Pink Julep at Home: Photos of Our New Flat

I've put it off long enough even though I've had several requests via e-mail and twitter to share photos of our new flat in Putney. Well, I suppose it's not that new anymore since we moved in at the end of December, but it's still new to us. Our flat is a spacious (for London, small compared to US standards except in NYC) 1 bedroom apartment located on the 2nd floor (1st floor in the UK) of a building that holds a pharmacy on the ground level and another flat above us. We couldn't be happier with our accomodation! We live in a fabulous part of South London called Putney, in the borough of Wandsworth, just south of the River Thames. Across the river from Putney is Fulham, for those of you who are familiar with London geography. Though this flat is ideal for us, it did come with some challenges, the biggest being a lack of storage areas, hence all the baskets on top of the kitchen cabinets in the photo above. These photos were taken in a mad rush before my mother-in-law arrived when the flat was nice and tidy. Above is the kitchen.

The mail holder hanging in the kitchen.

I found this adorable key hook and it hangs in the kitchen by the door! Pink Julep is guilty of always losing her keys!

It took me forever to find a garbage can (aka Rubbish Bin) that would look okay in our flat! I finally found this lovely cream one in Argos, a catalogue store that I'm completely in love with mostly because it's reasonably priced, sells EVERYTHING and is walking distance from my flat for easy toting of home goods back to the flat!

The bathroom. I love this toilet paper holder and magazine rack all-in-one! It's handy for a small space! And the tiny turquoise bin comes from a great shop called Tiger and it was only 3 pounds sterling!

Most of the furniture you see in the flat was assembled by yours truly, including the bathroom hutch above! I guess all those years of building theatre sets in my youth paid off!

You'll notice that our bathroom has a heater above the toilet. I've found that this is normal in the UK. Many homes have central heating, but not all. Our radiators are electric and only located in the bedroom and living room. Don't be fooled by the size of the bathroom heater. This little beauty can take our bathroom from 0 to HOT in no time!

When we moved into the flat, there was no mirror in the bathroom. Completely unacceptable! Hubs used his manly skillz to put this mirror up!

I found this fabulous tray in John Lewis and it's great for holding the little things we need in the bedroom like glasses, colognes/perfumes and jewelry.

This cart is something I found in a charity shop next door. It had these ugly beige striped shelves and I refurbished it, painting them turquoise, pasting scrapbooking leaves on and covering with clear contact paper. I it to put our laptop on when we wanted to watch films on i-tunes, etc. but it's also handy for other things like candles and guest towels.

Like most homes in the UK and other European countries, our flat does not have closets. Most people here would use wardrobes, however I hear there are more and more homes being built all the time with closets. Wardrobes are hugely expensive here and very heavy. We couldn't decide what to do and didn't want to buy anything we didn't feel 100% about so in the short-term, we're using these cheap and cheerful canvas covered drawers and wardrobes (shown in a later photo).

I painted this picture a while back. It doesn't match the decor so I hung it out of the way in the bedroom.

This throw pillow was a gift from my husband on my 29th birthday symbolizing the trips to Paris we could look forward to after moving to London. We haven't made it over to Paris yet, but we will soon!

I would like to replace these curtains soon. They came with the flat and in the short-term, they don't bother me, but eventually, I think I'll get something a little more colorful. You can also see that I need to invest in more wall art and photos. There's a lot of white wall space, but it's still a work in progress and coming together nicely.

This dresser was originally in the bedroom and came with the flat. I didn't like it in the bedroom because it takes up more space than it creates so I moved it to the living room. This is where I get ready in the mornings. The top 2 drawers hold my make-up and hair stuff. The other drawers are great storage for random stuff and winter or summer clothes. The big blue bowl is hubby's "man bowl" where he puts his wallet, phone, change, etc. at the end of the day. The baskets beside it hold dvd's and books/magazines along with my nail stuff since I always do my nails on the couch while watching telly.

This sign was a gift from my husband when we went to the Cotswolds. He thought it would be a nice reminder every day so I hung it above the dresser where I knew we would both see it every morning.

This painting was a gift from an ex-boyfriend's father who painted it. It's Arundel Castle, located in the south of England. It took the artist months to complete this oil painting and I've always treasured it. It hangs over our couch.

I picked up this print in Target last year and I adore it. I bought it when we still lived in Cayman so that when I felt blue, I could look at it and remember where I was going! I just love it.

This is our couch. It's brown leather and super comfy. The pillows remind me of Orla Kiely prints, but they aren't. I found them at a great home store called Cargo in Putney Exchange Shopping Center.

I realize that I've left a few things out like our fireplace and mantel, the desk that I blog from and our dining area. I'll have to save those for another post. I hope you enjoyed the partial tour of our home! We're very happy here and it's looking more and more like home every day!