My first apartment came with a security deposit clause so specific about nail holes that I spent an entire Saturday afternoon researching Command strip weight limits instead of actually decorating. Worth it, in the end, I got my deposit back, and I also learned that almost everything I actually wanted to do to that apartment…
I furnished my first studio for just under $1,100, and for about a year I was quietly convinced everyone could tell. They couldn’t. What actually gives a budget apartment away isn’t the price tag on anything in it: it’s buying randomly, one appealing thing at a time, with no plan for how much you’re willing…
The single best decorating decision I made in my first studio cost four dollars and took ninety seconds: I unscrewed the harsh cool-white bulb that came with the apartment and put in a warm one instead. The whole room looked different that night: softer, warmer, like it belonged to an actual person instead of a…
There is a specific kind of tired that comes from furniture that is technically fine but never quite right. The coffee table that is just a coffee table. The dining chair no one sits in. The ottoman I bought for storage that now just stores air, because I never got around to using it for…
I furnished my first small apartment twice. The first time, I bought almost everything in one weekend because I couldn’t stand looking at an empty room. The second time, around eighteen months later, I was still buying pieces one at a time, because the first round taught me that fast and cheap usually just means…