how to decorate this awkward apartment to feel like home *emotional reveal*

This space is so awkward. I don't know if you can tell, but it is on an angle and it needs to be three rooms in one, a living room to watch movies and shows, an area to listen to records and a reading nook all up in the back. Just because your apartment has some good bones and some beautiful windows does not mean you are off the hook for decorating. Welcome to Tom and Erin's apartment. They are a couple and they just moved in together. So excited for the next big step and they need help making this space feel like home. And if you saw last week's episode, because you're a subscriber and you love us and you enjoy this free content, that was my hint to subscribe. You saw last week's episode. You did see that I made over their dining space. If you don't want to spoil that for yourself, you can go watch it now. But that was the start to their entire apartment makeover. And that was the easy side, honestly. This side, I think a lot harder. First of all, we need to blend both of their styles. He's a little bit more eclectic. She's a little bit more mid-century modern. And we want them both to feel at home in this space. Next, I have to make this space feel like three distinct spaces. The living room, the record listening station and the reading nook. They kind of have a base going here, but I think I need to help bring it all together. And lastly, the space is just awkward. It's kind of on an angle. We have bay windows. And when I first walked in, I was like, we need to change up this entire layout. It's not working. The couch is in the middle of the room. It feels cut off. But they said they love this layout. And since they want these kind of different rooms to feel very evident, I'm going to have to make it work. And in order to bring this space to life, I need to get sourcing, shopping and thrifting. I fear I may have lined up the best marketplace day I ever have lined up. I have like, I don't even know, eight pickups today all across the city. I have so much Monopoly money with me right now. And I'm just so excited that I'm going to start to see the vision come to life through the things that I pick up. And if you remember, I did get a storage locker and I was stressing about how I'm fitting everything in the storage locker. Some of you recommended I get shelves, which is like so obvious that I kind of didn't think of it. I got shelves and I'm so excited to make this so much more efficient. Before I can load up my car with more stuff, I have to unload some stuff that I have and set up my new shelves in my storage locker. The next pickup is a drum light. I love a large drum light. I will say, though, this is extra large. So we will see about that. One of the big deal items I'm picking up today is an armchair and matching ottoman. The armchair is going to replace the armchair that's in rough condition in the reading nook. And the ottoman, I was honestly already going to look for an ottoman for the space. And the seller said, hey, are you interested? We also have this. What? Meant to be. I think these two items are going to look good in the space and just elevate the corner a little bit more. OK, when I did get here, the ottoman doesn't look like it matches exactly. And even scale wise, it feels a little small. So I'm only going to take the chair, which honestly, it barely fits. So we're feeling good. But the chair? Gorgeous. Great condition. OK, my last stop here is to get two hanging pendant lights. They're vintage matching, which is hard to find. And I'm going to use those on either side of the TV with a framed out wood accent wall. I think it's going to look so good. Another 30 minutes. Every drive is like 30, either an hour or 30 minutes between each other. You see why I've cleared out the locker? Is this even going to fit in the locker? Not going to lie. Those are some gorgeous pendants. What the heck? They're in like perfect condition. OK, so the space has already been cleared out of anything that we won't be keeping in the room. And before I bring in the new pieces, there are some things I want to get installed and work on first. And a few of those things require help from my friend Rochelle. We first want to get a wood accent wall up. This is just going to bring some interest and warmth to the space without competing with the gallery wall that I just installed in the dining room that's right beside it. So that's our first task of the day. Since the wood paneling will sit on top of the baseboards, we do need to do a little paint job here so that the baseboards flow better with the beautiful wood. I am taping off and then painting the baseboard a matching brown color to the wood stain. OK, so Kelsey said she wanted a wood paneled wall here and I was like, I'm all over it. So what I ended up picking up from the hardware store is actually called underlayment. It is a little bit thinner than, say, like a quarter inch piece of plywood, but it was the thinnest stuff that I could get. And that's because I want to try to make this a little bit renter friendly if we can. So my plan is to just use brad nails along the edge where we're going to put some trim over it and then use pin nails anywhere else because they tend not to show. So I'm hopeful that that's going to make just a really nice, cohesive looking wall. All right. Is that it? Is it just like that? Yeah. You may have noticed, thanks to all the close up shots that I keep getting, that Rochelle and I are rocking almost matching footwear thanks to today's sponsor, Bumbus. I just picked up these Saturday slip ons by Bumbus to be that perfect indoor comfy shoe to wear while I install makeovers. And meanwhile, Rochelle, this girl loves her slippers. Every trip we've been on, she brings her slippers. Even if she's come over to my house, she will bring her own slippers. Yes, I love my plush Sunday slippers from Bumbus. They are made with a memory foam and EVA midsole for support and comfort and a rubber outsole so that you don't even have to take them off to run to the mailbox. I might take them off to go down to the workshop, though, because I haven't done that in the past and the slippers got a little torn up. And Bumbus is one of those companies that you can feel good about supporting because they make the first, second and third most requested clothing items at homeless shelters. That's socks, underwear and T-shirts, and they donate one with every purchase. So one purchase equals one donated. That's not girl math. That's just regular math. Upgrade your shoe and slipper game with Bumbus. New customers are going to get 20% off their first order. You just go to Bumbus.com slash TheSorryGirls and use the code TheSorryGirls at checkout. Wow, we love Trim. Love it. We love Trim. I love all of our imperfections with Trim. So while Rochelle gets to staining our wood wall, I'm going to start putting up these bay window curtain rods. I don't know who needs to hear this, but I'm sure at least one person watching doesn't know that you can get special bay window curtain rods so they actually have this kind of like corner bendy piece that will work for a three-piece bay window. Obviously, we just need some curtains here to add some texture. And also, they wanted a little bit of privacy. So I am doing something light filtering. Also, funny story about a bay window curtain rod. I think the first and honestly last time that I've installed one was my first kind of solo apartment. Did a three-part series here on TheSorryGirls of making over that apartment. And one of the things I did was install a bay window curtain rod. And that's when I found out about them. I was like, what is the situation we're going to do here? What how are we going to install curtains? But the funny part is when I moved out of that apartment, my landlord was just like, here's $300 because he was like, you did such a good job decorating it that sorry, not sorry, he could rent it out for more money. That was not my goal, obviously. When has anybody ever just given you free money you didn't ask for? That was unexpected and definitely paid for my bay window curtain rod. But let's not forget that landlord was an a-hole. So he owed me at least that. Like that was the only non-a-hole thing he ever did was pay me money. It's so great having another person installing with me. Not only does it all go by faster, but we can just both work on our own tasks. Rochelle's staining. I'm hanging these curtains. Is this called parallel play or something? Also, you just get the best chats when you're doing a task and you can kind of mindlessly do it while chatting. Oh, there's a baby squirrel. Rochelle, there's a baby squirrel out there and it's not okay. It's a baby's baby. Is it a tree? No, it's on the ground. Can you see it? It's over here. It was squeaking and then somebody stopped and I was like, what are they looking at? Where did it come from? The tree? We should go look at it. We had to go down and investigate because there was no way we were leaving this little baby on the street. It looked like it couldn't walk well and it did have a little bit of blood on its legs. So we carefully transferred the precious baby squirrel to our bumbus box. Okay, we talked to like 10 neighbors and they were like, bring it to the vet. So we're going to bring it down the street to the vet. We called the city and they were like, sorry, we will not help you. I'm afraid the vet's going to be like, we also can't help you. In which case, I don't know what we do. We can't really do much. Does anybody want a pet squirrel? Not the bumbus box. Um, so we just found a baby squirrel on the street. I know you're probably like, we don't know what to do, but we also don't know what to do. We called 301. Is there anything you can do or should we just? Okay, so the vet won't help mostly because they can't subject their patients' animals to wildlife that hasn't been vaccinated and whatnot. So they directed us to a wildlife facility that might be able to take squirrel baby. So we called around and left voicemails at a few different places to see if anybody would be able to take squirrel baby. And in the meantime, squirrel baby is with us, but we're going to get back to installing this makeover. Now for the curtains, all I knew is that I wanted maybe a plaid. I think that's the right combo for mid-century modern and vintage eclectic. And it's not just a plain curtain because this is not the style for a plain curtain, you know? So I went safe and got a white option, but I also have this kind of like brownie tan option, which I do like a lot. I just want to make sure it's going to match with like the rug and the couch and everything we have going on. So before I pick which curtain we're actually going to go with, I think we need to do some furniture rearranging. So if you remember, Tom and Erin had two rugs and a couch in this space. Both the couch and the red rug were a little too small for the space, so those have been rehomed. But their green rug I actually think is a really good fit and is going to work well in the TV area with a new larger and comfier couch. First up, we need to move the media unit back and then move the rug into its final resting place. I think the reason that they didn't put the rug here in the first place is that it actually doesn't fit exactly, but sometimes you have to pick the lesser of two evils. In this case, you could have a smaller rug that maybe doesn't feel like the right scale for the space, or you could just fold the corner of your rug so that it fits properly. I am choosing to fold the rug, and in my opinion, this is the right move. But do let me know if you think folding a rug is acceptable or not. OK, should we go get our new couch? OK, let's do it. I'm so glad I made the decision to get Erin and Tom a new couch. This one is from Wayfair. It's not sponsored or gifted. I will link it below because it took us a while to find the right option. Only thing was it was slightly frustrating to assemble. But honestly, what furniture isn't? Do we have it? Wow, we did it. OK, nobody touch the couch. Stays here forever. This isn't it. What? Yeah. Like they're closed right now and he's like sleeping, but they definitely, I've seen them open for sure. Sounds good. Thank you, bye. OK, they're going to consult with the team and then tell us what to do. OK, well, in other news, this couch was really nice. And now I just need to pick which curtains go with it. And I don't know what I'm going to do. OK, now it's time to make a decision on these curtains. Let me know in the comments brown or white. I think the white looks a little bit more expensive, but the brown may be more interesting. I think I'm going to play it safe, though, and go with the white option. Kelsey speaking. OK, so just sometime tomorrow. I mean, obviously earlier, the better. Do you have any questions while we're on the call? I don't think so. Only apple, no water, partial heating pad and dark place. Yeah, OK. Thank you so much for caring for this little guy. No worries. Thanks for your help. Thank you so much. See you soon. OK, bye bye. I think we have a baby squirrel for the night. We get to name him. So great news is that the Toronto Wildlife Centre has room for a squirrel baby. But since they were closing before I would be able to get there today, I did have to bring him home. So we got him all set up with a hot water bottle, some of my partner's old shirts that he was going to donate and some apple chunks. Does he want to be buried again? He'll burrow, he'll burrow. Our baby. Pretty cute. OK, good morning. It's very good, baby. The name is just Squirrel Baby, I'm sorry. That's the name. Made it through the night and I'm going to go drop him off at the Toronto Wildlife Centre. OK, drop off went well. I got my patient number. Hopefully I'll be able to get an update. They say they prioritize emergency calls, obviously, so it might take a little while to hear back from them. I know it'll be OK. But maybe not if we had left it on the street. Probably not. Definitely not. So we saved a squirrel today, guys. OK, so I did ask Michelle to come in just a little later since I didn't know how long Squirrel Baby would take me. I'm going to get started with laying down the rug on this record listening and reading nook side of the room. But also just a minute for the wood wall. It looks so professional. I'm loving the trim details, but we will have to figure out like what the centred or off centred situation is with the TV because the diagonal shape of this room is just leading to an awkward layout. We'll circle back on that. OK, but the rug I'm putting down in this space is just to help define this space. I picked up this one from Revival. You guys know we love Revival rugs. A very curated, but also very a selection of new and vintage rugs. OK, I just need to trim this rug pad a little bit. I actually have been using the excess from rug pads that I've been trimming around like random runners or like bath mats around my house, and it's been so helpful. OK, Rochelle is here, so that means she can help me bring in the thing that's going to make the record corner a record corner. I found this piece on Facebook Marketplace. It was already marked down so much. Look at this price. I recruited my husband to help me go pick it up. We're talking about having Elliot and Austin on an episode of Behind the Story on our Patreon. Oh God. He's nervous because he gets shy on camera. But I think he's like, I'll do it if Austin does it. So if you aren't already following us on Patreon. Episode coming. This is your Patreon plug? Yeah, we got to plug the Patreon. This is honestly a great piece, but when I got it home, I realized it did have a bit of a smell. Apparently, it's been in that house since this couple bought it, which was a long time ago. And I feel like there might be smoke and pet smells. Honestly, leaving baking soda on it for a few days really helped. And I also gave it a good soap and water wipe down, as well as a complete top refinishing. Because I definitely learned my lesson from the dining room and the dining room cable. Sometimes you need to do a full power sand, you know. Here we go. Oh, buddy. Oh my God. Wow, that actually fits better. I thought it was going to feel just a little too small, but that's perfect. Beautiful. Great job. Perfect. And the speakers actually work. Look how good it looks with this carpet, too. We all say carpet instead of rug, guys. It's okay. Like, it's okay. It's a rug made of carpet. Cracking one liners off camera. So according to Kelsey's plan, she knew that there was going to be a credenza here. What she wanted was some bookshelves for Tom and Erin's books and whatnot on the side here. And that's where I came in. She did send me this as sort of an inspiration shelf. And I was like, yeah, okay, let's do it. And it is a pretty simple build. I cut down some one by three material to use as the verticals. And then I'm using some small corner braces that will attach the shelves to the vertical pieces. Okay, so I checked my entire house and I do not have a Robertson bit that is this small. Not a driver bit, not a screwdriver itself, nothing. Guess who had to go out and buy this whole carabiner just so that I could get a number zero Robertson. Then I cut a little piece that will go on the top of the verticals, making it an L shape. And this will allow the whole shelf to connect to the wall. Okay, I think it's working, but I have a second one to make and I have to stain this and I can't transport it like this. So I have to take it apart. The things you have to do for DIY. For the shelves, I just cut down some three quarter inch plywood and ironed edge banding on the sides. So yeah. Low key, I was like, Rochelle, this might be easier than the shelf build I last asked you to make. And also just like more renter friendly. Like it should really just be the two screws at the top. I'm thinking maybe a screw at the bottom as well, just to keep everything like lined up and from the legs kicking out. But yeah, for like a whole like built in shelf kind of look, but then not making it built in, this was the thought, erecting the shelf. I will use the word erect every time it makes sense. That's not sexual. It's like a barn raising. Yes. You can stand it up okay, right? Yeah. She's beautiful. Yeah. And perfect. I didn't really think it'd be that close. But that, good job. That's what happens when you get Kelsey to give Rochelle measurements. I was like, okay, this is what size needs to be. I actually love how it like kind of hides this edge. Wow. If I was a betting woman, I would bet every time that Roch would nail it. And she did. It's looking so good in here. But Rochelle, will you help me bring in the books and the records? I actually can't carry it by myself. For the number of books and records Tom and Erin have, they desperately needed these shelves and a record cabinet. Will it shelf? Hell yeah. I think there's a lot of duplicates, which I think means that they are meant to be as a couple. Oh, literally compatible. There's like, I saw multiple, I saw duplicate records. We've seen duplicate books, literally duplicate Beatles poster. Ah, meant to be because of our music and literary connection. You think, you think you have a lot of books till you install two bookshelves and then you have enough for three quarters of one bookshelf. No, this is the thing. People do not style their book shelves enough. Like you just put them up like this, which to be clear, this is me unpacking, unloading a bin. This is not styling, this is not decorating. You gotta like spread them out. You gotta like, you make them airy. They don't need to be squished in there. Okay, I actually found two more bins of books, which is great. The more, the merrier, but I'm realizing that I don't want to fill up this bookshelf with books because there is another rug I have that I think we'll need to like slip under the bookshelf and I don't want it to be too heavy to kind of like lift and slide under. So let's go get the rug and actually kind of start on this reading nook. Because it's empty right now and it's about to not be. I can put a plant here. And would you know it? I am still not sold on the curtains. I am debating whether I should do brown or white. Okay, I've decided it's going to be white. Now to address this blank space above the credenza, we are doing a record wall to really define the space and add some interest. Aaron and Tom already own these record ledges. I actually think Tom had this up on the wall in his old space. Will it record? Oh, that's pretty sleek, actually. I wasn't sure about the acrylic. I was like, I don't know. I prefer wood. I was like, should we like put these up and then just like glue a piece of wood across all of them? I actually thought about it. Sleek. Can I get a sleek pic? Oh, sleek, sleek. I honestly just mostly picked records off of vibes and colors, but let me know if any of your favorite albums are up here. While this side of the room is mostly brought together, I do need to address something that's been bothering me on the other side. Having this media unit centered on the wall actually isn't working with how the couch is laid out. So I am going to shift the media unit over to the left and then fill in this gap with a plant. And then with my lighting idea that I have for this corner, it'll definitely all come together tomorrow. It's time to talk about lighting. So when I asked Tom and Erin if I could swap this out, they're like, yeah, but we never use the big light. I don't care if you never turn it on. Don't turn it on. That's so fine by me. I don't like to use the overhead lights either, but I can still see it whether you turn it on or not. So I thought the solution for this would just be simple drum pendant, but it is a big room. So let's get something that's like a substantial scale and it'll just kind of blend in. I don't need anything crazy. Hold please. Just a simple drum pendant, y'all. Like the measurements, I'm pretty sure were correct. I wasn't aware that it was like a hanging pendant. I thought it was maybe flush mount. I didn't catch that on the marketplace listing. And this was a really good deal. This was like, I don't even remember, but like between 30 and 50 bucks, which for this size, like these run hundreds and you can't even find them that are like two feet. Long story short, it is definitely too big for the space if we're trying to go for understated. So I do have some other options and we'll save this one for the next makeover. So yeah, I did a last minute run to IKEA yesterday and I have some options. Since this is not a light that we want to have be a focal point, we have other lighting I'm going to install today. Those will be focal points. I was thinking of taking a page out of Becky's book. You heard of her? She's from Sorry Girls. And she used track lighting in a space where she didn't want the light fixture to be a whole thing. And since I have a whole record wall here that needs to be lit properly, why don't we use some track lights and some directional spotlights to make the record wall a moment? That could be the move. Did I turn off the breaker? Did I turn off breaker? Cause I don't want to die. Moving on to our next light moment. It was hard to find two vintage matching pendants, but we did it all for me to not use them this way. So the original plan was to hang one on one side of the TV, one on the other. But since I've decided to shift the TV a little bit so that the flow of the living room feels a little bit more centered, I'm actually just going to use one pendant on the empty side, which I think will be nice. And I'm hoping I can use this one maybe over in the reading nook. Okay, before I can figure out how this pendant fixture is involved in this corner, there's actually a few things I want to do. First, move this chair out of the way. And upon further consideration, there's just too much white going on. So I'm going to swap out both the sets of curtains to be that brown tan color instead of the white. I'm also adding some plants back here to fill in the space a little better. And I was debating between adding another hanging pendant here or add this floor lamp. And then I had the great idea to combine them. Add the beautiful shade to the floor lamp. And voila, we have a new lamp. Honestly, one of the most gorgeous lamps I've seen in a long time. Between their two bay windows, I want to hang this brass mirror that they already had. And I've always wondered what these absolutely giant picture hooks in the picture hanging kit were for. And it's this, it's for this moment right now. Okay, and I think that mirror is the last thing I need to do before we get to final touches. This was the easiest final touches because I didn't have to go out and buy anything. They had so many cute knickknacks to fill in all of the gaps. And actually, do we prefer using the words knickknacks or tchotchkes? Maybe let's see which term Aaron and Tom prefer because it is time to show them their new space. You guys remember what your old space looked like? Yeah. So boring, so not you. I'm going to count you down. Check out your new space in three, two, one. Oh, no, shut up. I'm actually, oh my God. The couch. Oh my God. Wait, no, I'm actually going to like slide. Oh my God. I love it. I'm actually like shaking, like, oh my God. Look at the record unit. I'm shaking too. I'm going to cry. Oh my God. It's so beautiful. Thanks, Kelsey. Thank you, thank you. Oh my God. And the chair, the green chair. Aaron, look at the reading nook, the reading nook. My dream was to have a little reading nook. It's like the perfect level of cushy that I could just like, just rot away. Oh my God. And it's my favorite color. Yeah, no, I love that. It's like a see-through kind of shelf. Thank God we found somewhere to put the Riverside Shakespeare. Oh my God. Oh my God, this is perfect. And I love how it's not, it's like, it's a bookshelf, but it has all of our little trinkets. I've always wanted one of these. So I'm so excited I got one now. Oh my God. And is this storage here? Take a look at this. What's under here? That's your record. Oh, beautiful. No, honestly, I was like, I was literally just talking to Tom the other day that like, I just, I've been living in the living room. Like I do like my journaling here and just like after work, you come and relax. And like, I feel so at peace. Like, because I think like we had stuff going, but it was just like, there was no rhyme or reason to it. Like, but here I'm like, oh, this makes sense. Like, this is like perfect. It works. And like the colors, I'm like, I'm still, I can't get over the colors. Like, I feel like it's just so peaceful. I'm like, I can, I can fully relax here. Like. I just think of like being able to like host people here. Yeah. You know, it's just going to be game changer. Like, especially with the table, like we were thinking about doing even Thanksgiving because we knew we were going to get the dining room done. So we were like, oh my God, maybe we could do our first Thanksgiving here and that could be really exciting. We just can't wait to show it to like. Yeah. Our loved ones. That'll be so fun. And to share it with other people. So thank you. You're welcome. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. This is insane. I am so, so happy with how this space turned out and so happy to give Aaron and Tom a new place to call home. Next week on The Sorry Girls, Becky is making over her new balcony and the update on Squirrel Baby we've all been waiting for. I found out that she is a girl. I had a baby girl and she was dehydrated and malnourished when she came in. She even had some fleas, but her leg is actually not hurt and overall she's improving day by day. Thanks for watching and we'll see you guys next time. Bye.