A Little Parisian/Tuscan Apartment In Chicago!

This summer our daughter Liz (that's her on the right) moved into her first apartment, in Chicago. Liz loves all things French, and even went to France a few years ago. Her roommate Amy spent a month in Italy this summer. So they put their heads together and came up with a Parisian/Tuscan style for their apartment.

When you walk in their door, you're in the kitchen. I found this little chalkboard for $1.

Here is where they dine. Love that checkerboard floor!

Liz, looking for something to eat!


The girls bought very little for this apartment. Most everything was found in our attic or at Amy's grandmother's house. Liz saw that Paris plate at Hobby Lobby and just had to splurge!

A little vignette atop the stove. I must mention at this point that Liz did all of the decorating. She's pretty lucky that Amy doesn't care about decorating, so she was able to do as she pleased!

I don't know what to say about this shot except, will you get a load at all those shot glasses?!! And who drank all that wine?!!

They both like to take pictures of food, and were going to somehow put these in a frame. I was thinking of just surrounding the pictures with a big old chippy frame. What do you think? The bench is from our attic.

More of the kitchen. Amy loves that pillar, and it reminds her of Rome. I'm just glad I had it sitting in the attic!

This is on top of the fridge. Italian and French cookbooks, and an old ball pitcher from the attic.

Wouldn't this guy look great standing behind that pitcher? I keep threatening to put him there, but they think he's too Country. HELLO, he's standing amongst a bunch of grapes, which makes you think of wine and Italy, right?! Anyway, he's about two feet tall, and I think he would look amazing up there, but who am I?


Here we are in the living room. Liz found that mirror in the attic. It was white and chippy, and she brushed some black paint over it, leaving some of the white showing. On either side of the mirror are a Rome poster and a Paris one. Those pillows are from Linda at A LA CARTE's CSN giveaway. Thank you Linda!

Another shot of the extremely uncomfortable futon with a garage sale cushion and our old trunk, now used as a coffee table.

The clock came from Goodwill. I carried that thing around the store for 15 minutes, just to make sure it really worked!

I made the curtains, recovered the chair and made the little cushion on it.

I love Liz's idea of using ribbon to tie the curtains together. And it adds some much needed color to the room.

The little table was from our attic, as was the lamp, which was gold and I spraypainted it black. At this point, you're probably wondering what I don't have in my attic! Let's just say that I've been through a few decorating styles here, and it's all up in that attic! The globe is also from Linda's giveaway.

Here's a peek into Liz's bedroom there on the right. I think she would want you to know that if she lived alone, the whole apartment would be pink, like her bedroom!

Liz's bedroom door, with a Hobby Lobby poster on it.

The big city can be a cold place, but these two college girls are making their little apartment a pretty, cozy home, with very little money. I still need to make curtains for the kitchen. Liz is thinking maybe a mustardy yellow, with black ribbon ties. I think it's a great idea, because they definitely need more color! And they want a toasty burgundy chenille throw for the back of the futon, so that will also help. I can't tell you how proud I am of Lizzy, for using her imagination, creativity, garage sale finds, and ridding her poor mother of lots of junk in the attic to make her apartment her very own!