A St. Louis Rental House Is a Modern (but Bohemian) Cozy Cottage
Name: Madison Kimball, her girlfriend Tori, and three adorable dachshunds: Ginger, Basil, and Fennel
Location: St. Louis
Size: 880 square feet
Years lived in: 5 months, renting
Originally from Virginia, my girlfriend and I moved to St. Louis almost two years ago so she could continue her education in nutrition. Since then, she has graduated, we’ve moved once already, and she has been named the executive chef of a new restaurant that is set to open in a few short weeks! Oh, and we have also acquired three dogs a long the way, dachshunds of course!
We moved into our tiny cottage in St. Louis’s Tower Grove South neighborhood about five months ago. We love all the old architecture of the homes as well as the amazing community this neighborhood brings. The house was built in the early 1900s and it still has the original hardwood floors! Even though we are renting, we try to make this place as much ours as we possibly can (maybe even bending the rules a little here and there).
Our style is a bit eclectic I’d say. We have a mixture of furniture and things collected over the years, from antique malls to curb finds to Target. I love light and bright rooms and tons of plants! Also lots of texture, there is no shortage of furry pillows or woven blankets in this house; I have bags of them stored down in the basement when I want a refresh! We aren’t through yet; we have a lot more to do to this little house, but the possibilities and the Pinterest pins are endless!
What is your favorite room and why? I love our living room/dining room. When we first toured our home, it was completely empty, and I was so scared we would have no room for a dining table that could sit more than two people anywhere. We love to host get-togethers with friends, and with Tori being a chef the food and dining space is a necessity for us! So we managed to reconfigure our old headboard (an antique door) into a new slim dining room table that fits ever so perfectly in the open space in our living room. It’s always a conversation piece when people walk in and I think it brings so much life and texture to the room! I just love that this old door has had so many lives already and now will serve as a place to gather around with all of our friends and family.
Which fictional character would be most at home in your place? If my little cottage could aspire to be anything it wanted I would hope it would want to resemble the home in the newest season of American Horror Story “Cult”; that house was insanely beautiful! Their lives resembled ours a bit, too: a lesbian couple with a wife that’s a chef…obviously minus the agoraphobia and cult following! But having Sarah Paulson over for dinner would be an absolute dream!
Any advice for creating a home you love? My advice for creating a home you love is just to find things that feed your soul. There isn’t one particular style or theme in our home and I think that’s why it fits us so well. A quote I heard and loved was “All great things are just a number of small things carefully collected together,” and that rings so true for our home. I search for things that spark my creativity, and I love turning something old into something with a completely new purpose.
Thanks, Madison!
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