Young Man's First Apartment – Part 2

An empty apartment, an adult son without a piece of furniture to his name. How I helped my son decorate his first apartment while respecting his budget and his personality...
In Part 1 of this series, I described how my son moved into his first apartment with not a piece of furniture to his name, and how I helped him furnish it staying true to both his personality and his budget. The first post revealed his living room area and can be seen on the blog or under my Hometalk profile. This post will take a look at the kitchen, dining area and terrace.


You can see the bedroom, bath and desk alcove in Part 3 here: http://designthusiasm.com/young-mans-apartment-part-3/


The link for Part 1 is: http://designthusiasm.com/young-mans-apartment-part-1/
The kitchen in a rental apartment is in large part pre-determined, so a good part of our efforts had more to do with scrubbing than decorating. Still, an assessment of what you have to work with is essential and selecting items for the counters that are both useful and make a design statement goes a long way to lending a decorated air to the space. We went with sleek black and silver to complement the appliances and further the clean urban look dictated by the living room design.
Hand towels and napkins are a classic white, while the fruit basket recalls the industrial look of the adjoining room. We made sure to cover enough counter space to make the apartment feel lived in, while leaving enough open space for a clean sleek look. The drawers and cabinets are organized with the utmost precision, leaving counters free for necessary workspace. This is something that’s easy to do when living in your first apartment before you’ve had a chance to amass a good deal of clutter and it’s a great time to establish organizational habits. What you do in your first apartment is likely to follow you for years to come.
Right off the kitchen and adjoining the living room is a sun filled but small dining space. The retro kitchenware photograph gives the space a little bit of styled attitude. (If you read about the silver bowl in Part 1, you may remember I mentioned there was one other item my son didn’t necessarily love. This photo is that piece, but he chose to ‘learn to love it’ rather than go back to the store to return it… lol!)
We continued the industrial theme with a square dining table from Home Decorators with simple clean lines and a mix of rough and urban materials, with wood top and metal frame. As a contrast to the hard edges of the table, the chairs are upholstered for comfort with nail head trim for a little bit of edgy fun.
The sun that streams into this room comes from the lovely little terrace that overlooks the city, as well as the wall to wall windows.
This great little bistro set is from Ballard Designs and was just the thing to fit into my son’s budget.
For my son, the terrace became a delightful place to wind down after a day at his new job, overlooking his new city.
And who can resist a beautiful sunset?
Lory @ Designthusiasm
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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  • Stephanie Adams Stephanie Adams on Sep 15, 2014
    love it all except the picture in the dining room definitely not my cup of tea. Glad your son doesn't have any grubby, messy friends because that's a lot of cream furniture to keep clean no matter how good he is. Looking forward to part 3!
  • Iwantbmw Iwantbmw on Jan 16, 2024

    Your approach to decorating your son's first apartment is both inspiring and practical! The blend of functionality and style, particularly in the kitchen and dining area, really showcases how you can create a comfortable yet stylish space on a budget. The terrace setup sounds perfect for relaxing in the city. For anyone considering further home improvements, I recommend checking out whole house systems at https://filterway.com/whole-house-systems/ for enhancing overall home comfort and efficiency. Can't wait to see Part 3!

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