Book Review: The First Apartment Book

A while back when I was waiting for the Young House Love book to come out, I began perusing the DIY/Design section at the bookstore which I had previously never visited. I was mostly a Psychology/True Crime/Women's Studies/Sociology section visitor. It wasn't until I stepped out of that zone did I find this book, The First Apartment Book: Cool Design For Small Spaces by Kyle Shuneman. 

Source

In the book he chronicles apartments from all over the country of different types and shows their unique designs aesthetics from Bohemian to Rebellious to Art Lover. 

One of the featured apartments was here in Seattle. 

Along with pictures and layouts of the apartments, each section contains different project instructions like for DIY art, curtains, etc. 

This book was one of the first places I really saw temporary wallpaper (shouldn't all wallpaper have the ability to be temporary?! What an awesome idea!). 

Ever seen those awfully dated mirrored closet doors that tons of apartments have? By adding some decals you can change it from gaudy to classy. It actually looks like a planned part of the room now.

I love this example of working with some dated bathroom tile and making it look pretty instead of trying to mask it. With the choice of shower curtain, it actually makes the tile look like an attractive part to the room. 

I don't care how trendy globes and maps are, I will always love them!

I love these spray painted plaster busts (and I love how cheap they are found here).

Every room, every piece of furniture is listed in the resources. Some pieces are obviously going to be thrift finds or such but the others are listed to find easily. Love that. 

I love this book because it features so many different types of apartment homes. There's a place for apartments where you can paint and projects to go with that and there's also projects that are entirely temporary for those of us that can't paint or change things. There's both masculine and feminine designs, a wide range to appeal to all readers. I also loved seeing apartments from all over the country and how different they are. I really wish I'd had this book when we got to our first apartment because it would have really helped me decide early on what designs appealed to me and what I was drawn to. It's a helpful book for apartment first-timers as well as those of who have been apartment/rental dwellers for a while who are looking for some interesting design ideas.