Much like the rest of our apartment, the master bedroom is itty-bitty.  As a general rule, bedrooms are smaller here since they are big fans of the built-in closets.  Anyway, we couldn’t fit all of our furniture in our room but we have come up with an arrangement that works for us.  Here is our room.

Since getting settled, our bedroom has gone through two big changes.

1) Mosquito Net.  We live pretty close to a big park so I think we get a few more bugs than usual.  But we also don’t have air conditioning so when it’s 97 outside, you want to open your windows and get a breeze coming through.  This creates the problem.  One night I was woken up by mosquitos buzzing in my ear 4 times and I woke up in the morning with 8 bites on my face and 9 elsewhere for a total of 17.  So…that was kind of the last straw.  Our dear friends actually had an extra mosquito net so we snagged it immediately and now sleep under this little guy, safe & sound.

2) Although many São Paulo apartments don’t have AC, we started getting a little worried when we were hitting record high temperatures for the city back in October (the equivalent of April in the US).  Fearing not being able to sleep during the summer months, we looked into installing AC in the apartment.  Not surprisingly though, it was too involved and therefore was not approved by our landlord.  So, we bought a portable AC unit for our bedroom.  It is quite unattractive but worth every second of the ugly as it makes sleeping at night so much better.

So that’s it!

Continuing the tour with the dining room!  

In our San Francisco apartment, Michael and I didn’t have space for a full dining table so we just had a bar-height 4 top.  Although it was the right thing for our space, we were constantly wishing that we were able to seat more people.  Furthermore, since it was bar-height, it was impossible to pull additional chairs up to the table.  I hosted a girl’s Bible study group every week (MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!) and it was like musical chairs – people constantly trading places depending on who was eating dinner or standing up eating in the kitchen…

Knowing that we wanted to be able to host people better in São Paulo, prior to leaving San Francisco, we sold our dining set on Craigslist and went hunting for something else.  Since we didn’t know what kind of space we would have in Brazil, it was a little challenging to know what to get, so we thought that an extendable table would be ideal.  That being said, both of us have had experiences with extendable tables that were clunky, difficult, heavy, etc. so we were kind of nervous about the idea.  However, we got lucky when we wandered into a random furniture store in Emeryville one day and described what we were looking for.  Right away, the owner of the shop took us to our table.  It has a really simple, attached, pull-out leaf that easily just pops into place.  Michael was fascinated / immediately sold so we went for it.

Pull table at both ends. Flip the extra leaf over & unfold. Push together. So easy I can do it by myself — which is saying a lot.

Obviously though, we needed chairs to go with it.  I really like upholstered dining chairs and think they are super comfortable, but we learned with our previous set that we cannot be trusted with food & light fabrics so I decided to go for charcoal gray to disguise any/all stains.  What I like about this too is that – while we normally have 6 chairs around the table – if we want to extend it to seat 8, we can always pull up the two gray side chairs that are in the living room.

Dinner party?  Visitors?  We must utilize this.

More of the dining area:

Mini wine fridge (thanks BWad!) with Michael’s mini “bar” on top. The two Tiffany’s boxes in the back are totally empty — I just can’t seem to get rid of them… Looking the picture though I realize I should at least move them elsewhere…

The first door on the left goes into our kitchen. The next door in the corner is the main entrance into the apartment.

**Coming soon: Post on my first ever DIY project — redoing the bookshelves on the right** 

Although I do think the table could really use some fresh flowers to brighten things up, it’s really not as dark as it looks in these photos since the space is all open and the walls are bright white.

So…when are you coming for dinner?!

Some credits: 
Table & Chairs: Decorium Furniture & Rugs
Buffet: Crate & Barrel
Vintage Tin Tiles: Pottery Barn
Mini Wine Fridge: Wedding gift from our dear friend, Bradley Walbridge
Crystal Decanter & Cocktail Glasses: Wedding gift from Tiffany & Co (hence the boxes…)

So, I think it’s pretty clear why “office” is in quotation marks.  It’s obviously not a real office.  It’s a wall in between the door into our apartment and our living room with a desk and mini filing cabinet.  And while I dream about having an office like this one day, this is my office for now.  🙂

a little OCD…  does anyone else do this or am I the only crazy one???Some credits:
Stationary: Gadabout (displayed in an antique toast holder!)
Monogrammed Mug: Gift from my sweet friend, Christie Bienemann, from Anthropology
Desk: Pottery Barn
Cow Hide Rug: Wedding gift from Eric Chamberlin – purchased in Argentina!

Things I still want to do in here:
1) Since this is connected to the living room, I would love to paint the entire room a pale gray to give it a little more character / definition.
2) Originally I thought I would make the space above the desk a little gallery-wall of sorts but since the space is generally so small I have tended towards less-is-more.  Sometimes I think it looks too plain but I think that painting the walls might be just what it needs…

*** Any Ideas or Suggestions are Welcome! ***

In response to requests from my girlfriends (and let’s be honest, who doesn’t love checking out other people’s places), I’ll be posting pictures from our apartment to give you a mini apartment-tour!

I am not super creative and most of what we have is a combination of what we had individually before we got married & stuff we bought immediately into our marriage – since which time my tastes have significantly changed.  Also, there are a lot of weird things about apartments in Brazil, so…not the easiest canvas either.  That being said, we have more than we need or could ask for and are thankful for all of it.  🙂

First up on the tour is the Living Room:
Some credits: 
Pillows: Layla Grace (multi-colored) and Furbish Studio
SF Print: Ikea
Couch: Pottery Barn
Gray Side Chairs: Home Goods
Brazilian Cowhide Rug: purchased in Columbia, South Carolina 🙂
Chunky Knit Throw Blanket: Made by my Aunt Sheryl!

Things I still want to do in here:
1) I would love to paint the room a pale gray to give it a little more character / definition.
2) I am in debate about putting up drapes.  I usually love them but the space is so small I’m not sure if it would crowd it too much…?  If I did anything I think they would need to be light / sheer.
3) The floor lamp…should I paint it??  I’m not a fan but am trying not to buy much home stuff until we move into an actual HOME one day, at which point I’ll want to get a lot.  🙂
4) If you are wondering about the “coffee table,” it’s an Ikea coffee table and side table pushed together.  We bought them right after getting married as a temporary solution until we found something we loved, but never found the right thing and kind of forgot about it…

*** Any Ideas or Suggestions are Welcome! ***