When Historic + Retro Met AirBnB
Well HELLO there! Welcome to my little corner of the internet. So glad you’re here! I’ve been working through a series of posts on each AirBnB I’ve designed and hosted…today’s post is about one of two units in a renovated historic home in Downtown Albuquerque. Enjoy!
I’ll never forget the first time I saw this home. There was a massive hole in the floor in the north unit (which I’ll share more about in my next blog post) and there was wild fire damage. It had obviously been abandoned and needed so much love. In fact…the craziest thing happened! I had invited a friend to come tour the house one day and when I walked through the front door of the north unit, it was super clear that someone was staying there! There was a sleeping bag on the floor, trash all over the place and a backpack in the corner that looked pretty full. No one was there, but it scared us BAD. This house was such a wild adventure!
I managed the renovation project with an amazing contractor (Adobe Village Construction) and his team. We tackled the whole house all at once. It just so happened that the south unit was ready first, so that’s the side I did first as far as interior design goes. The south side became The Retro Shanty!
THE DETAILS
This unit was a one bedroom, one bathroom space. The ceilings in the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom were beautifully vaulted. We purchased the kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinet from IKEA, along with the majority of the design elements. I also did a TON of local shopping at flea markets and thrift stores. We also had some pieces from a condo we closed down a couple months earlier (you can see the post about that space here), so I had lots to work with in this space and it was so fun to put together!.
LIVING ROOM
When you walked in the front door from the covered shared porch, you stepped right into the living room. Large windows, wood floors and clean, white walls. I found the sweetest vintage orange sofa at one of my favorite indoor flea markets and used a rattan chair a family member gave to me. The midcentury modern pieces really completed that retro feel I was going for!
KITCHEN
I think this is my favorite room in this space. The ceilings were crazy high! The IKEA cabinets were perfect and I loved the way the open shelving was both functional and fun. I found the table at one of my favorite indoor flea markets. Super cute and super vintage. The dining chairs from IKEA were perfection in this space and I really adore the color the area rug added to the room. So fun!
We went with a micro-kitchen set up. A metal kitchen worktable from Amazon, an electric cooktop and a convection oven combined to complete the cutest and super efficient little kitchen set up.
BATHROOM
As I mentioned before, this bathroom cabinet set up came from IKEA. The ceiling in the bathroom was super vaulted. I also love the window in the shower! We kept things simple in the bathroom and I went with some fun and colorful wall decor that really set it apart.
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BEDROOM
More vaulted ceilings! I had saved this headboard for the PERFECT spot and it was clearly this bedroom. We did a special modified set up to give it some height and the wall decor above the bed really draws the eyes up to take in the vastness of the room. Extra long curtains on the window and a cute bedside table and it was done! Such a fun bedroom!
THAT’S A WRAP!
And that’s the story of The Retro Shanty! This space was insanely successful on AirBnB. It was booked solid from the very start. There are some unique challenges that come with hosting a historic home…and maybe I’ll explore that further in a future post. Long story short, we opted to sell when the market was hot and have zero regrets! It was a joy to renovate and design this space and it was so fun to be it’s host!
Stay tuned! I’ll share the story of the north unit (The Charming Studio) in my next post!
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