Little Girl, Big Apartment: A Quick Tour of Our New Flat!

We all know that being at University can be tough. Especially when after hours of classes, study sessions, and sports practices all you have to come home to is a lightless room that's about the size of a shoe box. Luckily, I don't have to deal with that lack of comfort (and space!) anymore. 

Even after spending just five days in my new flat, I'm really starting to feel at ease with my surroundings. Of course, there are far more responsibilities that come with living in non-university housing to go along with all the excitement- from cooking dinners on the reg to cleaning the bathrooms. But I'd say that having the freedom to eat what and when I please, and having a room that can fit all of my stuff (and then some) is well worth the work we have to put into maintaining the property. 

For those of you who don't know, I'm currently living in a flat with three other girls in a very student-friendly neighborhood in Edinburgh called Marchmont. If you want to know more about the process we went through when deciding on our flat and its location, you can read about that here.  

Now, onto some photos of our flat!

The second you walk in to our new home, you'll enter a very spacious entry hall with blue and white walls, and massively high ceilings. While I love having a large entryway in the flat, I think some of it is just dead space. 

The next common space in our flat is the living room. While I'm not too crazy about the wall and carpet color combination (seriously- who thought yellow and blue was a good idea?), I think the feel of the space is growing on me as a whole. It's definitely a lot cozier than it was when we originally moved in since we rearranged the furniture. But those couches? I don't think they'll ever grow on me. While the look of them is acceptable, they are the least comfy couches I've ever sat on.  

Our living room also has a fireplace and a TV. But get this- the TV doesn't even work! We don't have a license for it, so we don't get any channels. We're planning on purchasing some cables to be able to hook up our laptops so we can watch Netflix, though. Problem solved!

Our dining table and chairs used to be where the couches currently are and I'm so glad we moved them to this little nook. It makes the dining space very intimate and a lot more homey. And the sunflowers on the table? Courtesy of my mom! I was surprised to see how well the yellow flowers went with the yellow walls- they totally don't clash (at least, in my opinion). 

Now I just had to share this photo that one of my flatmates took of our first proper dinner together. I made a simple pasta alla vodka, and of course we had to break out a bottle of wine. 

This little dinky coffee table is kind of in a random spot in our living room, but it's a great way to display some cute books and magazines! The book on the left was a Christmas gift of mine that has some really beautiful old pictures of Edinburgh in it. 

In my book, the kitchen is an absolutely crucial part of the flat. I love to bake and cook so I end up spending a lot of time in here. My initial impression of the kitchen was that it's very small- but after cooking up a few meals in here, I've found it to be a very manageable space. But let me tell you about the real struggle for a sec: there's no dishwasher or dryer. So not only do we have to wash each individual dish, but our wet clothes need to be dried on drying racks and heaters. You know, I watch enough House Hunters International that I really should've seen this coming. 

And here's a not-so crucial part of our flat: the bathroom. It's nice enough with a rather large shower. But now since we're paying for our own heating and electric, we have to be mindful of how long and hot our showers are. Man, I really miss abusing the shower privileges at halls. 

The last room I'm going to mention in this post is the most important, obviously- my room! Honestly, all of the rooms in this flat are bigger than the one I have at home (I'm the youngest so of course I was stuck with the smallest room in the house). But my room in this flat is absolutely ginormous. And my favorite part? My big bay window! It's just something I've always dreamed about having. The room receives so much light from the window (you know, when it's sunny out about once a week), but it sometimes feels like I don't have much privacy when the curtains are open.  

This is the view out my window, giving you a good idea what the Marchmont area looks like. It seems pretty residential but it's actually full of university students! There are definitely lots of families around as well, so it's a good mix that doesn't get too loud and crazy. The only downside to our location is that our flat is not only right next to a secondary school (meaning there are loud teenagers walking about), but that there's another school building being constructed at the moment.   

I love how much storage my room has. But I especially like having this big glass cabinet to have some stuff stored away but also on display! 

Each of the four bedrooms is fitted with a fireplace. While they're non-functioning fireplaces, I think it's a really nice touch that makes the room very cozy. It's also a great focal point to display pictures! As you can see, not all of my pictures are up yet- I have some pictures that I had printed just before I left being sent to me so they'll be up soon enough!

It's so nice to be able to lay out all of my makeup and jewelry in one place. At home, I don't have this little luxury. Also, storing some of my makeup in mason jars has been an absolute lifesaver! 

The bed is arguably the most important piece of furniture in a college students' life- from Netflix binges to lazy study sessions, we spend a lot of time here. It's really important to me that my bed remind me of home every time I curl up under the blankets, so that's why I like to keep a few special items on it. My Nana made me the "quillow" (a quilt that can be folded up into a pillow) at the foot of my bed before I went off to university, and I decided on the rest of my bedding around what would go with it. These two pillows were both fantastic gifts from my mom- the green butterfly one was from a local store in my hometown, while the 02459 one is a custom pillow from Etsy that features Newton's zip code and seal. 

Before I end this lengthy, photo-heavy post, I'd just like to share a few of my favorite design details of my room! The molding on the ceilings is just stunning, adding instant charm to the room. And the doorknob? Well, I think it's a little bit too ornate for just a college student's room. 

But I guess I can live with it ;)