My only goal for 2020 was to begin the house hunt and find myself somewhere to buy. In March 2019 I moved back home to save some money, I had been living in a flat with a house mate and after nearly 2 years we decided to call it quits. I found I never had any money spare for myself, let alone to save and it never really felt like ‘home’ so it was time to suck it up and move back in with my parents.
One year later, I am half way through the process of buying a small studio flat in a little village in St Albans. I put the offer in, jumped through some painstaking hoops to get a mortgage which has finally been offered and now everything is on hold. Covid19.
I’ve been trying very hard not to start planing or letting my excitement run away from me because I haven’t signed any contracts and there’s no exchange date in sight so it feels like i’m tempting fate by planning ahead but it’s the only thing I have to look forward to at the moment (excuse me, while I check my privilege) so I thought i’d let my imagination run free for one blog post at least.
I’d always been unimpressed by studio flats in the UK because they tend to be made up of a bedroom with a microwave and a sofa in the corner but after viewing a few properties and calculating finances, I knew it was going to be difficult to buy on my own. When I found this flat I only went along to keep my options open, beggars can’t be choosers, as they say. I was so pleasantly surprised by the brand new property that I was in love instantly. I’ll wait until I have the keys before I give the big reveal but I thought I’d post some Pinterest inspiration on the styles and ideas I have for decorating.
My flat is a top floor loft conversion (not as small and pokey as it sounds) with slanted ceilings so i’m going to have to get creative with the space. My plan is to eventually paint the rooms but to begin with, my main objective is to organise the furniture in to the cosiest flat that suits my style and personality perfectly. I love the images above because even though the sofa is next to the bed, it doesn’t seem cluttered or on top of each other. I think my flat will have slightly more space and the way it’s shaped probably won’t give me much room to put the bed and the sofa side by side but I love the inspo.
I have a shower room separate to the toilet but the image above depicts the shape quite well and, while my bathroom doesn’t have a window quite that big, I think I like the idea of paining the walls a dark blue or blue-green to give it a cosy feel. There is a free standing sink in the shower room which I think is odd, once I move in and if I find I never use it, I like the idea of perhaps replacing it with a bath – if there’s enough space!
Considering it’s a studio flat, the kitchen is quite spacious which I absolutely love. There’s not a huge amount of storage space but there’s plenty of counter space and I want to put some shelving in to store cups and bits and bobs. At the moment it looks quite bare and simple and I love the different looks of both the above pictures to add some ‘homelyness’ to it. That’s not a word, I know it’s not a word.
There is no built in storage space in the flat and if I do decide to have wardrobes built, it won’t be until i’ve lived in the flat for a good year and have everything exactly where I want it. In the interim I plan to invest in a clothes rack like the above to store my clothes on a week to week basis.
One of the main things I love about the flat is that I have my own stairwell, which means I have a hallway all to myself, so I’d like to get a thin table and either put some pictures or a mirror above it to give it a comforting aesthetic.
I’ve never been particularly stylish, it’s only been in the last year or so, where i’ve been comfortable with my rather plain personal style and, when I lived in the rented flat, I didn’t care much about how it looked because I knew it wasn’t mine. This time round i’m determined to take my time and really enjoy decorating a space that is entirely mine to live in.
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