#diy-renovation

#diy-renovation

"Everything was blue underneath, from floor to ceiling," says vintage dealer Robert Ropertz. It's just the kind of surprise one encounters when scraping through layers of paint and wallpaper in an 1865 building. Then, there's the crooked floors, crumbling clay plaster, and leaky roofs, all of which illustrator Andrea Weber and Ropertz, who is also a painter and preservationist, took in stride.

For example, Jake Wilkinson and his partner, Megan, liked their living room's bay window and central fireplace - but they weren't keen on the fact that the original fireplace had been replaced with a faux gas one. They also weren't in love with the "awful '80s patterned carpet" or the textured ceiling (with the exception of the lovely ceiling medallion). "It hadn't been changed since the 1980s from the previous owner," Jake says of the overall vibe of the room.

I wanted our little apartment to feel like a cozy, safe haven away from the rest of the world - and I feel like I achieved that for myself,

Every inch of the unit was covered in furniture and clutter. It smelled bad," Joyce continues of her first-ever apartment she rented her own as an adult. "But at 23 it was the only apartment I could afford to rent in the city that was in my price range. And let me tell you, everything was outdated, the walls were an ugly brownish yellow color, the wood floors were heavily damaged, the bathroom faucets didn't work, and there was no AC. But it was in the most amazing location in Chicago, one block away from the lake and nestled in the cutest neighborhood."