REALISTIC APARTMENT TOUR 2022 Tips for decorating on a budget + Washington DC apartment tour

Okay. Hi, hey guys, welcome back to my channel. I'm Caroline, you know it's true. Today, we're gonna do a little apartment tour. If you're familiar with my channel, you know that I do a lot of interior design stuff, interior decorating, home projects, and I just recently moved into my very own apartment. Ta-da, here it is. And then a bunch of guys have used, a bunch of guys have used, language. A bunch of you guys said that you'd be interested in seeing an apartment tour in its current state, which I never considered. I thought I had to get everything all pretty and perfect. I did not clean anything before I started filming this today because I didn't take out the trash, I didn't do my dishes. It's just the state that I'm living in right now. But I've been here for about six weeks now, and I don't feel like any of these spaces are designed at all yet. Some of them I haven't touched at all. Missing a lot of furniture, there's stuff I just don't have. Yeah, so it's gonna be a real dirty, behind the scenes look at my life. Why I do appreciate that you guys asked for this is that any well-designed space takes time, really. It takes curation and layering, like good layering of a space. It just takes time. It's really hard to do that all in one design pass. I feel like my own home is definitely just a sandbox for experimenting with furniture, with styling. I'm fidgeting with stuff all day long. It makes it hard for me to concentrate on any single task. It's not a sustainable lifestyle, but it is the life I live. So I'm gonna take you on a little apartment tour I hope there's nothing bad. I hope there's nothing weird laying around. I guess we'll find out. Okay, let's do it. So this is what the apartment looked like the day I moved in. There's just gray walls everywhere. I mean, it's still beautiful, honestly, just because there's so much natural light. I think that's what makes it. The bedroom probably looks worse now because I have such a mess in it. It's teeny tiny. I think these pictures make it look bigger than it is, but it's a small space, but I freaking love it. Let's do this. I will say one of the first things I did when I moved in was to repaint the living room. I'm not usually a fan of the all white, but the landlord said I could only paint it white or cream, so I went with white. I might end up disobeying him and do some of the room's other colors. We'll see. What's going on here? I don't know what I was doing there. I think I got paint all over the place. Okay, so right off the bat, meh, come here, we'll start with where I'm sitting right now. I'm in my living room. Living room was really the selling point for me with this apartment because I work from home, and so I'm in the living room all the time. I only really sleep in the bedroom, so I didn't need that to be a big space, and it's not a big space in this apartment. The living room is where all the real estate is. And then of course, the biggest clincher is the bay windows. I love them. Also, it's a snow day, first snow day of the season here in DC, and it's so freaking pretty out. I got this table off of Facebook Marketplace. I got it actually for the makeover that I did in my friend Leen's apartment. We did think about getting a new table, found one that was too large. I'm taking it to my own apartment now. And I would say when people have visited my apartment, the table's what everybody loves, especially men, I feel like. Men are into the masculine whatever the heck. It was really important to me that it can get scratched up because I make a mess, I spill stuff. Nail polish will be somewhere. I didn't want to have to be precious about it. What else do I want to show you? This is my basic setup. I always have my measuring tape out, even if I'm just working on my computer, because sometimes I forget what inches are. Before I bought anything for my apartment, I knew I wanted Bentwood Thoné chairs. I don't know why, I just got fixated on them. I think from Craigslist, Bentwood or Thoné, and I'm just really into very thin, delicate lines because the table is so clunky and chunky and thick, clunky, chunky, and thick, like me, that I wanted to balance it with something else that had more delicate, refined lines. One of the first things that I do anytime I move in somewhere new is to buy magic erasers, the white erasers, and go over all the trim, all the doors, all the high traffic areas where you're touching. You cannot believe what a difference it makes to clean all that up. The magic eraser is probably the single product that I believe in most on Earth. No one is asking me to say this right now. I wish magic eraser would start paying me because I'm not a religious person, but that's a god I could pray to. This is my tripod for my camera today. I just filmed my intro to this video sitting in this chair. I don't have a tripod at the moment, so I'm just using Martha Stewart, because she's the icon and she always has been and she always will be. White roses that I bought for myself. Nothing's better than flowers, and I think they smell better when you buy them for yourself. It's called Romance. Ever heard of it? I feel like I'm rearranging the mantle and the accessories all the time. I don't want clutter. This is already almost too much for me, and I'll tell you something right now. This bothers me that it's like four items. I don't usually like to put four items together. I would say it probably needs to be just the three. Maybe it's fine. I don't know. Usually when styling, that needs to point the other way, I'm pretty sure. Or does it? See, this is the mania that I do all day. This is like, what a waste of my energy. Usually when styling, you want to have things grouped in threes. Like even these two candlesticks are really like paired with the mirror. So I consider that a group of three. This is a sweet little group of three. This guy is probably not allowed. I don't know. That's a general styling rule. You'll see it everywhere. One, two, three. Tall piece, mid-height piece, horizontal piece. So you want to get something with height, texture, different depths, horizontal planes and vertical planes. Just as much variety as you can. Continuing down the hall into the bedroom. This is my bedroom. There's not a ton going on in here. I have focused my energies on the living room because I'm like in that space all day, every day. I don't have any nightstand to speak of. These are just like random moving boxes. Got this marble pedestal. Why? Because I wanted to off of, guess where? Facebook marketplace for like 80 bucks. I had to go really far away to get it. And I don't even mind driving like way out into nowhere for a pickup because there's usually good antique stores around there. And there's antique stores like in DC, in the city as well. But like in any metropolis, those antique stores are usually really overrun. They're overpriced. So the best place to go antiquing is like near the cows. This is what I just keep next to my bed. Every night I have like a little dish where I put jewelry so I can take out earrings or whatever. And I always have glass of water. This is amazing. Amber glassware that I got, I think at an antique store in Ohio. I really, really love these the most. But I also need my bed to just be higher up because this is a pain in the ass because of how low my bed is. So in the middle of the night, when I'm trying to reach for that glass of water, it's a journey. Okay. Controversial items in the bedroom. This seigneur. This is a giant sketch. I believe it's of a rabbi. I got this at the Georgetown flea market. Originally, I had him placed over my mantle and it upset everybody. Everybody was like, why do you have a shrine to like some random old man over your mantle? I said, fine, I won't have a shrine, but he is gonna watch over me while I sleep. And he's gonna protect me. He's got that situation where like his eyes look like they're following you. So sometimes I'll walk by my bedroom door and I'm like, I'm like bracing for one of those like Scooby-Doo moments where the painting's eyes follow you or he winks or something. It hasn't happened so far, but I do love him. Look at him smirking right now. He's doing it right now. What a devil. What a cuckoo man. Really great high ceilings. I have a Casper mattress on like a Casper box spring, but I have been trying desperately to buy a bed. I probably am gonna buy like a vintage bed. So much sturdier than Ikea bed for the price of an Ikea bed, but I can't get anyone to sell one to me. I'm not having any luck on Facebook marketplace right now. Then the only other furniture I have here is this dresser. And it's got these like fun little feet at the bottom as well. This is my only clothing storage furniture. And then I have the closet. So that is not a lot of clothes storage, but I like that I've had to pare down. I only wear, I wear the same leggings every day anyway. Do I even need a single pair of pants? I really don't. Closet is here. It's not enormous. It's pretty packed tight. I've got shoes in the bottom, whatever clothes. Sweaters up top. I mean, obviously, I don't know why I'm explaining what sweaters are. This is stuff that I'm using. I have like hand cream, because my hands get dry because I'm already an old lady. Some beautiful flowers. I love this vase. This vase always looks stunning on any like dark surface. I love the way it pops. Little marble tray that I got probably from HomeGoods. And I actually really love it. And I do like to keep out sewing scissors and a needle and thread so I can like, it makes it easier, you know, sew a button on or patch something together. It's right there and it's ready. And then I have this big bowl full of all my headbands and scrunchies. I'm big on the headbands, which I probably shouldn't be because my forehead goes on for all of eternity. But I love a headband. I can't, I can't not. So that's, they're there. Another fireplace. I don't know what I'm gonna do with the space up here. There's so much space to fill. At first I thought like, I might use that for clothing storage. Like it would kind of be dope to have like a bunch of like wall-to-wall shelves here and just put all my sweaters on it or something. Have like really pretty stacks of sweaters. I don't know. There's so many options. That's like a weird little storage area. I don't know what happens in there. I do feel like probably someone lives in there and I'm just gonna let them keep living their life as long as they're not bothering me. And then this is kind of fun. Back here in the corner is this weirdo little like bonus space. Just has like a trash can in it right now. But I did look up, there's like this really skinny shelving unit from Ikea. It's like basically a super skinny bookshelf that is I think exactly this width that I could put in there and have extra storage. I think that's honestly what I might end up doing. Again, nothing is styled. Nothing is finished. I keep saying that because I'm like a little embarrassed, but this is a suitcase from Christmas that I haven't unpacked. I keep a laundry basket in this fireplace, but I like having a chair here. I used to think that having a chair in a bedroom was so stupid. Obviously no one's gonna just like sit at the end of your bed in your chair. But then I realized that the chair is really for throwing your clothes on top of. And it really, for me, just serves the purpose of getting the clothes off the floor. I put them on the chair and then they're in the chair. And if that's all that chair does, A plus job to the chair. Moving on. This is the bathroom. I feel like the toilet seat should be down, but oh well. It's like kind of a dated design. I don't love the floors. I may end up covering these. I'm just gonna close the toilet because that does kind of bother me. Very pretty sink, but you'll see there's no storage underneath, which is kind of just as well to me because I hate pulling stuff up from under the sinks and stuff. It always feels dirty. Face care products or some kind of like beauty products, I don't want it near plumbing. I never liked that feeling. So what I did have to do is I bought a antique linen cabinet and it's right outside. It holds all of my like toiletry type stuff. And then also linens. I prefer it because I can take it with me now wherever I go. And it came with this little spinner. I don't know if that's for holding tea cups or what, but I've just hung my scissors up there. Hair dryer, all that stuff goes in here. I love it. I actually do love it. Bathroom is pretty basic. How am I, can I show you an angle? I'm gonna get inside the shower. Can I film better from in here? Okay, this doesn't really work. I will say I'm actually against this. I'm against what I'm doing right now. I don't like putting accessories on top of the toilet. I don't want anything touching the toilet. It feels dirty to me, but they are there for the time being because I have no other storage in here. There's a nice little medicine cabinet. And because I, ooh, I hope there's nothing where my medicine cabinet right now. Okay, I think we're good. I have all my makeup set up here. I feel like the easy thing would be to have like a makeup bag right on the toilet. But I don't, again, I don't like that. I don't want stuff touching the toilet and I don't want my makeup bag out. So instead I just bought, I think from like Goodwill, each of these little clear glass containers for like 50 cents. And I have my makeup set up in here so I can still really easily use things. I don't have to go rifling through a bag, but I do like the setup. It worked really well for me. I don't know. I have no idea what I wanna do with the bathroom. I think it's gonna be a really fun makeover. I love doing a makeover in a small space because your money just goes so much farther, but I have no idea really what I wanna do with the bathroom. So we'll see. Stay tuned. I'm gonna go back into this hallway right here. There are no windows in there. So unfortunately I have to have the overhead light on, which is not as pretty. I regret. So this is my hallway. Again, those super tall ceilings are awesome. And I definitely wanna do artwork. Like it's so tight, it's hard to show, but I wanna do artwork like all the way up the wall to accentuate those ceilings. Ooh, it could be cool to paint this a different color. I don't know. I don't know what I'm gonna do, but it's just gonna be like chaos. I think it's gonna be chaos. And then these boxes down here are some amazing blow up family photos that my dad gave me for Christmas. On the other end of the hallway, there's like a kind of cut out alcove. And this is where the closet is for the laundry, which is still the best thing that's ever happened to me. And the door kind of sticks, rude. Who knows why this is an alcove, but I think I'll probably try and do something fun to accentuate that. When there's like weird details in the space, I don't really wanna mask over it. I kinda wanna call more attention to it. So like, I don't know, maybe this whole alcove will be painted a different color than the rest of the hall. I don't know. But I just want to like lean in to all those weird opinionated aspects of the home. I feel like I use the word opinionated a lot and it confuses people. When I say opinionated, I mean that like you have a point of view because to be very blunt, if your design choices or if your creative choices are the choice that everyone's making, then it's really not a choice. And a taste means like you have an opinion, you have a point of view. And I'm not gonna make a judgment on like what your point of view should be, but you do have one, everyone has one. But like, you know, make a choice. Try and lean into what feels good to you and not just what feels good to everybody else because that's when things are gonna fall flat. Coming into the end of the hallway, we enter into the little kitchenette. It is a pretty good size. As I said, I did not take out my trash or anything. It's a great little kitchenette. It serves me very well. I love it. I feel very grateful for it. And it has a little window. Let's see how the snow is doing. It's still snowy out there. This room, wow, do I hate the overhead lighting. I might lean back for this whole shot because I don't like that. So the kitchen, I've definitely done pretty much nothing to. I've changed nothing in here, put stuff on the counters and I put a chair in the corner. Oh, this is a revolution that I would like to start. Having a chair in the kitchen, like next to the actual cooking area, a little lounge chair. Cause now if I have to come into the kitchenette away from the party, that's all the way down the hall, someone can come and sit with me and hang out with me and I don't have to be lonely. So this is a trend that I would like to start. I'm gonna call it a revolution. Unfortunately, the chair is next to the trash. That's not ideal. So I need to figure out somewhere else to put the trash. Poinsettia that's possibly dying. Little rolling pin. I feel like this guy's cute at the window. Did not do my dishes. And then I like to have stuff out on the counter that I will actually use. Like I've got cereal out here. Not a million of these containers. I'm not a psychopath. Like, yes, this is lovely, but 100% this person has aided and or abetted a murder. Nothing will convince me this person is not a pervert. Yes, this is aesthetically pleasing nearly as much as it is a cry for help. I'm not a psychopath, but I do have one. This is from Anthropologie. This carafe my sister gave me, I like that. I like to have that out. Love these guys. This is a little set teacup and a little set of plates. I actually got these, I will admit I got these from a thrift store. I think they were like $50 or 50 cents, lol, a piece. And I just keep that out in case I need like a small dish for just like a snack or something. I usually have this full of fruit, but I ain't got no fruit today. And then I did get these brand new when I moved in. Brand is Hayden. I think you see a lot of like the retro fridge, retro toaster featured all over the place. This one is a lot less expensive and it works great. Did I originally found it because I wanted a coffee pot that had a timer function. I can have my coffee brewed and ready by the time I wake up. I just set it the night before. Okay, we're gonna pop back into the living room real quick cause I know y'all wanna talk sofa. I ended up ordering this couch at like two in the morning one day from West Elm. I think it's still available. It's called the Marin couch. It was expensive to me, but I didn't want to buy something that wouldn't be comfortable. I didn't want to buy something that I would want to replace in a year or two. I am super happy with the couch. I probably need to buy some throw pillows and stuff. I haven't done that yet. Haven't done a lot of stuff. Love, love, love this rug. I got it from Rifle Paper Company, not Focus. This goldish tan color kind of couldn't be more perfect for the couch. And that's honestly just good luck because I bought them both sight unseen off the internet. Then above the couch, you just have this enormous, enormous wall with nothing on it. I don't know what to put up there. I'll probably end up putting like one giant artwork but large artwork is so expensive. I might do a DIY artwork that I have an idea for. That'll probably be another video. Well, this antique side table was actually my grandmother's. It's a little high gloss for me, but because it's my grandmother's, the sentimental value balances out the high gloss finish. And then I'm obsessed with this lamp. It's far too large for sure for the side table. I see that. I know that. I'm probably going to end up putting it on like a credenza or a sideboard, which I don't own yet, but it was on sale. It was from Rejuvenation. I received this in the mail just anonymously, but I do love this book. It is a snowy day today and I received this book yesterday. So I don't know what it means. I don't know about the stars or the universe's messages or whatever, but I know it's a message. I don't know what it means yet. This is glassware that I got from a vintage consignment shop. I got this for like five bucks. I like to use them as like little cocktail glasses as well. Okay. Controversial item, this chair. Not controversial to me because I freaking love it, but it's very flowery. I think it's obviously not everyone's taste, but if you can see, it's actually like embroidered and I do still love it. I stand by it, but I don't like how it goes with the carpet at all. You could do it. This is somebody's style, doing the like the most on top of the most, but I'm not liking it. So chair's going to go. I'm not afraid to return stuff. Sometimes you have to see it in the space. I did order a coffee table. The coffee table is going to make all the rest of the furniture pieces feel like related to each other instead of just being like separate things, all plastered against the wall. As you can see, my TV is just on the floor. Right now, I don't have any kind of credenza or sideboard. I honestly love the one that I had with my ex in Ohio. It was from Ikea and it was like brilliant. It was perfect. I would buy it again, except that too many memories. So won't be. I think I've looked up the one that I want and it's very modern, acrylic maybe. Just because everything else happening in my apartment is so traditional and kind of floofy. I don't know if that's the clinical term, but floofy and flowery. So I want something a little more masculine and modern to balance it out. You can see where my paint work ended. I don't know why I did that. I would not say that it's necessarily the right color white. If you can look at the trim, the trim is like a very cool white, kind of bluish. And then the wall paint is definitely a bit yellowier and they're clashing now that I see them up there. I really didn't think that hard about it. I kind of just did it. But I am not someone who's ever going to get upset about A, mistakes in general. Like I make too many mistakes to spend time getting upset about them. I just keep going. And I will certainly never get bent out of shape about paint. It's just paint. You can literally paint over it. It's not going to be the cheapest thing you do in your house. Like this white, I picked the wrong color white and I'm keeping it. Whatever, I'm keeping it. It's fine. One thing I'm loving is this set of sketches. I actually did these ones. They're blind contourings. I featured like a blind contouring that I did of my dog in the tiny powder bath makeover I did. That's a fun one. My dog designs my bathroom. The dog's not here anymore. The dog's in Ohio. Let's not talk about it. I don't want to talk about it. But I did these of like each of my family members. This is my dad. A blind contouring, basically you don't look at the paper while you're drawing it. And it comes out looking like a little modern and a little offbeat. And I think it's kind of fun. The stuff that's up right now, everything's temporary. It's gonna be moved around. You can see over here, the art does not go as high up the wall. To me, this arrangement of art on the wall is far less successful than this one. It like draws your eye up. I love the three frames. But they're still a thin frame. They're not too clunky. I just really love that. Yeah, that one will stay probably. Dope ass Pottery Barn blanket that I bought, throw blanket, bought that in a Black Friday sale as well. Oh good, it already has a loop coming loose. Excellent. So for now, I just have this beautiful plant that my sister gave me for Christmas. I think this came from Anthropologie. It's kind of like an art deco pot. Couldn't tell you what this plant was. I mean, it looks fake. This is a real plant. Does anybody know what this is? Cause I certainly don't know and I don't know how to take care of it. I'm just giving it water when it seems to demand it. This photograph of my mantel is very special to me. This is Parma, Italy. I lived in Parma, Italy for a year when I was like 17 before I went to college. I took a year off and I worked as an au pair and I worked for an Italian family there. That's where I learned Italian cause nobody spoke English. It was a crazy experience. I was like a child and then somebody entrusted their children to me which is kind of wild to think about now. Oh, this mirror. Girl, guess how much I got this mirror for. Did you say $20? Correct. And I definitely wanna do something with these windows to like accentuate them further. This is such a jewel. Do some paint. I don't know. Listen, I don't know. You're gonna have to stay tuned for the living room makeover to find out what. So I think that's it. That's the whole apartment. I mean, it's not enormous but it's plenty of space for me. I'm loving it so far. If you liked the video, give it a like, give it a comment. Thanks for coming along on my home tour, apartment tour. Again, this is phase one. This is just how I'm living in it right now. It feels important to me to enjoy my space like all through its evolution not just when I reach some arbitrary end point. I'm really excited to share design content as I continue to design and decorate the apartment. What are you interested in seeing first? Leave them in the comments below, duh. And if it's a really good suggestion I'll make it into a video. I'll do it. Okay, I'll do it. I shared my process of hunting for an apartment in my previous video, but we should go watch it. It's a lot of fun. I looked at five different apartments in DC with rent prices and square footage for each. That's pretty much it. Okay. I'm gonna go out and enjoy this snow day now, I think. Talk to you later. Bye.