Vienna Apartment Tour

My husband and I moved to Europe from the US over five years ago with four suitcases and zero furniture.  During our first years in Berlin and now in Vienna, we have gradually filled up our apartment with European finds.  Living on a student's budget during much of this time meant that practically our entire apartment had to be scavenged from eBay, charity shops or the Austrian version of Craigslist, but that's what makes it a fun challenge.  

At the moment, we are preparing for the movers to come and move out the things that we will ship back to the US with us, so this week is crazy.  Before we leave our apartment behind, I thought I'd take you on a little tour.


First up: the bedroom.


One reason we love this apartment is that the layout leaves most of the square footage to the entertaining and living space, which means we have plenty of room for parties and overnight guests without having to pay the higher rent that would usually correspond with it.  That means, though, that we ended up with a teensy tiny bedroom, which actually functions as 1) the place we sleep, 2) Jady's office, 3) our closet, and 4) a storage room for extra suitcases, linens, etc.  Anything we would rather not display out in the open gets stashed in here.  


So, you should know, this room is not usually open to the public:)  It's not pretty or decorated, but reflects a purely functional attempt to use the space as efficiently as possible.  I thought you might like to have a look...  And yes, we lofted our bed.  Like college students. It has given us lots of extra space in here, but we are both SO looking forward to being able to fall into a bed on the ground in our new place!

We have used a ton of IKEA's GORM shelving, as you will see on Thursday in the living room tour, as well.  It's inexpensive, easily rearranged, and it can be extended to take advantage of extra space from high ceilings.

This wardrobe was a great find on eBay and is a critical piece for us since, remember, these apartments don't have any closets at all! 

 Next up: the hallway.

Here is a fun DIY project.  This little IKEA chest of drawers only costs 20 Euros normally, although we actually were given this one for free.  The price was perfect:), but it's very basic, with simple lines and unfinished wood.  To spruce it up a little, I decided to paint the outside and cover the drawers with a roll of extra raffia wallpaper I brought home from my parents' house. Between painting the couple of coats of an off white I already had lying around, I attached the paper to the drawers.  After removing the knobs, I measured and cut the wallpaper, making sure to leave enough to wrap around the edges completely.  I spread glue on the front of the drawers, wrapped the paper around and stapled behind to secure them before reattaching the knobs.  So simple!

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Next: the kitchen/dining room.


I have already posted about our kitchen redo here, but now you can get a better idea of the whole room.  This photo was taken shortly after we moved in, so the white couch (with the painted pillow now on it) has since replaced the olive tree by the window, but here you can see the view from the hallway.  Don't you love the fishbone hardwood floors?? And we even have French doors, too!  You can find features like this is so many older apartments in Europe-- something I'll miss, for sure.

Check back on Thursday for a tour of our favorite room in the apartment: the living room!  

xo 

Liza