12.03.19 — Journal

Casa Briggs

After last week’s post diverged quite spectacularly and took you to Asturias for a snoop around an abandoned factory, I shall now pick up from where the post before left off: with my mission to decorate my flat before Em’s visit – which has now changed from “just less than a month off” to a mere three days away!

Thankfully, I’ve got all the essentials in, and I am ready to receive guests like the little old lady that I secretly am. It’s been quite a process though, involving many a trip to IKEA, and then even more when I realised I had bought the wrong thing on two separate occasions. They say that IKEA is testing for couples moving in together, but I managed to have many an argument with my very own self. An accomplishment? I guess.

Anyway, seeing as I’ve not much else to report back on, I took a few photos of my flat to show you all what I’ve put together with the little money I have, so here we go!

We’ll start off in the living room/kitchen, where I’ve kept the yellow of the feature wall, complimenting it with the grey sofa bed and black and white highlights. I like to be strict with my colours, but I have allowed some green in with the addition of plants to breathe a bit of life into the space.

The only thing I feel I am missing here is maybe a couple more cushions and a little coffee table to pop drinks on. I’d also like to get myself a rug in time, but it turns out that rugs are way more expensive than I ever thought, so that might have to wait a while…

We now turn to face the other side of the room and the kitchenette, which I am trying to keep as clean and tidy as possible. As there’s plenty of storage and I’m just one person, I can hide pretty much everything away when not in use. Here all I’m missing is an oven, but I’ve already got tabs on a mini tabletop oven which I shall buy next month: I sense some cakes coming!

This is one of my favourite plants. She is called Leah.

Heading through the door and down the corridor, we pass the bathroom and utility areas, but I shan’t bore you with those: we’ll move straight into the other main space, my little bedroom. The flat already had a lovely wooden headboard and a black mesh ceiling lamp installed, and so I’ve once again run with the existing colours, kitting my bed out with white sheets and popping in a black bedside table (home of Beatrice the Bamboo).

Sticking to a look of wooden textures, plants, and neutral colours, I also had a flash of inspiration as I walked home past the fruit shop one evening. I saw that the guy was piling up crates to be picked up as rubbish, and so I made a beeline for them and grabbed a couple. After hauling them up the stairs along with my shopping (which was probably quite traumatic for my neighbours), I popped them together and made myself a free, improv, and zero-waste side table!

I popped Alice the Aloe Vera on there, along with another candle, and it’s probably now my favourite detail in the entire flat! A little bit annoying that the prettiest thing was also the cheapest, but I’m happy to have brightened up an empty corner.

That’s pretty much it in terms of photos of my new place, and so pretty much it for this blog post, but I’ll be back next week to report on the upcoming weekend of shenanigans as Em flies in on Friday morning. I hope she’s prepared for lots of terrace drinks and lots of my favourite food spots…