23 April 2009

Appartamento


Welcome to my Ikea filled apartment!
The desk is an old artist's table that's pretty banged up but has a ton of character-- remnants of paint and cup rings and just regular wear and tear.


My (nearly empty) closet! I love the plastic orange Ikea hangers- fun. I didn't post up a picture of the other side of my room, but I have an old baby-diaper changing cabinet as another dresser. I also have more art hanging above my bed-- My host mother is the director of her own art school here in Florence.


My favorite part of the apartment-- where the magic happens in the kitchen. It's a small, narrow kitchen, but my host mother makes SUCH great use of all the space. If I didn't feel creepier doing this, I'd totally take close-up snapshots of all the shelves. Note the kickass hand-made wooden table. It was the wooden panel underneath an old bed that was stained with a hot pink wash. Very cool.


Another picture of the kitchen. Mm... breakfast :) LOVE the green wall and pink dining table. I don't think I'd be able to pull it off in my own apartment, but it just works so well here.
Europeans don't seem to eat much for breakfast-- some of my friends had asked me if I really eat bacon in the morning (rarely) and if breakfast sandwiches in the US are popular. I LOVE breakfast. So while they sip their caffe and have ONE bowl of cereal, I'm slicing several pieces of fresh bread, pouring myself some cereal, taking an extra piece of cake... etc.

The smaller of two bathrooms. This one only has the shower and sink, along with the washing machine (note, no dryer!-- silly Europeans). Again, amazing use of space. Normally, I would consider the red heart bathmat from Ikea incredibly tacky, but somehow it really works in this apartment.


Funny blue afternoon light. We don't actually use the bathtub or bidet, which I like-- it would be a completely different bathroom if there was a shower curtain blocking the window. And I swear, someone I know has that green and blue striped bathmat also from Ikea-- I can't remember, is it you?


The view from my window with the terrible afternoon glare, but you get the picture. The old church bell tower in the background! The palm tree (behind the first)! The statue in his niche! The green shutters!


And thus, my apartment. In total, we have four bedrooms with students always coming in and out. There is one other Swiss-German girl who is here for a long-term stay, so it's really nice to see her on a regular basis. Otherwise, it seems to be mostly high school students from various places in Europe who are doing a one or two week exchange-- I would have LOVED to do this in high school.

My sister is also coming to visit for my last week in May! She managed to snag a seat on my flight back as well, so hurrah for that! We were together in Paris that same week one year ago, so it's nice to be together in Europe again so soon!

4 comments:

Anny said...

HOORAY!

trace said...

everything is SO CUTE! gah! i'm inspired. time to get rid of my metal-crate cubbies and get some grown-up dressers!

Winston said...

Yo, did you move out of that huge room?

margaret said...

claraaaa the apartment is so adorable, and totally suits you. i'm definitely inspired by the wall units above the desk... !

About Her

My photo
a pseudo grown-up: book lover, wanderlust-er, sometimes photographer, blog follower, coffee drinker, dessert baker (and eater), music listener, Italian learner, storyteller, story writer