Stepping into Sydney Grove’s studio apartment in the heart of downtown Athens is like stepping into a life-size version of her scrapbook.
Nothing in her apartment was designed to match, but somehow everything blends together. Sydney’s personality is everywhere you look, from mementos from her travels and favorite movie posters to a trash can covered in stickers she has collected. Everything in the apartment has a story behind it.
She has somehow turned one studio apartment into five separate spaces: a place to sleep, entertain, cook, get ready and work. The getting-ready area stands out, equipped with her grandfather’s old writing desk, an antique chair, a capiz shell lamp and a peace sign-shaped jewelry holder filled with her signature earrings and butterfly clips.
Grove, a journalism major and design and media minor from Dunwoody, Georgia, said she knew she wanted to live alone this year after previously living in a condo near Five Points with multiple roommates.
After attending a birthday party at a loft apartment downtown and seeing its high ceilings, she knew she wanted something similar.
This is where I want to be,” she said.
Since moving downtown, Grove has grown to love the sounds and energy outside her windows. She often leaves them open in the evenings, using the sounds of people walking and shopping as natural white noise.
“When I think about Athens, I think about downtown,” she said. “So when I wake up in the morning, I look out. It’s just really cool.”
Grove describes the furniture in her apartment as an “amalgamation of things I had.” Her approach was simple: “I’ll take what I can get for as little money as possible.”
She spent only about $150 on furnishing the apartment, including a chair from an antique store and fabric she used to refinish her mother’s chairs herself.
Much of the furniture in Grove’s apartment was passed down from family members, giving the space another layer of history. Her coffee table, for example, was built by her grandfather specifically for her mother’s college apartment. It has “been painted a million times,” Grove said.
She describes her decor style as “sentimental,” putting more emphasis on the memories attached to an object than whether or not it matches an aesthetic.
“If it reminds me of a good memory or people I love, that is the most important for me when decorating,” she said.
One of her favorite pieces on the walls is a print she bought at the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd Art Market. The print features the sign in front of The World Famous, the Athens bar and music venue where Grove attended her first concert in Athens.
That concert also marked the first time she hung out with her now-best friend, Meghan.
Her sentimental approach continues into the kitchen, where Grove has what she calls her “wall of friends” and a refrigerator covered in unique magnets. Some came from the Lamar Dodd Art Market, others from Mother Lode and many were made by Grove herself from found bottle caps.
The bottle caps have come from all over. She has collected them from the ground in Germany while studying abroad, from a former summer job and from camping trips.
“I like to find stuff around and decorate my place with it,” she said.
Beyond the memories displayed throughout the apartment, Grove has also made the space feel distinctly comfortable. There are multiple places to curl up, including her favorite: a soft papasan chair tucked into the corner of the living room. It is especially sentimental because although Sydney and her twin sister, Olivia, don’t live together, Olivia often falls asleep in the chair.
Sydney’s apartment is not about creating a perfectly coordinated aesthetic. It is about surrounding herself with reminders of the people, places and memories that have shaped her.
