At the end of 2018 we moved out of our home that we lived in and renovated over 14 years to live abroad in Chile. In Chile, we rented a furnished apartment for a year and just added small personal touches.

We moved back to the States at the beginning of 2020 right before the pandemic arrived here. Since our home that we lived in prior to the move is currently rented out, we moved into an apartment.

Decorating an apartment has it’s challenges, especially when you will only be there for a short time. In our case, our apartment lease is for 9 months. Still, I’m a big proponent of making your space beautiful regardless of how temporary it is. We moved into a blank space in the middle of February and I was super focused on turning it into a space where I felt at home.

I’m so glad I did because less than a month later the entire country shutdown and we were in quarantine for months. Of course, I still had some items on my to-do list when quarantine began, but I’d gotten most of the space situated and it has served us well, being home more than ever before.

We have a 2 bedroom, 2 bath 1200 square foot space. The living, dining, and kitchen are all one large room.

I kept a few key pieces of furniture from our house: couch and king bed frame. The other pieces: day bed, dining table, bar stools, night tables, desk were all purchased once we moved in. I also kept a few curtains from our old home but found it’s tricky to reuse window treatments in a new space. Our old home had 8 foot ceilings where I used 96 in curtain panels. The apartment has 9 foot ceilings where I’ve used 108 in curtain panels.

The living room has four forest green velvet curtain panels from Half Price Drapes. They are a great resource for inexpensive curtains. I purchased the blue curtains in the large bedroom and the yellow curtains in the second bedroom from there too.

The second bedroom is both an office and guest room. Of course, thanks to the pandemic, we haven’t had the guests we were scheduled to host. But I use it everyday since I work from home.

We even have a small outdoor space. I enjoy having breakfast out here in the mornings.

In Chile, our apartment was about 700 square feet, so this apartment is nearly twice the size and it feels a bit luxurious. For comparison, the home we moved out of before Chile, is 2000 square feet. I have to say, I don’t really miss the extra space here. Maybe that is due to the pandemic and not being able to host guests or maybe it’s just that my expectations and needs have been reset. Either way, it’s been nice to enjoy this cozy space.

-J