You asked...about decorating a narrow apartment, on a budget

Hi Annie,
I'll be a medical student next year and have finally rented a place where the landlord will let me paint the walls and decorate as I wish....I have no idea where to start!

I was trying to think of what would go well with [the black kitchen counters and my tan couch, similar to the chair at right], and I can only think of some shade of red. Would that work and are there any other options? I was mulling over the idea about only accent painting the wall with the main window.

Also, the apartment is long but very narrow - are there any designs which would help me utilize the space as well as possible without it looking too small?...

Thanks so much! I love your blog!
Sincerely, Lucy



A: Hi, Lucy. Check out a Washington Post article from last week on this very topic - there might be some good tips there for you.

In your new apartment, the kitchen floor takes up too much darn space. So let's use a bold, colorful rug to make the living room floor bigger. This should be your primary investment.

Anthropologie's Arcadian Garden Rug in black would be a wonderful choice. The allover pattern is preferable to stripes or geometric shapes: the pattern de-emphasizes the narrow boxiness of the apartment. Plus the black would be great with the kitchen counters.
Place the rug so that a good 2' of it overlaps the seam between the wall-to-wall carpeting and the kitchen tile. (The short side of the rug should be parallel to the back window wall.) So the rug is mostly on the carpeting, but by extending past it, it makes the living area appear bigger.

Then, because there isn't much space for too much else, adorn your sofa to make it the focal point of the apartment. (And a cushy-looking place to lounge.)

Hopefully, your sofa will fit across the double window on the carpeted side of the apartment. (The rug would start in front of - not under - the sofa.) No coffee table; a single small table next to or off-center in front of the sofa would be sufficient. This blog post has a good table suggestion.

To make the sofa seem less massive, put a red throw/blanket across the back middle section of the sofa, but leave edges of the back cushions exposed. Then add a few throw pillows for comfort and visual interest, picking up red, blue and/or purple from the rug.

This Purpley Mod pillow from kthurm (via Etsy) would be fun with the Arcadia rug:


And a red Eco Cushion from Olofs Daughters (also via Etsy) would pick up the red. Avoid florals in the pillows; the rug is enough:


In the dining area, a small ROUND table and 2 chairs from a thrift shop would be perfect. If you don't have time to comb thrifty-type places, Ikea's Billsta table has a 27-1/2" diameter, which should be perfect. Put it with 2 black Gilbert chairs.


Do all of this, Lucy, and you may not even have to paint the walls. If you still want to, though, pick up one of the light greens - or greeny yellow - from the rug. And paint ALL of the walls in the living/dining area. Accent walls will just chop up the space further.

I hope this is helpful, Lucy. Please keep me posted!