Switch! For starters...a light switch, the pivotal piece that brings life to your home after a long day of work. Its the first thing you touch past the doorknob. Its a welcoming reminder that at the end of the day YOU ARE HOME!

Switch...to change, to shift, to divert, to change course.

Welcome to my blog, Switch: Bright Ideas for City Living. I wanted to start a platform for talking about living in urban areas and designing small city spaces to make them feel like home. It's not always easy to live in a city where you can't get a cup of coffee for under a buck, never mind get a little square foot of real estate for anything under $100 bucks! (Well maybe you can get a good coffee for a buck if you visit my coffee guy on the corner of 3rd and 44th...best coffee cart in the city). But when it comes to living in a big city, its no surprise you don't get much for your money. So sometimes all we need is a bright idea to create a design masterpiece out of a little bit of paint and some second hand furniture. I've been living in NYC for the past 5 years and ever since I moved into my first apt in the BX I was determined to make my little hole in the wall feel like home. I've always been interested in interior design and other peoples blogs and websites have greatly influenced my design style. I hope that my blog will inspire you and I both! Just as I am hoping to inspire some, I am searching for inspiration myself. I will be moving in 2 months to another hole in the wall apartment that will need some serious decorating and in June I am starting interior design classes! That's where the other "switch" comes in...

Now as for "Switch"...to change course...

I moved from a suburban town in Connecticut to the Good Ol' Bronx to attend Fordham University for business. Somehow I ended up an assistant buyer for a woman's clothing catalog and now I'm going back to school for interior design..GO FIGURE! (Sorry dad, looks like i missed the boat on being a doctor!!!) I figure now is a better time then ever to get out there and try something new! So while I am hoping for this blog to bring design inspiration I also want it to be a story. A story about a girl trying to figure out what fits! Fashion Buyer, Interior Designer, Advertising Executive, Real Estate Agent, Restaurant Owner, Entrepreneur, Stock Broker (okay...not a stock broker) but SOMETHING! And how to make it all work in the Big Apple. So won't you join me while I FIGURE IT OUT!

Welcome to the first apartment I had when I moved to NYC:

This little guy of an apt was located on Hughes Ave in The Bronx. It was a hole in the wall, but I was in love with it! It was sooooo cozzzzy.

This was our wall of inspiration. My roommate and I would stay up to all hours posting ideas on this wall about ways we were going to make a million bucks someday and move to a penthouse on Park Ave! One can dream right?

My first apt was a mix-match of Ikea furniture and hand me downs from mom and dad's house...thanks fam!

So that's just a little peek at my first "Home Sweet Home" in NYC. I'm going to dig around for some more Bronx photos and post again shortly! Yippie for my FIRST POST to Switch :)

-Jessica Allyn