Meet Abby, a recent graduate living in Boston’s historic Beacon Hill whose apartment combines the perfect amount of vintage charm and modern freshness. Read about how Abby’s elegant pad came together in one of our favorite East coast neighborhoods.
Your candles add such a warm, homey feeling to your apartment on a rainy night. Where do you find them? Abby: Unlike bedding, I have trouble splurging on candles. Perhaps this is because I’ve had such good luck at T.J. Maxx, Homegoods and Marshalls– I am often drawn to natural spicy or floral accents. Every now and again, my roommate and I will spring for the incomparable Capri Blue Jar candle from Anthropologie. Once the wax is no longer, I use the votive holders to neatly house makeup brushes and lipsticks.
What is your favorite piece of furniture in your apartment and where did you find it? A: My favorite piece of furniture- well, it’s a tie. I love our small glass-top garden table that came from an antique store in Beacon Hill (once having lived in a garden on Joy Street). Its proportions are perfect, and a glass-topped table is a wonderful way to have that anchor piece (around which all of your seating is arranged) without adding a heaviness that most small spaces cannot accommodate. My other favorite is a small French settee that sits in my bedroom. It captures my aesthetic very well, actually– in all of my creative endeavors (be it design, cooking, baking, etc.), I want to live in the space where rough and rustic meets elegant and (for lack of a better word) special.
Tell me about those maps–where did you find them and the frames? A: The maps are, believe it or not, beautifully designed and flawlessly printed sheets of wrapping paper. Made by Cavallini, these single sheets feature a variety of vintage images (from European maps to types of exotic mushrooms). Because of their European dimensions, we were a bit stuck on how to frame them… where could I find affordable, attractive frames to fit 20″ x 28″? Where else? Ikea, the land of Swedish meatballs and fragrant cinnamon buns. I bought white frames whose dimensions worked perfectly. A quick strip and three coats of gold spray paint– voila.
Tell me about the quartet of prints? Where did you find those again? Where are you planning on hanging those? A: I found these on the North Shore one afternoon after having run a race in Newburyport. There were three hanging as a series on the wall of Red Bird Trading Co., a Pandora’s Box in its own right (I could have gone home with just about everything in there….only to spend the rest of my days paying off the debt!) These prints feature four different antique lithographs matted in over sized painted, wooden frames. The lithographs themselves are of four different farm houses (presumably set in 19th-century Western Europe- I’ve gone back and forth between France and Italy judging by the surrounding landscape).I am thinking of hanging them above our dining room table so as to benefit from the apartment’s best light.
Where did you find such pretty bedding? A: The sheets are from Homegoods (so incredibly soft!), and the duvet and shams are Anthropologie. I think it is acceptable (though not necessary) to spend a fair amount of money on bedding, considering the percentage of your life lived wrapped in it!
Who is that bear on your bed? A: The bear is named Thierry. I met and purchased Thierry near Place Madeleine (8eme arrondissement) while studying abroad in Paris during the fall of my junior year. I hadn’t yet been placed with a family and at the time was passing my time in a youth hostel in Montmartre. So, aside from the drunk men who solicited the infamous women of this district on my doorstep, Thierry was my first friend in Paris.
(Photo Credits: Molly Dwyer)