Signal Boost: Apartment Therapy house tour

Apartment Therapy: an tour of an editor's apartment

When it’s cold outside and I have the heater on and I’m piled in my bed under a bunch of colorful quilts, two cute dogs, and a great boyfriend, I’m grateful. When I’m making tea in the kitchen and the sun is streaming in and back-lighting the leaves of the pothos in there, I’m grateful. When too many friends try to fit in my small home (during the two times a year I actually invite people over)—I’m grateful. And, in the end, the fact that my home really and truly reflects me is perhaps the thing I’m most appreciative of.

This apartment is in large part Not Kawa Aesthetic At All, but some of the challenges and bones are remarkably similar (hooray, pre-war apartments!) We also both have coffee tables built by our fathers, though with rather different results, and now a part of me wants way more shelves, more pretty yellow things, more wicker baskets, and more metal storage/surface pieces.

But this quote was what struck me - gratitude for your space, gratitude for making a place your own, gratitude for building the life you want from the space you want. I've been in Kawa Arena for a year now - my lease renewed on February 1, the movers I hired to bring most things from my parents' place did their work on the 11th, the Ikea delivery that included my bedframe was on President's Day last year.[0]

The last few weeks have been hard - weather and work and social stuff have made it hard to keep up with everything, and I'm still recovering from a minor mental health crash a few weeks back. So much of me wants to just spend more time at home. New York City is wonderful, and I love exploring it and being part of its energy. But the Arena is *mine* and I love it, too. I guess I've been in the mood for expressing that gratitude, and I should find the space to do so.

[0] Yes, I'm the kind of compulsive that checked Google Calendar for those specific dates.