small-space decorating - a girl's apartment

Prior to moving in to our current apartment, I scoured the internet looking for inspiration on how to decorate small apartments. Our apartment is less than 1000 square feet, but so far, we feel right at home and it doesn't feel small at all!

I found these photos of a home on Micasa, a Spanish website. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that the home belongs to a woman by looking at these photos.

The apartment is less than 100 metre square, which is 1076 square feet (still bigger than our apartment!).

There's no doubt that white does make a small room feel and look bigger. Using lucite for the coffee table adds in extra surface without looking like its taking up space.

With a white backdrop, colours come in with the accessories - decorative pillows, patterned throws, silver lanterns, and the gold legs of those stools are absolutely cute.  Dark hardwood floors make a great contrast with white.

A simple and clean white kitchen sans handles for a small compact kitchen. Notice they added in some colour and pattern on that small part of the wall next to the window with bright floral wallpaper.

For the closet, white drawers again without handles. For visual interest, the walls are decorated with again, floral patterned wallpaper. I always think wallpaper would look nicer in smaller rooms, such as this.

And they used wallpaper in the bathroom, too. Reflective surface for the vanity helps to make the room look bigger.

I'm not a huge fan of the bedroom, but it's simple and pretty. They've kept the walls free of picture frames to keep the bed as the main visual interest of the room with all its decorative pillows and textured quilt. Also, since the room is small, it doesn't need too much accessories.

I also like the fact that they made the window look bigger by adding an extra panel of curtain to the right side of the window. The sheer curtains make a lovely backdrop to the bed.

I've always enjoyed looking at apartments decorated for women. They're usually fun and pretty - once you're married, decorating the home would need to be gender-neutral. Hope you enjoyed these photos!

Have a fabulous Friday!

A Villa in Mykonos island

There's this little island in Greece, called Mykonos, where there are lovely villas for super rich tourists to lay back and enjoy the beach.

I found these two images from this website.

I love the colour palette of blues, creams and beiges. Note the casual elegance of the room - the curtains, the trestle table, the plaster walls. Gorgeous.

Another view of the same room. I fell in love with the window seats. Beautiful. Another trestle table behind the L-shaped linen-covered sofa.

Beach decor at its best!

backsplash ideas

I've not decided on the backsplash design that we'll be using for our kitchen.

My first request was for my contractor to quote on white 4x4 inch tiles where this was my inspiration.

Pinterest

So when my contractor gave me the quotation, she instead quoted 2x2 inch tiles where it would look something like this (thanks, Google images - you're a lifesaver).

Susan Jablan

Which doesn't look bad at all, but not the look that I was going for.

Which also made me wonder, would my kitchen end up looking like a bathroom with all the tiles placed neatly side by side?

Unknown source

Maybe that's why the Americans love their signature subway tiles in their kitchens - tiles are stacked in a neat brick-like pattern instead.

BHG

But I was certain that I didn't want to go subway style because (dare I say), its too homey and traditional for me. And plus, I saw beautiful tiles in a Belgian kitchen before that was not subway.

Belgian Pearls

So my contractor explained to me that 2x2 inch tiles would cost less for installation as they come pre-installed as a mosaic of a bigger tile, stuck together with some mesh. Does that make sense to you? Well, it does in my head. But anyway, it's kind of like lots of tiles bound together to make one tile.

4x4 inch tiles would cost more as they would quote based on installation per tile - which I presume is smaller than the mosaic tile made of 2x2 tiles.

I'm not trying to give you all a high school math quiz, but in the end, I have to contemplate which one was worth the money.

So, I started googling up images of mosaic tiles so that I could convince myself to go for this option.

Here are some beautiful mosaic tiles used for kitchen backsplashes.

Decorpad

 Isn't it beautiful? The kitchen backsplash in the photo above uses mosaic linear glass tiles. It looks modern and sophisticated.

Decorpad

A mixture of grey and white mosaic tiles used here.

Decorpad

The use of glass linear mosaic tiles here is gorgeous as they are of different sizes.

Decorpad

This is the same kitchen from one of the photos above, but I love the whole kitchen, so I thought I'd just show it to you.

Eclectic Revisted

I've shown this photo on my blog before. But I just noticed that the bright ocean blue backsplash is actually mosaic. So pretty.

Houzz

Mosaic tiles can actually bring depth to a rustic-industrial inspired kitchen!

So, after this, I'm going to get my contractor to quote on linear glass mosaic tiles and will decide after that!

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

sort-of walk-in closet

In our master bedroom, there's a little corner that leads to the master bathroom where we'll be doing a sort-of walk-in closet (I say 'sort-of' because folks out there would probably laugh because it's rather small and not those walk-in closets you see in shows like the Kardashians, or anything). 

To save money on having built-in doors, I am considering of having a curtain to close this section of the room (for those days when it's looking messy). 

These photos are my inspiration. 

Pinterest

Of course, I love linen curtains, and having them to cover a walk-in closet is no exception. 

Daniela Cavestany from here

What do you think of linen panels covering up your closets? Is it practical? 

Have a lovely Tuesday!

vintage maps

I love maps, especially vintage-looking ones.

It would look great as art on your walls - like in the study area, where it would be handy too.

I'm loving the map here.

Blacklist Studio Prints

Have a lovely Monday y'all!