I began the year with a promise to write a weekly newsletter about living in my 200 square foot apartment. Weekly turned into every other week, which is a promise I managed to keep. Are you bored of me yet? If so, rejoice that this is the last you’ll hear from me in 2023.
Writing about the same room all year was a joy and a challenge. Sometimes I wasn’t sure how I could possibly eke out another newsletter. Other times I was bursting with ideas. A couple of times I cheated and wrote about something other than my apartment. None of it is going to change the world, but I like to think I struck the balance of style and substance I promised in my first dispatch.
Perhaps you remember Laurie Colwin as the writer who gave me the idea to wash my dishes in the bathtub. As I read my way through the rest of her oeuvre, I was repeatedly charmed by Colwin’s descriptions of her own and her characters’ cozy Manhattan apartments. Take this passage from her short story collection The Lone Pilgrim:
"Oh, domesticity! The wonder of dinner plates and cream pitchers. You know your friends by their ornaments. You want everything. If Mrs. A. has her mama's old jelly mold, you want one too, and everything else that goes with it--the family, the tradition, the years of having jelly molded in it. We domestic sensualists live in a state of longing, no matter how comfortable our own places are."
How great is the phrase “domestic sensualist?” It makes a devotion to home decor sound so much less frivolous. And the passage as a whole sums up what I’ve been trying to do with this Substack. Small-space living has made me much more intentional about the things I buy, but I still love pretty things. Especially pretty things that tell a story. And it turns out that some people like hearing the stories--or at least humoring me.
As for 2024, I don’t know exactly what bailey’s gonna decorate it will look like, but I do know that I still want to write it. Hopefully you’ll still want to read it. There are still things left to write about in the studio (a friend was recently surprised where I keep my trash can), but I plan on looking beyond my little home to share design inspiration, ideas, recommendations, and whatever else I feel like. I might take an extra week off, but you’ll hear from me soon.
In the meantime, have a very happy holiday season!
this week’s read
Not a review or recommendation—just what I’m reading right now.
Wonderful read!
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Bailey❤️ I love reading your posts and love your cute home🥰