I stayed up late last night rearranging our apartment with my hubs. My poor husband. Less than a week before he leaves for deployment and I tell him I’d like to rearrange our home. After a year and half, I was getting antsy to do something to the space. Without being able to make significant changes like painting, moving the furniture around was the best solution. New curtains and throw pillows can only go so far. I needed a big shift.
Originally, I said I’d like to make the changes on Saturday, but as we were eating dinner, I decided there was no time like the present. Our apartment has been feeling cluttered and claustrophobic lately and with our big change looming, some space to breathe would be nice.
Moving furniture around wasn’t the only method to get that space. We also created a purge box during the process to weed out items we don’t need or want anymore. We have accumulated a lot of stuff in the past year or so that there’s really no reason to hang onto. Well-intentioned gifts of knickknacks and novelty items have begun to clutter our space and, dare I say it, vibe. Our 667 squarefoot apartment was starting to feel very, very small.
We started by shifting two bookcases from the dining room to the living. We had four bookcases in the dining room to begin with (two small, two large) that created a beautiful library wall. But in our space, the library wall made the dining room feel tiny and look cavernous. In our all white apartment, the brown bookcases sucked in light and created a heavy look. It was time to break it up. So we pulled the smaller of the two bookcases to the living room to frame the tv. The two larger bookcases were pushed to opposite sides in the dining room to open up the wall. The effect is mindblowing. Our dining room feels HUGE now.
We also flipped our living room. Unconventional and not feng shui. But now facing the opposite wall, the living room feels like its own room, rather than part of the boxy great room it is. Moving the couch to the opposite wall also opened up the intersection between the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.
Perhaps my favorite result is now all of my craft supplies are in one location – the dining room. Admittedly, I use the dining table more to craft than to eat. Previously, my craft supplies were spread over multiple storage spaces in the dining room, living room, and a closet. Now, while I still have some organizing to do, they are all contained to one space. The dining room actually feels like a craft room as well. A true dual purpose space. With the amount of storage I have in there, I can reorganize to get my supplies put away neatly and discretely… and actually get to finishing those projects!
Crazy what moving furniture around can do. The result is beyond what we expected. Our home now feels bigger, more open, cleaner, and more stylish. What has always felt like home now feels like a cozy home that is inspiring.