home decor DIY for making an apartment a home.

I am way excited to share a tour of one of the coolest spaces I've seen in a long time.  Lizzie from The Hip Soiree won the photo shoot giveaway in August, so I cruised to her place in west Los Angeles a couple of weeks ago to take some lovely boudoir shots!

We had a great time hanging out and I simply fell in love with her home.  I took tons of photos of all its details while Lizzie was getting her hair and makeup for the shoot done in the next room.

I was so excited about all the attention to detail and care that Lizzie and her husband put into their cozy space that I asked Lizzie to write a little something for the Anna Delores blog, and lucky for me (and you!), she agreed!  Without further ado, allow me to introduce Lizzie so she can introduce you to her fun, full-of-great-ideas, lots-of-personality home!

From Lizzie: When moving to LA from the East Coast, I knew I was probably giving up any chance to own a home.  It’s expensive here.  I couldn’t afford a house in the ghetto.  For serious.  I figured it wouldn’t be the end of the world because I’d just find an apartment with some charm and hunker down.  Well… finding a “charming” apartment in Los Angeles isn’t that easy.  Unlike back East, there aren’t a lot of duplexes or old Victorian homes that have been converted into several apartments.  Apartments here are usually housed in giant and generic complexes.  They usually consist of beige carpeting, off-white walls, and no view.  Well, a view of another apartment building, but I don’t think that’s much to write home about.

About six years ago, I moved from one of those typical apartment complexes into another slightly different (and a little less generic) apartment complex.  I had to downsize.  This apartment is about 600 square feet.  It’s basically one long rectangle that acts as the living room, dining room and kitchen and then has one bedroom and a bathroom.  It was pretty much the perfect size for little old me.

Then I got remarried.  Hurray!  One con: 600 square feet is tight for two people.  You are constantly in each other’s business. One pro: my husband can pretty much do any kind of handyman work, and is able to make all my DIY/redecoration dreams a reality.  It’s amazing.  If I can dream it up, he can build it.  Or at least tweak it so that he can build it.  So then it began: the hunkering down and making the apartment of, not so much my dreams (let’s not get crazy), but one I could live in for a long time.

The first project was the covering up of the wall heater.  They.  Are.  Hideous.  Downright unsightly.  If you’ve never seen one, it’s a giant box that sticks out from your wall.  On top of it, you don’t even really use them THAT often as you live in Southern California where it’s pretty warm most of the time.  So, we covered that hideousness up and designed shelves around it.  Half of the people that come over have no idea what’s there.  It’s wonderful.


The second project was the cat shelves.  No carpeted cat tree in our place.  Blecht.  We decided to take a slightly more modern approach and built different-sized wall shelves and covered them with Flor carpeting.  The cats love it.  And so do we.

Next, room dividers.  These things are awesome.  Not only do they block out the sun when we’re watching TV, but they make a perfect privacy curtain when people stay over.  That way I can sneak into the kitchen to make coffee without waking them.

All pillows were handmade by Lizzie!

Finally, the penny wall (featured on Design*Sponge, too!).  The pièce de résistance.  Yep, an entire wall covered in pennies.  I won’t lie.  It’s pretty awesome.  It took us weeks and weeks (more like months) to finish, but it’s pretty amazing.

Best. Idea. Ever.

So pair all those things up with all my non-construction DIY projects and some kitsch (hopefully not too much), and we’ve got an apartment that I can see us living in for a long time.  Emily was nice enough to take some pictures for you all to see, so check 'em out.  (It might be a little dusty, so please forgive me for that…)

Lizzie sells those Ron Burgundy pillows in her Etsy shop!

Cruise by Lizzie's blog and follow along for regular doses of home decor DIY and party planning genius!