Welcome to the jungle // Monthly theme post

It's time to participate in Sophistiqué Noir's monthly theme campaign again. This time the theme is flowers!

At first I thought I wouldn't participate since a quick mental scan of my wardrobe implied I don't wear floral patterns or anything like that, but luckily, these theme posts are not necessarily about fashion, and although I've usually completed the challenges with clothes or accessories, I'm doing something different today.

I really had to think about the theme for a while though, at first I had a feeling that flowers barely touch me in any way... (Not saying I don't like them. I just don't have a green thumb or anything. You should see the poor DEAD cactus I have... My only plant. But it's dead, dead, dead.)

Then I actually paid some attention to the environment in which I'm living. I realized I'm surrounded by floral patterns, here and there in the decor in my apartment. A real garden, should I say, or no... These patterns don't make a coherent garden. I think I'm living in a wild jungle.

This is my wall. The biggest wall without windows or doors has such a lovely wallpaper. The opposite wall, which is smaller, has been painted brownish to match the general hue of that wallpaper. The other walls are white. I fell in love with the apartment instantly when I stepped inside for the first time since I love contrast walls and such, and have been wildly planning how to paint or paper walls in an apartment of my own, if I will ever buy one. Most rented flats are very boring, so I was delighted to find something this interesting. If I had got to choose a wallpaper by myself, I wouldn't probably have chosen such a pattern (though the hue is nice) but I'm happy with this one, it makes my apartment seem so cozy. Seriously, I haven't even put a single picture up on any of my walls because they aren't begging for something as much as blank white walls would be. Although this wall is empty of pictures, shelves and other such things, it looks so full. (And brown walls give me a false sense of being aboard a pirate ship.)

And this is my pendant lamp, the funny thing which was put in place probably four months after I had moved in. I didn't notice the lack of a lamp in summer (=it's never totally dark in Finland in the summer, not even in the middle of the night), but at some point in autumn it began to bother me... I wasn't quite sure what I wanted, so eventually I purchased a rice paper shade. I like its looks, but it's a bit impractical. I can only just walk under it without hitting my head in it (though depending on how my hair is, it'll touch it), but every now and then I manage to slam my hands at it when I'm stretching or something...

This is my carpet. I cannot remember if I've ever liked it, but I purchased it for my first apartment since I "needed a carpet, seriously". The pattern isn't too ugly, but not too pretty either. The carpet was cheap though (or then, probably free? I cannot remember for sure, I was purchasing furniture and the store couldn't deliver something on time, and I think I probably got the carpet for free then?). There are some details in the carpet which disturb me though, strange imperfections in the petals, or in the lines. Like the two bottom petals of the big red flower in the middle... I have been thinking of purchasing a new carpet ever since I moved, but I haven't yet found anything I want. And what is worst about this one... Once a hair, or a piece of dust falls on it, the carpet will swallow it for good! Seriously, it's a real pain to get all the hair and dust etc off it!

This is yet another detail in my decor which looked better in my old apartment. However, I'm still using the hanging storage pockets since they are practical. If there hadn't been something where to hang it already, I wouldn't probably have bothered to attach any nail or hook to the wall by myself. I don't like its looks so much anymore, but it's useful enough so it's hanging (on) there. In my old apartment I also had a strange "installation art piece" in one corner, which was basically a standing easel with that masque on top of it, and a small lamp attached to the frame of the easel. It looked fancy, at least compared with that masque hanging there with the storage pockets...

Last but not least, a flowery fan. You've probably seen it somewhere in my blog already. I rarely use it for its actual purpose. At the moment it's just sitting in my book shelf, folded, but if I figured out a nice way to put it somewhere, beautifully unfolded, I would do it. The bookshelf might still work, just have to try out something...

I'm extremely lazy when it comes to decorating my apartment. I have ideas, but I rarely realize them, and thus my apartment is probably a little wild without a coherent theme. At the moment I feel comfortable here at least, not constantly thinking that I'd be surrounded by ugliness. However, there's a lot to work on, I hope I can make some proper decor posts in the future, with some of my plans carried out. So long!