This 1920s SF Rental Hides a Secret Office and Lots of Color — All in 600 Square Feet

The apartment had been ready to rent for weeks, and the rent had just been reduced. “I remember visiting it for the first time and asking the real estate guy what was wrong with the unit. He couldn’t tell … it seemed like it was waiting for me!” Juliana says the apartment unit offered a lot of things on her must-have list: “sunlit rooms, a good local coffee shop I could walk to, and a bay window for the animals to people watch from.”

And she says that since it was in a building from the 1920s, it was rich with architectural charm, like “built-in pieces in the bathroom and kitchen, a total of 13 solid wood doors in a 600-square-foot apartment, an old-school phone attached to the foyer wall, and some original pieces of that lasted all these years.”

It wasn’t perfect; Juliana says that as she did a first walk-through, she saw there was a lot she’d need to “tweak to make the place feel like home, but I could see the solutions come to me like a vision, Queen’s Gambit style.” She was undaunted by any needed changes, though; as evidenced by the DIYs in her LA loft, she has the skills to transform a rental space beautifully.

Like her last rental, this one also epitomizes what she calls “a passion for sustainability and circularity, never letting things go to waste.” In other words, using pieces of “furniture in unexpected places to give them a new life” and upcycling materials from her last place into “new pieces of DIY furniture.” She has actually recently started a circular fashion venture called Future.Proof intended to help encourage sustainability by keeping “no-longer-wanted clothing and other textiles out of landfills.” 

• Kitchen —
  • Burgundy trims — “Cherry Coke” by Behr
  • Pink Walls — “Dusty Rose” by Behr
• Bedroom — Verde Terroso lime wash by James Alexander
• Office —
  • “Victorian Trim” by Benjamin Moore
  • “California Lilac” by Benjamin Moore
• Bathroom — Similar to “Drama Queen” by Behr

• Shoe rack — IKEA
• Shoe shelves — IKEA
• Stool — IKEA

• CB2 Roma sectional — Area Ware
• Green CB2 rug
• Crate and Barrel outdoor coffee table
• Ottoman — Tov
• Dog crate — Amazon

• Facebook Marketplace dining table (mine broke on the move) — DIY Restoration
• CB2 swivel dining chairs
• Lamp — IKEA
• Discontinued IKEA white curtains

• Bed — Thuma
• Bastu bench — IKEA
• Mirror — IKEA

• Yellow shower curtain and wiggly mat discontinued from Urban Outfitters
• Toilet paper holder and towel holder discontinued from UO
• Marketplace mirror
• Floor peel-and-stick tiles from Chasing Paper
• Vintage reading table turned counter from Marketplace

Thanks, Juliana!

This tour’s responses and photos were edited for length/size and clarity.

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