Share Your Space: Inside a $490 two-bedroom apartment in Sydney overrun with bookshelves.

Mamamia's Share Your Space series asks everyday women to share all the juicy, specific details about their home. How much do you pay in rent? Who do you live with? Where did you get your furniture? It's pulling back the curtain on real estate in Australia, and allowing us to really see how the people around us live. 

Age: 26 

Job: Evening Editor.

Mortgage: Renting with my partner, with my half working out to be $245 a week.

Location: Dulwich Hill in Sydney, NSW.

Lifestyle: Dully has that sleepy burbsy feel but all the convenience right on your doorstep. Minutes walk away from the train station, sushi place, coffee shop and the all important Tella Balls (AKA a Nutella cafe). 

So, take us inside: 

We live in an old art deco building which has a few quirks... (Read: old broken sh*t and questionable decor). Lovingly referred to as ‘The Rat Den’, our place has become our little sanctuary during lockdown and I’ve fallen even more in love with the place. 

Bedroom/s: 

We have a two-bedroom apartment, despite only being the two of us living it in. We wanted a second bedroom because both of our families live outside of Australia, so we wanted to be able to host them comfortably when they made the trip to Sydney. 

The master bedroom is a fairly decent size, fitting a queen bed, a chest of drawers and three of the many more bookshelves scattered across the apartment. 

Image: Supplied.

The main bedroom has doors out to our balcony (which looks rather like a jail cell, so we don’t spend a heap of time out there). But the bedroom itself gets THE BEST light around 3pm in the afternoon so I always peep in at that time to soak it all up.

The guest bedroom is pretty simple, filled with my partner’s old double bed, the beautiful desk he made (with my rather ugly standing desk contrapment plonked on top) and, you guessed it, more bookshelves. 

Image: Supplied.

Bathroom:

Welcome to the most hideous room in the house. Featuring a shocking shower screen and a toilet that is so close to the wall that my partner, I quote, has to “sh*t side-saddle”.

Image: Supplied.

Lounge area: 

Also known as the HOME OF THE SNUGGLE CHAIR. This giant, round, comfy delight is my absolute pride and joy. My partner and I were on the hunt for one of these but they retail for around $4,000 (AKA so astronomically far out of our budget), so we set up Gumtree alerts for them.

Image: Supplied.

Within a week we found this one that came with a four-person matching couch for $200! Best money I’ve ever spent. 

Image: Supplied.

Image: Supplied.

Kitchen:

Our kitchen is, er, quaint. Featuring a non-stylish exposed brick wall, a massively unhelpful round sink and a checkerboard lino floor that is impossible to clean. It does the job, but it’s definitely not the cutest of kitchens. 

Image: Supplied.

Garden:

We have a little share garden that is used by all four of the flats in our block. It has a shared laundry, washing line and just enough sun in the afternoon to validate having a cup of tea out there.

Image: Supplied. 

Final thoughts: 

I love our little home. It’s my first house with my partner and I feel really settled and at home in this quirky flat. Sure, there are some things I’d love to change about it but I’ve been damn grateful to live here during the strangest year ever. 

You can catch up on our previous Share Your Space stories here:

• Share Your Space: A couple in their 30s who completely renovated their old Victorian terrace.
• Share Your Space: Inside a $650 one-bedroom terrace in Sydney, with a puppy who likes to eat everything.
• Share Your Space: Inside a beach-side apartment in Sydney, with second-hand buys and lots of plants.

Feature Image: Supplied.