Hopefully some of you picked up on the title of this post being a play on the classic Dr. Seuss book, Oh, the Places You'll Go ;) Over the past 8 years I've lived in a lot of different places. From my first college dorm experience in Seattle, to my on-campus housing apartment my sophomore year of college, a basement apartment junior year, then a downtown loft in Los Angeles my senior year, I saw it ALL in college. After college I moved home to live with my parent's for a few months, then moved to Michigan about a year later and got my own apartment. Now I'm living in my first place with my husband! It's been a whirlwind, to say the least. I think this adds up to 7 moves in the past 8 years. Holy cow!! Even I can't believe it.
Since I've lived in so many different places over the years, I thought it'd be fun to show you a snippet of each place!
1. First up, my first college dorm room, which I worked so hard on with my roommate! We both LOVED purple, as you can see ;) I had my bed raised up so our fridge would fit under the bed and double as tons of storage. We had a little sink in our room, which was nice! We had pictures GALORE because we couldn't quite let go of our high school days ;) I thought this was just the best room ever and now looking at it, I can't help but laugh.
Hopefully you like my bedspread, because there's a lot more of it to come...ha!
2. Sophomore year, on-campus apartment. I'm not even sure I can say it got any better?! This is the year I began my blog (2010!) and I did start doing a lot of DIY projects (the cork board calendar days were a really popular project of mine!) I thought the curtains in our living room were awesome...yikes. 4 girls lived in this 3 bedroom apartment together and it was...very interesting, as you can imagine with 4 different personalities living together. Enjoy this hodgepodge, ha!
4. Senior year I moved to Los Angeles to do a transfer program with FIDM, in which I got my AA degree in interior design. By far my favorite place I lived, because it was a really cool industrial loft! My roommate and I worked with furniture that her dad had in storage and it was fun to put together. Finally I got rid of the black and purple flower bedding. PRAISE the LORD. This little place was featured in Rue Magazine!
photos above: monica wang
5. After college, I moved back to my parent's house in the Bay Area, CA. I think here I was finally connecting the design dots. Thankfully ;) I did a little room makeover there and this is how it turned out:
one of my favorite pictures from my bedroom reveal shoot:
photos: emily scott
6. My first apartment in Michigan. This was the first time I ever lived alone, and to be honest, after all my roommate situations (thought some were fine!) I was really happy to be on my own. This was also the first time I actually furnished an entire place by myself. The process was so fun and I ended up learning a lot about myself, my style and that I should stick with my style, instead of falling prey to popular trends I saw on Instagram ;) (Turns out you'll never love you home if you do that!) This little bachelorette pad of mine was featured on Style Me Pretty Living!
photos: ashley slater photography
7. Our first place as a married couple! We absolutely love our little home we've made together. Though you'll notice it's most of the same stuff from my Bachelorette Pad, we reworked it a bit and I tried to tone down the feminine side by adding more wood pieces. Still working on that!
Wow, this walk down memory lane has me a little sentimental! Each place is full of both joyful memories and memories of challenges I was facing during that particular season of life. Hopefully this peek into my housing over the past 8 years has made you laugh a little, but also encouraged you to make your living space truly feel like home, no matter where you live. I loved my dorm room with everything I had, even though now I look back and think it was a little ridiculous :) The common theme I see through all these pictures is that I tried my best to make wherever I lived a place I loved to be. Investing your time and energy into THAT is always a good idea, because your home should be your haven.
Have you taken a peek at old places you've lived?! I encourage you to pull out some old pictures just for fun!
xoxo
Since I've lived in so many different places over the years, I thought it'd be fun to show you a snippet of each place!
1. First up, my first college dorm room, which I worked so hard on with my roommate! We both LOVED purple, as you can see ;) I had my bed raised up so our fridge would fit under the bed and double as tons of storage. We had a little sink in our room, which was nice! We had pictures GALORE because we couldn't quite let go of our high school days ;) I thought this was just the best room ever and now looking at it, I can't help but laugh.
Hopefully you like my bedspread, because there's a lot more of it to come...ha!
2. Sophomore year, on-campus apartment. I'm not even sure I can say it got any better?! This is the year I began my blog (2010!) and I did start doing a lot of DIY projects (the cork board calendar days were a really popular project of mine!) I thought the curtains in our living room were awesome...yikes. 4 girls lived in this 3 bedroom apartment together and it was...very interesting, as you can imagine with 4 different personalities living together. Enjoy this hodgepodge, ha!
3. Junior year, off-campus basement apartment with some sweet friends. This was my favorite living situation due to the friends I lived with, NOT the apartment we lived in. It was so gross, but I managed to turn the dining room into my bedroom and I think it turned out pretty well! Things are definitely starting to look better here... the picture taking skills were getting better, too! You may remember my DIY Chevron Dresser if you're a long time reader.
5. After college, I moved back to my parent's house in the Bay Area, CA. I think here I was finally connecting the design dots. Thankfully ;) I did a little room makeover there and this is how it turned out:
6. My first apartment in Michigan. This was the first time I ever lived alone, and to be honest, after all my roommate situations (thought some were fine!) I was really happy to be on my own. This was also the first time I actually furnished an entire place by myself. The process was so fun and I ended up learning a lot about myself, my style and that I should stick with my style, instead of falling prey to popular trends I saw on Instagram ;) (Turns out you'll never love you home if you do that!) This little bachelorette pad of mine was featured on Style Me Pretty Living!
7. Our first place as a married couple! We absolutely love our little home we've made together. Though you'll notice it's most of the same stuff from my Bachelorette Pad, we reworked it a bit and I tried to tone down the feminine side by adding more wood pieces. Still working on that!
Wow, this walk down memory lane has me a little sentimental! Each place is full of both joyful memories and memories of challenges I was facing during that particular season of life. Hopefully this peek into my housing over the past 8 years has made you laugh a little, but also encouraged you to make your living space truly feel like home, no matter where you live. I loved my dorm room with everything I had, even though now I look back and think it was a little ridiculous :) The common theme I see through all these pictures is that I tried my best to make wherever I lived a place I loved to be. Investing your time and energy into THAT is always a good idea, because your home should be your haven.
Have you taken a peek at old places you've lived?! I encourage you to pull out some old pictures just for fun!
xoxo
Love this :)
ReplyDeleteI really should pull out my old pictures from my college dorm rooms. Like you, I had interesting roommate situations, and seeing how those came together - yikes! Thanks for sharing!
Love this sweet friend - amazing to see the transition from college to now and your change in style, colors and the photographs. I didn't go away to college or uni so I lived at home, in a house share in London and then two homes since being married x
ReplyDeleteIt was really nice to see your collection. Thanks for Sharing this post with us.
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