I’ve lived in my apartment for over a month now, and I can say it finally feels like home! I didn’t stress that much before this move, mostly because I’ve got packing down to a science at this point—but it took me a bit to get settled in my new place. I had the boxes out of my apartment within a couple of days, but didn’t get the art hung for a couple of weeks, and my TV wasn’t mounted for a week or so after that. (If you follow me on Instagram, you know the ~drama, but I’ll be sharing some lessons learned here soon!) On top of that, I had two trips planned right after I moved in, which I’m definitely not complaining about, it was just a hectic month!

Now that everything is in its rightful place and I’ve spent a few weekends at home enjoying my new abode, I really feel settled and it’s amazing how much stress has been relieved because of it! I don’t think I realized how much the change was weighing on me until I got over the hump, and I’ve definitely made note to consider the emotional toll when pondering if I should stay or move when my lease is up next September. I said I was going to stay in my Arlington apartment for more than a year, but am glad I allowed myself the freedom to change my mind and moved to DC. I want to stay in this apartment for as long as possible because I absolutely love the space (more than my last apartment, even though it is about half the size!), the neighborhood, and moving is the worst—but I know a lot can change in a year, so we will see!

One thing I did after I moved in was add up all the money I spent moving—on movers, on cleaning the old place, on transferring utilities, on all the random Target runs, and on anything new I bought for the space (when you’re renting, it’s inevitable certain things won’t work space to space—for instance, I had to buy a new trash can because my old one was too large here). All in, it was around $1,500. So, if/when they raise my rent next year, I know that if the rent increases are less than $1,500 total ($125/mo), it’s probably more cost effective to stay put.

I’m definitely planning on sharing more about this apartment soon, including the aforementioned TV mount tips, my thoughts on downsizing about 400SF, more thoughts on living alone, lessons I learned from an interior designer about hanging art, and pretty much anything else you want to see—just drop me a note at katie@atouchofteal.com and I’ll add it to the editorial calendar!

Now onto today’s topic—an easy way to protect vintage furniture!

When I moved, I was unsurprisingly OCD about my vintage green lacquer dresser. My movers were awesome—they wrapped it up better than how it was initially delivered to me. In my old apartment, it was situated in my bedroom, but in this place, it almost serves as a banquet table in my main living room. Because it’s in a more highly trafficked area of my home, there’s more opportunity accidental scratches, so after seeing how much I was worried about preserving the quality of this piece, my mom suggested a great idea—getting a piece of glass cut the same size as the top of the dresser so that I could put books, picture frames, jewelry, and glasses on it without worrying about damage.

My mom was awesome and did the heavy lifting on this one for me. She found a local company in Fairfax (email me if you want the details!) to cut the piece of glass. It was a super easy process—we told them the size we wanted and they cut a piece to size with polished edges so it wouldn’t be sharp at all. The turnaround time was only a couple of business days!

After having this piece of glass on my dresser for a few weeks now, I can say it’s alleviated so much worry about accidental damage and normal wear and tear. It also doesn’t detract from the dresser at all since it seamlessly blends into piece. Adding a piece of protective glass is an easy way to extend the lifetime of your furniture—I wish I had thought of it sooner, so wanted to share in case you have a similar piece you love!