Wall to Wall

Wall to Wall

Things are looking at lot different around here — at least in my apartment.

Last week, my pod came two days early to my utmost delight. For almost two weeks my bed had been my primary area for eating, sleeping, entertainment and study. An IKEA trip, some Amazon orders and about a million trips to Target and/or HomeGoods filled in the gaps from the furniture I didn’t bring from home, but my apartment felt sterile and strange without my belongings.

Since the pod I shipped everything in was about the size of my new tiny living room, unloading everything made unpacking a pressing matter.

Well my stuff arrived… 😮🙈

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If I didn’t unpack the boxes, I couldn’t get to my fridge or bedroom without stepping over things. The dogs were less than impressed. Next time you move, put everything in the most inconvenient places as possible… I promise that’s the fastest way to get your life in order, at least aesthetically.

Aesthetically, things are going well here. It took me about a week, but I have everything unpacked.

Someone was happy to have a couch again.

Before the pod arrived, I wondered if I even needed all the stuff I crammed into it. Sure, a couch would be a welcome addition… but I was doing okay with a limited wardrobe, paper plates and three forks. I was worried that when my stuff arrived, there’s no way it would all fit in the 400 square feet.

I was right to some extent. A lot of the stuff I pulled out of the boxes, I will rarely touch or need. But I feel better knowing that my first (terribly bad) literary magazine publication is in my bookshelf. My horse show ribbons sit on top of the china hutch, and remind me that once upon a time I had my shit together. There’s a comfort in stuff, even if that stuff is practically useless.

The biggest challenge was my closet. My Austin house is rich with closets. The master bedroom had two, as well as a linen closet and a coat closet in the rest of the house. My new apartment has one, and it’s tiny. Even though I had organized and compartmentalized as much as possible, I still couldn’t get the doors to shut.

So I tore them off.

Once I hacked and unscrewed my way into an open closet, my bedroom suddenly felt a thousand times better. I needed to aggressively push something down to make room for the new life.

While an organized closet makes picking out an outfit a possibility, it’s the art on the walls that made this little place feel like somewhere I lived versus a strangely unfurnished hotel room.

I abandoned all concerns about security deposits, and hammered every frame into the walls. It’s more important to me to feel whole, than worry about holes.

With the pieces up, the walls are full. There’s a little growing room to add to my art collection, which I tend to do, but they represent the life I’ve led so far.

Some paintings and art pieces I did back in high school. A Stephen Huneck print from Dog Mountain. Photography from WEF, show photos of Simon. A signed print Tim bought online years ago and was super excited about, because it was done by the same artist who designed the X-Files alien. My art from Japan. It’s all here.

I’m not settled yet, but I feel a lot less like a drifter. Sure, my furniture is too big for my living room and I don’t have an actual dining table, but I have a lot me in this little place. That’s more than enough for now.

27 thoughts on “Wall to Wall

  1. Could you come help me with mine? I have a TON of great art, but I haven’t mastered putting it up so it looks cohesive and intentional. Yours looks great!

  2. This, this and this, 10,000 times. My house is NOT my home without my pictures on the walls. Everything I hang has personal meaning, and represents me or a part of my life at a particular point in time.

    I do not understand how anyone can live with naked walls. I just couldn’t do it.

    Your place looks great Lauren. It is your nest!

  3. Love it! My indecision always keeps my walls bare, i love that you just do it (and it looks great)!!! Spackle is cheap and easy when the time comes.

  4. I lived in a 400 square foot apartment for a while, and I’m seriously impressed with how much stuff you have in there and neatly!

  5. I am SUPER-impressed but not surprised at how amazing your places looks, because I loved the way you did your house. I think it’s fantastic! More personality and good taste in 400 s.f. than most people have in a 4,000 s.f. house. Of course it helps that decorating almost “horse everything” is my style as well. 😉 I don’t have any whale art and yours is beautiful. I DO have a whole bunch of stuff on the walls, deposit be damned, and it was the first thing I put up after furniture. You have inspired me to make some new arrangements with pieces I didn’t get out yet!

  6. P.S. Thank you for sharing photos. I was really looking forward to seeing what you did. 🙂

    Burning question: when is Simon going to be joining you in CA?

  7. gorgeous, and homely…but it did make me giggle, all your posts about space,
    in the UK this is palatial :@))) i’m serious!!
    mostly we only have room for one under counter fridge, mine has no room for a cooker-just a camping stove, and we almost NEVER have space for dining tables, let alone a room for it!most used phrase “kitchenette” my microwave is in a different room, many of us put our fridges in the living room to work in the space, and washing machine is in the outhouse!
    we are lucky if ours is covered in black mould throughout, the hot water works and it actually has working heating!don’t get me started on cables on the walls.
    as for pets and kids..ohhh no…no one with ACTUAL responisbiity is allowed a rental!lol despite the gross state of most of them!how can you actually do more damage with a dog that years of cheapskating hasnt done?
    in fact, thats bigger than my whole house, and i have whats considered a large detached!
    cosy may be what you need in this stage of life-good luck!

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