on Pinterest, and knew we had plenty of pictures that we could use, so we set to work. We had one concept lay out that we hoped would work, and that shifted and changed around several times before we finally finished. As we shifted pictures here and there, trying to come up with a fun balance, we decided to organize the pictures as a Family Tree. I absolutely love how it turned out!
Here is the *almost* finished Gallery Wall Family Tree. I wanted to integrate family photos, art, landscape photography and words to create this gallery wall.
Starting from the Bottom Row: Left to Right: My Grandpa Marcial and Grandma Lucy; My Grandpa Raul and Grandma Chela on their Wedding Day; Panoramic picture of the beach in Florida; Four Generations of Joseph Robert Hickson's from The First to Robby 4!
Second Row: I am going to put a hand written recipe by my Grandma Lucy in that red frame; My Mom, Eli and Grandpa Raul; Me and my Sis Eli; soon to be Family Picture from our summer trip to Puerto Rico that includes almost everybody; Robby, Bob and Donna in Times Square; Our Wedding Vows; soon to be photos of Robby's Grandma & Grandpa Phillips and Grandma & Grandpa Hickson.
Top Row: Local Art of a Country Wedding from Cozumel, Mexico; a Canvas print of the lyrics to You and I,our first dance; Me, Rob and Bess; Mark and Crystal (we're going to update that one with a picture that includes Addi); a collage Robby made for me for our five year wedding anniversary; Post Card from Rincon, Puerto Rico (I think that frame is going to get moved down to the bottom left side). That's it for now!
Hope you like it as much as we do! Can't wait for the pictures we ordered to come in!