Hello! And welcome back to al dente. You may have been wondering what I’ve been up to over the past few weeks. Well, wonder no longer! For the most part, Jack and I have been moving into our new apartment in Boston, going through the many stages of a very long process. We began with the physical labor stage while moving everything out of our storage unit, just the two of us. Then it was the “F-THIS” stage when we spent over an hour trying to shapeshift our couch so it could fit through the front door (which never happened). The exploring and falling in love with the neighborhood stages have been my favorite — there’s the most perfect bookstore across the street that I can’t and won’t stop going to. And the obligatory “why the hell did we do this” stage, which is remedied mainly by the fact of in-unit laundry. My current stage is excitement! We just ordered our new espresso machine — the coffee shops in this neighborhood (although fabulous and tasty) have weird hours and sometimes don’t open until 8:30, so it was just the jolt we needed to finally bite the bullet. I fear my insufferable latte art era is pending.
The new place is the first floor of a house and a two-bedroom, so it’s much bigger than anything we’re used to. One of my favorite parts of this place is the size (I can’t wait to have an office), but I didn’t anticipate the feeling of having such a long way to go to get it furnished and complete. The second bedroom is going to be multifunctional to say the least, acting as a guest bedroom/my office/my closet, and humorously referred to as the nursery. The nursery currently looks like a bomb went off in there, so I’ll leave it at that.
The living area is also pretty much a blank slate. We’re planning to repaint all the walls this weekend, so the art and TV still lie dormant in their boxes. We no longer have our built-in “library,” so our hundreds of books and coffee table books remain untouched. This room is pretty big, so we’re going to add two large bookshelves on either side of the credenza/TV, which feels like a dream come true. And the real kicker, the couch we ordered may take up to 14 weeks to arrive. 14 weeks, people!!! That turnaround should be illegal. However, we are not ones to pass up chocolate brown velvet or a storage ottoman when we see one. The perils of being a couple that favors both form and function (I’ll let you guess who is who).
The main bedroom and bathroom have come the farthest. I’ve requested we keep the bedroom somewhat chaos-free so we have at least one room to take refuge in whilst everything else comes together, and for bingeing Love Island in peace. For the bedroom, I plan to keep it calm and peaceful, leaving our large colorful artwork for the main living space and office/guest bedroom/closet hybrid. Our bedding is a dark charcoal linen, so we picked up a cream rug and light linen curtains to balance it out. Both bedrooms have the original wood floors, so our wood side tables, dresser, and mirror look fab in there. On top of the dresser, I’m going to stack our older and vintage books and face them the wrong way so the varying colors of the pages are displayed outwardly instead of the colorful spines. My tray of fragrances is also settled atop the dresser, which is both convenient and pretty to look at. I’m excited to sparingly (gasp!) hang wall art in here once the room is painted (I’m traditionally rather a maximalist).
Here are some inspo photos I have for the apartment — a cute as heck coffee bar in the kitchen, lots of books, wood tones and vintage furniture, cozy curtains, blah blah blah. I want to source as many secondhand/vintage pieces as possible and try to decorate with a more minimal eye than I have in the past. Since I do live with a boy, I also want it to look a little less girly than our past places, although Jack frankly doesn’t give a shit about a little pink here and there.
What I’m most looking forward to in this current moment:
Setting up the espresso bar!
Ordering/installing/decorating the bookshelves
Finding a vintage desk on FB Marketplace
Hanging exactly one million curtains
Hanging TV + wall art
Exploring more of the neighborhood and trying all the restos
If anyone has any FB Marketplace leads in the Boston area, let me know! Or any latte art tips are greatly appreciated. I can’t wait to update you on this journey and maybe even host some of you on our new sofa in a mere 14 weeks!!!
cya l8r gators,
- Ally
Omg do you live across the street from paper cuts?!
I love what you've done with the place.Well written piece ❤️ 😍