Setting up a Bachelor/Bachelorette Pad (Apartment)

I moved out of my parent’s house as soon as I finished University.

This may be a normal thing to do in some parts of the world, but it is definitely not the norm in my country. People don’t just go on to live on their own because they want to – let alone a GIRL!

Normally, you will either stay with your parents, or if they live in a different city – you will leech off close relatives until you are married, or maaaaaaybe too old to live with your relatives anymore – think something like 30yrs old (yeah nobody’s telling a 30yr old how to live).

I wanted to start my own little life – I have always wanted this, and even without a job at hand – I was determined to try.

A part of me even wanted to do this blogpost a year and a half ago, when I first started living alone. I underestimated the work, time and money it takes to furnish a house, and I was definitely challenged!

I was dealing with a lot of issues in my personal life as I was completing my undergraduate studies. I wanted a space of my own and I life I had some control over.

I remember wrapping up my business ventures in Uni and  saving up some cash I was certain was enough to boost me as I started my new life.

I was quite the entrepreneur back then – I still am, but so differently. I took the principle of bridging the gap of needs as a business lady from my mother quite literally. It was about survival back then – make enough money to be able to survive and get to the next month. That has changed a lot for me in the past year – but that is a story for another day.

I remember watching Shirley B. Eniang (Youtuber) showcasing her new studio apartment and my whole life was screaming GOALS!

I also used to follow @fashion_kill_her and I was really obsessed with her posts of her home. I wanted that life, that house for myself, but you must understand – both these ladies were 27 at the time and I was 21. I felt I would need 6 years to have a home as nice. I can’t say I was far from right. Setting up a home takes so much time and patience.

I talked to my parents about wanting to move from their house, the place that had been my home for the entirety of my life, to a whole different city by myself. I told my mother I had found myself a little house in Lilongwe and she told me to talk to my father first.

My dad was a little reluctant at first – but eventually gave into my plans and wants. I am grateful my parents for being the protective people they have always been while at the same time allowing me enough space to live out my heart’s desires. I hope I can borrow a leaf someday when I am blessed with the gift of being a parent.

I moved to Lilongwe in January of 2017. I lived with my housemate – a former schoolmate from Chancellor College, for about 7 months in our lovely apartment, before her relationship with her boyfriend started getting serious and I simply needed some space of my own.

At the same time, my housemate had been ahead of me in Uni and was employed – which meant that she was a little more stable than I was. As a result, she was buying most of the things that we had in our house. I did not mind this – I appreciated it in fact, but this left me with little to no room to get any things of my own.

Luckily, one of our neighbours moved out his apartment – meaning that the place next-door was now vacant and I took the leap and moved there.

I remember moving in and it was a complete mess. The sink was broken, the walls inside were extremely dirty and it simply needed so much work!

I started working on my house shortly after July. When I moved in, I had a bed, a table (That I dismantled and threw away now), 4 plastic gray chairs (That I am very oddly attached to), a hotplate and some kitchen utensils.

That was all I had to my name, that and my father’s old BMW. Living in that house for that month – Jobless, Broke and Alone left me near depression. I was struggling, briefly put.

I remember not knowing where to start from, regards furnishing my house. I spent so much time Pinteresting house decor ideas – but everything just seemed way too expensive.

My mother sent me some money to buy myself a fridge, and that was a start. It was nothing fancy – just a standard fridge that is big enough and keeps my food cold and frozen – basically gets the job done.

I hosted my brother for his holidays and my parents came by to furnish the extra bedroom in my house for his convenience.

My brother started whining about how empty my house was. That almost instantly kicked me out of my depression and I started working on the Pallet-couch I had been eyeing on Pinterest. one thing I have learnt in life is that if you want anything done, just start. Come what may, it will be finished.

The coouch didn’t cost me too much – est $200. I suspect if I used cheaper materials for the seat covers, it would have costed even less.

I finished working on it sometime in September. I have since repainted it once and it is still one of my most favourite possessions.

My birthday was about a month later, and my friend Pempho got me a wall-clock as a  present  in my absolute favorite color that perfectly matched my couch pillows.

After that was done, I was broke again for a little while. Me being broke basically meant furnishing was also put to a halt.

I left the country in December for Cambodia. I was thoroughly amused to find a Christmas present from my friend Chris on my return. It was the first artistic wall-hanging I got and inspired the rest of the ones up in my house now.

When I returned, I had a little extra cash on me.

I dropped by game to buy a cooker for my kitchen that I had seen on promotion. When I got there, I found that it was no longer on promotion, and I ended up not having enough money to carry on with my purchase.

To heal my hurt, I started window shopping in the store and found this black glass-top dining set I had been eyeing that was on promotion on that day. For this, I had enough money – and I said why the hell not.

It was after I got that set that I started feeling like my house was now a home. I did not have everything I wanted but it was at least not as echo-ey as it was in July when I moved it.

I made a little more money and went back for the cooker when it was on promotion again and I managed to catch it in time. Yaay.

I also got this Tea-stand alongside the cooker because I did not like having my teastuff in the kitchen – which meant crowding the Dining set and that did not sit well with me at all.

Now coming back from Cambodia, I had one thing on my mind and that was to create a home office. I created another pallet-couch/bed for the other bedroom and gave my bed that was in the room to my neighbour.

As I was working on the Pallet Bed, I also worked on the the wine-rack. Most of my house furniture is pinterest-inspired.

I normally paint all my furniture white, but we opted to stain the winerack black to go with the dining area theme. The stain took a while – weeks in fact, to dry but it was so worth it.

My friends filled it up with wine after my graduation (Of course Dave did most of it).

I later received furniture from Blockbuster, which by coincidence was the exact same colour theme as the couch I had made. See God!

I use this room as my home office/beauty room. It also functions as a guestroom when I have more than one person over at my house.

When I was done with the office, I was also content with the house for a while.

I left for my work training in Blantyre sometime in July. I was there for a month, and on the day I completed my training, I treated myself to a cereal dispenser. My mom had suggested it, after seeing my cereal box out of place on the tea-stand.

I moved on to my bedroom. I wanted to get metallic furniture for my room (I still might in the near future) but I first went with the white and wooden theme. I painted all the walls white and got me some white bed-covers. I also got the blanket-holder recently for my towels and wraps.

The bathroom is the one room I haven’t worked much one. I don’t know if I will. It pretty much has all I need from it. I just need to get a new toilet seat and maybe a shower-curtain (Still undecided about this).

The kitchen was already almost all done. I think I just want to buy a washing machine, set up a small working table – and then I will move on the the casseroles! Yas cooking.

I then completed the living room with a console table. This was very easy to make and took little to no time. We used some wood from a leftover Pallet and had a breeze painting it. 

The TV was a graduation present from my boyfriend – then friend, in March.

The rest of the details are things I have picked up here and there – mostly from Game Stores.

The last thing I got for the house was the shoe-rack. I own a lot of shoes, and they had been needing a home. I made it, with help from a carpenter atBwandiro, very easily in a mater of two hours.

That is a brief summary of how I furnished my Bachelorette Pad. I made most of my stuff by myself, and if I did not make it – I most likely bought it from Game Stores, Shoprite, Blockbuster or Poundstretcher.

P.S. If you have a hard time with Handy People delivering work to you on time – the trick is to work with them through it. I will always sit there, grab a hammer and get to work – if I need to.

If you have just moved out and are quite unsure how to go about buying furniture, perhaps you may borrow a leaf from how I did it.

If you know a more efficient way to go about it, also drop down a comment below so we can learn from each other.

If you have some questions for me on how to go about with home decor, do feel free to ask me. If there are some elements I have not described how or where they were acquired (from), please be sure to ask in the comments down below and I may assist.

P.S. I just bought myself a new camera – a Canon 1300D (The beginner’s camera hehe), so be assured I will be posting a lot more content. This was me trying it out last night and this morning. I like what I am working with, so far.

Also feel free to follow the blogpage @bynthamedia on Instagram. I will be posting more consistent lifestyle updates on it.

I will be doing more posts on home stuff. What would you like to see here?

All my love,

Ntha