Hey you guys, I'm Minna (@taupe_stories). I'm a Commercial Interior Designer in Chicago. And this is my house in Little Village / Pilsen.
This is the living room. Our sofa is from CB2, but we got it on Craigslist for around $300 and it was in pretty good condition. I filled it with a bunch of pillows. My partner and I don't agree on it because I want as many pillows as possible… and he likes to throw them on the floor. These really great chairs are from his Grandma and they have this really nice stain on them.
This is our coffee table which has this cool Macton Stone. I accessorized the table with this really cool Virginia Sin candle holder and then this piece from one of my favorite designers in Marrakech- @lrnce. She has these really nice abstract paintings, so we got this piece when we were in Morocco. My favorite thing (designer hack) is to use tile samples as coasters, you’ll see those throughout the house.
This credenza I got it at one of our favorite vintage stores in Humboldt Park. It's called Vintage Quest and the guy is really cool. You can take your dog there and he sometimes has parties upstairs, so it’s just a cool space to be. I really like how it adds warmth and darkness to this space that we needed to counterbalance the other woods.
My fiancé is an Audio Engineer so we always have to make sure that we have the coolest audio equipment in the house as well. We got these really cool speakers from this Craigslist dealer a couple of weeks ago.
This table was actually a hand-me-down from his Grandma and it had this kind of like cherry laminate, so one of my projects in the past few months was redoing this. There's this really great plaster table that Leanne Ford did for Crate and Barrel and I felt like I could kind of hack it and do it myself, so I plastered this table.
Welcome to the dining room! This is our dining table, we love to have dinner parties and intimate moments around it. We got this dining table on Offer Up for only like $150 and it matches our coffee table in the living room. It's that Mactan Stone again. We got these Cesca chairs on Craigslist for $60. On the table, we have this really beautiful pottery piece from DTK Ceramics. He's a really awesome ceramicist and has done some really cool big installations around the city- he’s definitely one to check out. I don't know if we were supposed to do this because we rent, but this light fixture is from Ikea. Derek is really good with wiring so he installed it for us.
This is our built-in. We keep a lot of things stashed away in it, but we also can style it with our cameras and all of our book collections. The bar was passed down from Derek's grandma and it was actually in really good condition. We haven't done anything to it, but it's this really nice mid-century modern piece that we didn't have to buy.
This bench is one of my most expensive purchases. It was only like $200, but I don't spend that much money on furniture so this is our fine piece. I don't let people sit on it that much.
This is our gallery wall in the dining room. It's made up of some estate sale finds and some find from Morocco. This alpaca wall hanging is from an estate sale. It's kind of funky and off the wall. And then this hat and broom I got in Morocco. This piece is from my favorite designer based in Morocco, @lrnce. She makes these really beautiful wall hangings and ceramics.
Welcome to the bedroom. This is our bedding (blanket and two pillows) which we got in Morocco. We got this wall hanging at a San Francisco thrift store. We really like the desert vibe that it gives to the space. This little lamp we got from this vintage seller on Instagram, LB Finds. We really love this artist even though we don't know who it is, but we got it at Midland Vintage in Indianapolis and you can see him all over the house. We have one here one in the bathroom and one in the dining room.
One of the reasons we love this apartment is that it's a three-bedroom so we can both have our own studios. This is my studio. This is a really cool print from Kelly Wearstler. I wanted to recreate it, so I added it into Photoshop and then sent it to Zazzle, and they sent me a custom tapestry.
This lamp is really special. I actually painted it and it's based off of this chair that I love from Sincerely Tommy, a Brooklyn-based store. I'm really proud of it, and she reposted it so I think she likes it too! I got this postmodern chair for only $40 on Offer Up, so this is another really cool find. I love using Offer Up because I find the best stuff for a good price. This is my wall of art supplies which is really great to have because I don't have to go to the craft store all the time.
Welcome to our in-house music studio! This is really Derek’s space. To create, he pulled together some images of artist studios that he really likes as well as inspiration from how we really like the Joshua Tree House and the desert vibes. On this wall he has his guitar and bass hanging. This mixing board he got from Craigslist, it’s really got the 70’s vibe.
We have this cool giraffe lamp that we thrifted from Midland Arts and Derek rewired it. Also in here we have this recycled denim on the wall, which I think just looks cool, but it also has sound absorption properties. Derek was in Architecture school at one time, so he has some of his old drawings on the wall, which adds to his space. It's kind of fun because each of our Studios defines us as people through the design.
Welcome to our bathroom. My favorite part of the bathroom is actually this vintage wooden door with the old doorknob, it’s a special feature that we have in here. We didn't do that much to the bathroom though just because we rent, but we have the cool vintage tiles on the floor. We didn't paint it, it was already this color, but we got this geometric CB2 shower curtain. We added these little amber accents like the brown waffle towels. Here we have another one of those sketch drawings from the artist that we have all over the house.
This is our kitchen! Since we're renters we can't really do too much but we tried to do a cozy kitchen Moroccan vibe in here. So we have this little seating nook and we got this lamp from Ikea. It reminds us of the lifestyle that we saw when we were in Morocco. This is our little prep Island from Ikea, but since we don't have a lot of cupboard space we use it as storage too. I like to decorate it, which Derek thinks we need more prep space, but I want it to be really accessorized.
This rod is a recent addition to the kitchen since we don't have a backsplash. I wanted this area to still be pretty, so we just got a little dowel from Home Depot and some S hooks and added some of our cute little mugs and some herbs. We also added these shelves above the stove because we don't have a lot of storage in here, but we use it for all of our spices and some small bowls up there.
I really love this tea pot. It's from my favorite artist from Indy. His name is Nathaniel Russell. One day he was having a yard sale I couldn't go to, so I made Derek rush over and he came back with this teapot. Now I have a special tea pot from Nathaniel Russell!
This is our sunroom. It's my favorite room because I can use it in the morning for a cup of coffee or I can use it at night when I have a cocktail. We have this sofa that I thrifted from Midland Vintage in Indy. The inspiration for this space was Moroccan Gardens and I am trying to incorporate the bright greens and all of the plants that we saw when we were in Morocco. We made this plant stand and we just used bricks and a piece of wood. This mirror is from my great Grandma. I've had it since I was in high school. Here are my my tile coasters again, they really are great! We added the green and white pops of color that we wanted to have out in the space with these pillows we bought on a trip. This rug I thrifted from Facebook Marketplace for $40. It really was in great condition and so I was really excited because it's from West Elm and originally was like $500.
Thanks for dropping in!
