Thank you to all who helped celebrate our 1 year anniversary May 1st. It is always so much fun to see all of our different friends coming together to share food, fun and laughter. While the past year has been a huge learning experience and we have all been through many changes, I am continually amazed by the people who come into our lives every week. There is something about Apartment 46 that just attracts wonderfully creative people. I say it a lot but I mean it, I am truly lucky.
So spring is here – I think! It’s time to liven up your space and shake off the wintery meh. We are offering two new services that may be of interest to you in helping you rethink your environment. One, we would love to assist you in re-imagining what you already have. You have a dresser you love but the color is wrong? Let’s pick a new color and refinish it. Maybe add some new pulls as well. Voila! A new dresser at a 1/4 of the price! You have a wall that’s just not working but it needs a lil’ summin’ summin’? Send me a picture and let me virtually redesign it at a fraction of the cost of having a decorator come to your door!
Also new will be a series of classes I will giving at my shop to talk about problem areas in the home and how to address them. Attendees will bring pics of their hard to handle spaces and we’ll brainstorm ideas to fix them up. At the next meeting we’ll share the “after” pics and get our own little “Rate My Space” going! I want to inspire and inform people and encourage creativity that breeds good design.
My new favorites in my shop at the moment are mirrors and rugs. Last week I had a gorgeous New Zealand silk runner with a wonderful window pattern on it. It left with its new owner Carin to hold a place of honor right in front of her sofa. She has just moved and is working on her new space so she wasn’t really looking for a rug but it perfectly matched her colors and her home and it’s amazing! Remember that I allow a 24-hour try it out period to see if what you want works well. I’d rather you be happy and love what you buy. I have a fantastic (and big!) dark, organic Turkish rug that is nothing like you’ve ever seen, a hand hooked, vibrant, vintage bird print rug that is really comfy underfoot and a few wonderful antique rugs that give any space character. If you’ve never thought about rugs, now is the time! Barefoot season is coming and I want you to be cozy.
If you live in a smaller space mirrors are your new best friend. Mirror frames can be antique plaster over wood, 1950’s “carved” plastic or vintage hand hewn wood. I have them all. I love to take an old, sad, abandoned mirror and give it new life. I have been loving fire-engine red for a while but it takes the perfect mirror to pull it off. Not everyone is brave enough to have such a major color in their home but those that take the chance end up loving it! Lindsay Schauer, senior editor at Gentry Magazine is the new owner of a 1950’s big red mirror for her San Francisco flat. I’d describe Lindsay as stylish, modern, youthful, fun and creative and her choice of home furnishings clearly shows she has a wonderful vision for her space.
Also of note this month is the fact that our extraordinary artist friend, Kat Geiger, has been featured in numerous Bay Area blogs and we were lucky enough to get mentioned! We carry a selection of Kat’s otherworldly terrariums and I can’t recommend their magic enough! They are one-of-a kind living art pieces that invite you to step into the glass and dream a little.
You know things are always changing at Apartment 46 so if you haven’t been by in a while, now is the time!
Much love,
Melisa and Miranda
