It’s almost been a month since we moved into our apartment and I still have such a crush on it. I love the natural light that pours in from the skylights, the exposed beams and slanted wooden ceilings, and the sweeping views of the city from our top-floor perch. Today I’m set up at my desk in the loft since we finally procured an extension cord that can reach my little nook, happily sipping iced tea while I do some research for our upcoming travels, with fresh air filtering in from the skylight overhead. I think I may need to write a novel, simply to take full advantage of this perfect hideaway. Eh… maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a few photos of one of my recent home decor projects as my husband and I continue to try to make the new space our own (and cover up the holes and marks that the previous tenants left behind.) Given the challenges of hanging art in our apartment — we quickly discovered you can’t simply hammer nails into the walls: they’re brick and any mounting requires a drill and navigating around the apparent abundance of steel beams — I decided to get creative with removable sticky hooks to decorate the hallway connecting our living room to the bedroom. We found the hooks in the bathroom section of our local Jumbo (Switzerland’s version of Home Depot) if you get similarly inspired and want to hunt down supplies of your own.

First, I cleaned the sections of the wall that I wanted to support the hooks to ensure the adhesive would stick, letting them air dry. Then it came time to actually attach the three hooks, which was completed with just one <<oops-I-stuck-the-hook-to-the-wall-upside-down>> incident. Finally, I strung some twine through the newly-mounted hooks, tied the ends in loose bows, and used clothespins to hang some of our favorite snapshots of friends and family. Voilà! A blank hallway no more!

I’m pretty pleased with it and figured I’d share in case there are other struggling apartment decorators out there. More DIY ideas? Send them my way at plaidshirtdiaries[at]yahoo[dot]com and enjoy the rest of your Wednesday!