Finding Pinspiration for our new home

Yesterday I shared the news that Keenan and I are buying our first home (and by home, I mean studio apartment) together and I cannot tell you how excited we are.

We can’t wait to finally have a space of our own, where we can unpack our bags (instead of living out of bags at each other’s places) and leave our own fingerprints. The space is a blank canvas and we will be the first occupants, so we’ve got the opportunity to make something that really suits us and our lifestyle.

Because the space is quite industrial, with some exposed brick areas and a high warehouse-style ceiling, we want to keep things really simple. Also, there’s not much space for hoarding, so we’re getting rid of a whole lot of stuff we’ve been carting around from house to house since we left our respective homes. We’re looking for clever ways to store or display household items that won’t make it look too cluttered.

The place is tiny, but it’s big enough for us to create a bedroom, which we want to separate from the living area with a huge bookshelf. I’m still looking for one, so if anyone knows of a carpenter or similar in the Cape Town area who can build one, please send their details on to me.

Where did people find inspiration before Pinterest? It’s such an awesome platform to find and catalogue ideas. We’ve got a Studio Apartment board, where we’ve been pinning our ideas for small space decor and space saving solutions. We both really like minimalism and a neutral palette, with splashes of colour. We also want to incorporate a lot of plants and greenery into our home.

We have a small courtyard and an adjacent exclusive use passage, where we want to create a magical outdoor space. Lots of plants and great lighting will hopefully help us to create a small inner-city oasis. I’m going to pick a theme for our backyard soon and then I can begin designing it properly! It’s so exciting!!