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  • 4 months ago
This week on Sweet Digs, we tour Alexa’s Long Beach, California apartment. We explore her vintage inspired pink space that she pays $1,695 a month for. Press play to see how she lives.

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High rent, small spaces, nosy neighbors — we put up with A LOT of things to live where we love. In Sweet Digs, Refinery29 gets a peek inside the homes of the coolest people we know, from tiny studios to sprawling houses, and ask the real questions like, "Wait, how much is your rent?"

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Transcript
00:00Hi, I'm Alexa. Welcome to my sweet digs. All right, come on in. I live in a one-bedroom,
00:06one-bath apartment in Long Beach, California. More specifically, the Retro Row area. I live
00:11here with my four cats and I pay $16.95 in rent. I live about a 15-minute walk from
00:18my favorite
00:18coffee shop, Portfolio, about a mile away from my favorite restaurant called Seabirds, and I also
00:23live about a mile from the beach, which is really nice. This is my living space. I currently work
00:31full-time as a speech-language pathologist, and on the side, I work as a designer for a home staging
00:36company. I actually just graduated with my master's in speech-language pathology, and I've
00:41found a job in Houston, Texas, so unfortunately, I will be leaving this space in a month. I honestly
00:48wouldn't change much in my apartment. I absolutely love it the way it is. I would take this entire
00:53apartment with me if I could everywhere I go. To the left of my door is this pink bookshelf. This
00:58is where I have all my collectible knickknacks, my crystals, my elephants. I have a huge elephant
01:04collection. I would describe my home style as a vintage, grandma, quirky chic. I like to collect
01:12things and put them everywhere. I don't think I have one solid style. I just like things from
01:17antique stores and thrift stores. Pretty much anything pink. My biggest home pet peeve is wearing
01:25shoes in the house. It actually makes me feel physically ill. I wanted to make the fireplace
01:30specifically in my living room the star of the show, so I laid out all of my sitting furniture around
01:36it, so that was the main focal point. When I came in, it's just all white, so I decided to
01:42add some peel-and-stick
01:43tile to it that I got from Etsy. They absolutely love candlesticks, and so I like to have this here.
01:50I don't
01:50usually put them all on, rarely do I, but I'll light them every so often so it gives it the
01:55melted look.
01:56And I also have this really cute embroidered picture of my cats that my sister made. She actually has a
02:02business
02:03called Posh Threads. I do the drawings for her and she embroiders them. So the worst part of my home
02:09is the outlet
02:10situation. There's only two in my living room, so I've had to run extension cords all the way around
02:16and get pretty creative. So I got this little cover, this satin cover on Etsy to cover it up, and
02:22I think
02:22it does it justice. I'd have to say my best home find for this apartment is my pink fainting couch
02:30or
02:30chase lounge. I found it on OfferUp. I love laying here and reading a book or just sitting with my
02:37cats
02:37and petting them, maybe watching some TV. I actually dreamt of it one time. I thought of this velvet pink
02:45lounge with gold detail and the next day I went on OfferUp and there it was. So my biggest splurge
02:51in
02:51this apartment would have to be this couch. I bought it full price. I actually hate it. My cats have
02:56ripped
02:57it to shreds and unfortunately it's the thing I spent the most money on. What sold me on the place
03:02actually is I saw my little castle stained glass window and I was like yep this is it. Done. Sold.
03:10Over here in this nook is my office area where I have all of my books and kind of a
03:19makeshift workstation.
03:20I sit here sometimes but I'm usually on the couch and outside of that I have a cute little balcony
03:26where
03:26I keep all my plants. Some are dying though so don't tell anybody. And this is my dining space. It's
03:34quite small but I've made it work for me. In it I've put my little table and this great little
03:42couch that
03:43I found also at a thrift store that's embroidered. I also have this little cat climber that they love
03:49to climb up on and watch the birds outside especially in the morning. We have a resident
03:53bird that likes to go and flirt with them so they like to sit there and do the little meows
03:59at them.
04:00My litter box is in here and they enter from the side here into the box and it kind of
04:06keeps all the
04:06smell and the sand away which is nice. And then off of that is the tiny little quaint kitchen which
04:12I
04:12absolutely adore. The kitchen is kind of small so it's kind of hard to cook in and I haven't been
04:18baking for a while because I have no space to do it. I love 1930s homes because of all the
04:23built-ins.
04:24These are the old 1930s cabinets and the cats just go in here and eat. What's also kind of cute
04:30about
04:30this hallway is the floorboards really creak when you walk through it so you kind of get that old feel
04:35that this house is literally almost 100 years old. And down the hallway is a cute little telephone nook
04:42which I've used to kind of store some of my little prized possessions. And also a built-in dresser.
04:48Here on my dresser I keep my incense and a few other things I've collected. This is the embroidered
04:55piece that my grandmother gave to me. This piece is super sentimental to me because I always saw it
05:02in my grandmother's home growing up and it's kind of just been the inspiration for my entire home in
05:08terms of decorating. This is my bedroom, my little sacred space. My love for vintage and antique items
05:17is what's really been influential in my style and also I just love to be surrounded by color every single
05:25day. It makes me super happy. My bedroom is very pink as you can see. I wanted it to be
05:32a bit of a serene
05:33space although I am quite a maximalist. I had to put a lot of things in it. I love this
05:40great gold mirror
05:41that I have that I inherited also from my grandmother. I've also used mirrors all over and it kind of
05:47brightens
05:48up the space and reflects the windows. Over here is my little mannequin. Funny story about this
05:53retail store was closing and I went there with my sister and we both decided to get a mannequin.
05:58I used it to display my beautiful coat quilt that I got from Psychic Outlaw. I found this quilt and
06:05had them
06:05design a coat for me and I love it so much that I love to have it displayed. Over here
06:10is my great little
06:11peacock mirror that I got from a resale shop called Resident Objects. It's on Instagram. What's really cool about
06:18it is at nighttime it reflects a little castle window that's in my living room so you can see that
06:25through this mirror
06:26and I think that's just so special. For some reason I've been really into antiques that are golf or
06:32tennis related although I don't play either of those sports. My bed which I keep a pink and gold
06:39theme with this vintage rattan headboard that I also found an offer up. I got really lucky when I found
06:45this. I was looking for this almost exact piece for months. I'd say six months and finally one day
06:52it showed up. This piece is a beautiful golden mirror shelf. I had been eyeing one of these and
06:59then for my birthday this year my friend found one at a thrift store and gifted it to me with
07:04my cute
07:04little wind-up music box that I got in Paris. This is my closet. It's very small for the amount
07:12of clothes
07:13I have but I try to keep it as organized as possible. I keep my shoes on this side and
07:20then I have all my
07:21sweaters and blazers on this side. I have some mementos for my friends and pictures with my friends
07:26over the years and then on this side is where I keep all my jackets and the cat carriers and
07:32all those
07:33things that I need to hide. This is my bathroom. It's pretty small but it works for me. What I
07:40love about
07:40it is the black and white tile on the floor and also on the mirror I added a decal that
07:45says you're
07:46doing amazing sweetie. The one thing I'm looking for in my next dream apartment would be a vintage
07:51tiled bathroom specifically in a pastel pink or purple. I just love the old styles of the bathrooms
07:58and I hope I do find one. This apartment has brought me so many things especially finding out my aesthetic.
08:06I've lived in many other apartments before this and always kind of knew how to decorate them
08:11but here just really inspired me with all the vintage details and working from that that I've
08:16found my niche. I'm super sad to be leaving this space because it's become such like a treasure to me
08:23and something that I've worked really hard on but I am excited to move on to bigger and better things
08:28and decorate my new space just like this. Thanks so much for stopping by and checking out my sweet digs.
08:34For more videos click here and to subscribe click here.
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