Home Styling Flashback: Westwood, Los Angeles Apartment Tour

My first Los Angeles apartment tour! Welcome to a blast from the past, one of the original posts from another iteration of my blogging self, "Best, Isabella."  I lived in Westwood, Los Angeles, CA when I was in law school at UCLA a few years ago.  It was a great time and I miss LA dearly.  Below, please find my first foray into home decor blogging, a post originally published on November 28, 2017.  This was the first apartment I was really proud of and the first apartment I ever paid for on my own, while living on my own, and I will always be proud of it and look upon it fondly.  Please bear in mind I was still in my Disney phase and working on a tight budget. Enjoy!

Surprise, I'm leaving LA. I got a new job in San Francisco at the beginning of December, so I'm moving out of my apartment and into my parents' house for a bit. I was in such a rush to leave my current job and move home that I hadn't really thought about how much I loved my rickety old apartment (my cousin Emily calls it "vintage"). I've lived in several apartments before and I've never been so sad to leave one-- probably because this is the longest I've lived in my own apartment (over 2 years) and also probably a little because I'm not moving into another apartment, but I'm moving home. This apartment had really become my own, and despite the gross carpet and minuscule "junior bedroom," I will really miss it. Before I started packing everything up, I tried to capture my favorite parts of the apartment to share and also to look back fondly on.

A LOT of the pieces I've had since I started college. A LOT are also from Ikea.  Some things aren't shown because they just aren't in a cute state, or just aren't cute, generally.  One thing I've noticed about house/apartment tours is that the photos are always curated to show the best parts of a home, not all parts. You never really see someone's hamper or dish rack, and for some reason you can always find some staged freshly sliced bread. 

I'm really obsessed with looking at how other people decorate their living spaces. Notably, I always seem to be looking for inspiration on The Everygirl, ManRepeller's Real Cool People, Real Cool Apartments, and the home tours on Cup of Jo.  I hope eventually someone can find this post and get some cool inspo from it too!

LIVING ROOM

Wardrobe, coffee table, striped pillows: IKEA. Sofa: World Market.  Print: LACMA. Canvas: made by me.

     

Mirror: Home Goods.  Shoe rack: Target.

One of the worst parts of this apartment is the lack of closet space. There is one closet, a coat closet, to the left of the front door. It houses my coats and boots and heels, and other stuff I'm not even too sure about.  My sneakers and flats are out on display right by the front door as these are the shoes I wear the most often. My clothes are mostly housed in the Ikea wardrobe (above) or in the two dressers I have by my bedroom.

Chair: World Market.  Berkeley Pillow: CatStudios, sold at Berkeley Student Store. Rug: IKEA.

Prints: Disney.  Lamp and Mirror: IKEA.

I've only recently gotten over my Disney obsession, so most of my decor still weighs heavily in favor of the Mouse. I used to want anything and everything possible to be Disney-branded.  I still like what I have, but I'm not really looking to add any more Disney to my collection. I have enough! This big (mostly blocked) Cinderella print has stuck with me since I visited WDW for the first time after graduating high school, and has taken prominent wall space in every dorm/apartment I've lived in since then. 

DINING

Table and Chairs: IKEA.  Pillows: Pottery Barn.  Striped Rug: Lulu & Georgia. Ice Cream Vase and Tokyo Pillow: Jonathan Adler.  Charger: Michael's.  Prints: Kate Spade.

  

OFFICE

Mirror: Michael's. Lamp: Home Goods.  Mugs: Kate Spade, Anthropologie, GlitterGuide.  Do It Now organizer: vintage.  Notebooks: Moleskine, Shinola.  Frame: Disneyland.

LoL at the word "office."  This is a small nook behind a door that I managed to fit a table, where sometimes I do work and sometimes I do my makeup. This is how messy it is all the time.  I have a strange obsession with stationery, both notebooks and writing instruments. I don't actually sit here to work that often because there isn't usually much space for work. Most of the time I would work at my round "dining" table and use this table mostly as storage so the "dining" table could be clear.

KITCHEN

Prints: made by me.  Mixing Bowls: Anthropologie.  Glass jars: Target.  Cutting Boards: Sur La Table.

     

Print: vintage.  Kettle: Cuisinart.  Cookbooks: Chrissy Teigen, Kate Spade, Eat Pretty, The Pauper's Cookbook.

One of the best parts of my apartment is the kitchen is separated from the living room and has a door. It's still a small hallway-style kitchen, and doesn't have a dishwasher, but it worked for me. The marble top pictured above is a freestanding "kitchen island" that I use to make up for the lack of counter space in the kitchen.  The square table covered with wine is a table I replaced with the round white Ikea table and was too lazy to get rid of.  The mint electric tea kettle is one of the best purchases I've made.

BEDROOM

Bed: IKEA.  Bar cart: Home Goods.  Throw Blanket: Pottery Barn.  Fur pillows: West Elm.  Lamp: Home Goods.  Mirrored box: Target.  Angel Wing Bookends: Z Gallerie. 

This "junior" bedroom is so small. It apparently can fit up to a queen sized bed, but my full bed already only leaves enough room for this small bar cart to fit next to it as a night stand. That's it. The other side of the bed is against the wall, and the other wall is immediately to the bar cart's left.  I barely spend any time in here because it has terrible lighting and is so cramped. 

Tsum Tsum storage: Pottery Barn. Prints: Disneyland, Kate Spade.

That's it! My apartment I've loved dearly and lived in for over 2 years is essentially empty now. On to new things, aka redecorating my room in my parents' house with a lot of the same elements pictured above.

As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. 

Best,

Isabella