New Jersey Apartment Tour
Welcome to the second installment of apartment tours! Today I am taking you on my New Jersey apartment tour. I had to sneak this one in before moving next month! So let me start the introduction with a little background. This is a two bedroom apartment in Merchantville, NJ, which is about 20 minutes over the bridge from Philadelphia. The town is small and adorable with a good amount of mom and pop shops. If you ever happen to pass through I recommend Eclipse Brewing and McFarlan’s Market for sandwiches!
I moved here when I decided that I couldn’t stand being in Philadelphia any longer. And it has been one of the best decisions of my life! I was absolutely miserable in Philadelphia. In addition to not fitting my lifestyle, there was a whole string of things that happened to make my experience even more upsetting. You can read more about that comical/horrifying time in this post.
This is a second floor apartment that is part of a unit of shop/apartment combos. My landlord’s shop is on the first floor. My neighbors have been OK, but I’m so beyond ready to live in a space without shared walls. Like, so so so so ready. I’d love to be able to blast music without worrying about a neighbor banging on the wall. Or to go to sleep without hearing the neighbors arguing next door. SOON.
The apartment itself is pretty nice. It has wood floors and a good size kitchen. My biggest gripe is that it does not have central air and even with 3 window units, the place bakes in the summer. Other than that, it’s been a good experience! My landlord gave me money to repaint when I moved in and I had fun picking colors and decorating over the last year. Here’s the before and afters:
Bedroom
Before
After
Paint: Sherwin Williams Cascades and Benjamin Moore Simply White
Kitchen
Before
After
Paint: Pittsburgh Paints Maggie’s Magic. Rug: Target (similar here) If you want to learn more about how to reupholster cushions, you can read my how-to here. This is by far the worst room in the apartment, as many rental kitchens are. I did my best to work with the mauve countertops and off white cabinets, rather than trying to fix them. Sometimes you have to go with the flow! The rug and paint color really helped.
Living Room
Before
So. Many. Shelves. Here’s Colin fixing the drywall because I hated that extra shelf, but the previous tenants glued the shelves into the wall. Who does that?! Also thanks, Colin!
After
Bathroom
Before
After
Spare Room
Before
After
I know orange isn’t for everyone, but I wanted to take a risk! It’s such a fun room. I should have gotten a better picture, but the lighting is hard in this room. But being so bright means that the plants thrive! Happy plants= happy Bridget.
Porch
Before
After
So there it is! My New Jersey apartment tour. Thanks for coming along! Next up is my Chicago apartment AKA bachelorette pad, AKA dream apartment. Yeah, I really loved that one. I’m off to continue packing! Countdown to moving home has begun!
