Young Man's First Apartment – Part 1
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...
Last summer my son relocated to St. Louis for his first post college job. Given that his dorm rooms and college quarters had always come furnished, he was leaving the East Coast with not one piece of furniture. Apart from his jeans and his video games, his apartment would be a complete blank slate. This may have been disorienting for a young adult male, but it was a dream for a mom who delights in home design. The trick would be finding a look that would honor his personality (and budget, as he was participating) while not channeling “found at the side of the road” decor.
The two things in our favor were that the apartment came with neutral walls and carpet and that my son is a pretty neat and organized guy. I knew that whatever we put in place would look exactly the same the next time we visited, so I didn’t worry too much about finding things that were sturdy enough to last a lifetime. Instead we focused on his general interests and personality, as well as the functionality of his apartment to serve his new lifestyle. We went for a masculine vibe with an industrial edge, to honor his New York City roots and his technology driven world.
As long as he had a place to sleep and to sit, the most important factors to my son were a place to house his video game consoles and a place to keep his games. We went with an edgy industrial media stand from Home Decorators and a shuttered tall bookcase.
The light streaming through the wall to wall windows is delightful in the late afternoon and the television is properly placed to avoid the glare. (The magnificent view from the high floor terrace will be posted in part 2 of this series.)
The chesterfield sofa lent a nice masculine grounding to the room and the grain sack pillows add comfort. The industrial coffee table provides storage and the urban painting over the sofa adds a reminder of home. The hammered metal bowl was mom’s addition, a decorative piece my son still doesn’t quite get. Yet he dutifully keeps it there all the while doubting my insistence that it would make a great popcorn bowl for game day.
A toast to his new place, his new job, his new beginning. This one was dad’s input to the decor…
To lighten the look we went with beige linen guest chairs. No doubt a big cushy club chair would have been infinitely more inviting, but you’d be surprised how comfortable these are. They’ve even been pushed together and slept on!
St. Louis has become a gateway indeed for my son into the world of independence. Visit the blog for part 2 of this series – the kitchen, dining room and terrace and Part 3 - the bedroom, bath and desk alcove.
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Thanks for this inspiration. My son is in the same boat your son was, except that he will be starting work in Baltimore. We went apartment hunting last week and he asked if I'd help him decorate. He is not very picky, but I want it to look awesome!
I am trying to decide if going with light or dark wood is best. I like how you mixed the dark couch with light side chairs.
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Thanks! For a guy I’d go mostly dark wood, but I think some of the grey toned woods look nice now.
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It looks awesome! Where did you get the chesterfield sofa?
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It was from Home Decorators. You can find it here: https://rstyle.me/+uCbI5xh6mZZPPSrFVClYYw
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Hi. Fantastic decorating. Can you please tell where you found the art above couch?