Tuesday, August 15, 2017

Inside my apartment in Seoul, South Korea

I bought this desk/chair set right before I moved from Seoul to Germany in 2008. 
It is an antique.  (Click on the photos for larger images.)


When you push the chair in... it just looks like a small table.   I also like the little drawers on the back-- the 3 small bottom ones which are under the seat when you are sitting down.   They are very long drawers too.   Clever use of space.
 
 
 I bought some furniture when I was in Korea- but, I bought things that can go along with other furniture from other locations where I had lived too.   This is actually an old hand painted buffet that I bought in Korea.  Sometimes, it has been in a living room, but most of the time it is my bedroom dresser. 

 The top 4 drawers, of this buffet, holds socks, underwear, scarves, and the bottom doors hold folded sweaters/etc.   There is a shelf in the middle to help the folded items stay folded better- instead of one big pile of folded things that falls over as soon as you remove one item.

I gave that tv away to someone when I finally moved.   But, it came in handy for watching DVDs and VHS tapes of American TV shows.  I would often tape American TV shows on VHS tapes in the summer and play them while I was overseas.   Almost all the time, I did not have access to any English speaking tv shows while I was overseas.   So, I purchased a lot of DVDS of old American TV shows and movies.

I have donated many to the base libraries when I would move to a new location. 

Spring time.   Fresh flowers from the flower market found across the Han River.   And, some Celedon vases.
 
The living room in this apartment was small.   However, I loved the floor to ceiling windows and the view of the Han River.   The blue couch and chair are military issued loaner furniture.   The antique trunk, used as a coffee table here (a little too tall for that use though) is now on the sun porch with a huge dog bed on it-- which my 2 cats use for snoozing.  
 
The wicker couch, was purchased in the Philippines and it has a wrought iron base.   This is also now on the sun porch... aka, kitty quarters.   You can also some one of the orchids that I also bought at the flower market.  I always had a variety of blooming orchids there, they were so inexpensive there, and so many choices to select from.   The abundance of light was really good for them.  
 
The antique wardrobe, with the mirror on it-- was bought at my first location:  The Philippines.  I still have it and it is now in the office.
 
See the glass area behind the blue chair?  That is an enclosed balcony area off the living room.   They were about 10 feet deep and the width of the room.   Each bedroom had one of these and there was another one off the kitchen that I used as a laundry room.



A view down the hallway, (an earlier post shows this area, empty, before I moved in) and the hallway was so wide that you could place furniture along the walls without affecting the flow of traffic or making the hallway seem too narrow.   The desk was hand made in the Philippines, and it is now in my bedroom.   *Most of the time, it spent its life in storage.   The doorway that you see leads to the master bedroom.

Another antique wardrobe (a free standing closet) from the Philippines.

The floors in this apartment were out of bamboo and the entire apartment had heated floors.   Since, I was on the 7th floor, I didn't even have to turn the heat on, until it got really cold, because the heat from the other apartments, below my apartment,  made it warm enough.

Various odds and ends of things.   The art work in this photo and the one above it are of Gaeta, Italy.

I love this little desk, it has cubby holes and little doors that open to stash cards, postcards, etc.


A flowering tree on base.  I always called these TULIP TREES.   Well, because, they looked like giant tulip flowers.

Some silk fabrics that I bought in the fabric building in Seoul.   This building was 5 stories tall and consisted of 2 connecting buildings.  The inside was so large that you COULD NOT see the walls.   So much to see.   So much to buy.   I loved this place.  I also purchased nice wool fabrics and had coats made for me by a tailor.   These things were very reasonably priced there.   A better cost to get a great coat custom made... than, a purchased coat in America.

So, once you lived in Korea... you usually got a coat made and certainly at least left with a leather coat.  
 

No comments: