Lately I've been feeling nostalgic and missing life in Chicago. There's nothing better than "summertime Chi" so I can't wait to be back in June to visit friends and family. In the meantime, Liz's clean and streamlined 360 sq ft downtown apartment is giving me my Chi-town fix. It's an entrant in the Teeny-Tiny division of Apartment Therapy's Small/Cool 2011 Contest. I keep staring at the shot of her view trying to figure out what side of town she's on. I swear I know that building in the background - - looks like the South Loop!
Like Liz's space? Give her your vote by clicking here.
Name:
LizLocation:
Chicago, IllinoisDivision:
Teeny-TinySquare Feet:
360What I Love About My Home
After renting here for almost a year, the views from my apartment still thrill me every day. In the morning, it sparkles as light bounces off Lake Michigan and pours in from the east. In the evening, I love watching the city light up from the quiet charm of my 7th floor hideaway. My space is simple, clean, and filled personal mementos and pictures of the people and places I love. It's small, but with the big windows and use of space, it never feels that way. The wood, steel, greys and blues help blur the lines between inside and out; I often feel like the park and lake are my own private balcony. But what I love most of all is that that the first thing my sister said when she saw it was, "Liz, it's so YOU!".
Biggest Challenge in Furnishing My Home
I'm plagued by expensive taste with a budget that doesn't necessarily match, so it was challenging for me fill my small space with pieces that I really loved but could also afford. I ended up making (gas pipe shelves were my first big DIY project, and from that point forward, I was hooked), repurposing and finding a lot of things secondhand. By necessity, I quickly learned how to draw, paint, build, reupholster, and navigate Home Depot, and I think the whole apartment feels more like me because of it. The other biggest challenging was rethinking the space so that it suited my needs. When I moved in the setup was very different, and there were two enormous closets that dwarfed my already minimal wardrobe. After a lot of rearranging, I ended up converting one into a dressing/vanity area, and the other into an office/storage space. I worked hard to maximize every square inch, and I'm constantly getting rid of things so that it feels airy and open, not cluttered.