Rental diaries: What $350 a week can get you in Hawthorn East, Victoria

• Who: Simonette Boekel, marketing coordinator
• Where: A two-bedroom apartment in Hawthorn East, Victoria
• Rent: $350 a week

When looking for a place to rent earlier this year, 23-year-old Simonette Boekel had only two non-negotiables: “White walls and floorboards.” Finding a suitable apartment on a single income, however, required some sacrifices. 

The price of an apartment in her previous suburb, Clifton Hill (where Boekel had lived in a sharehouse), was out of budget, so she expanded her search to Hawthorn East where the median weekly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $50 lower.

It didn’t take Boekel long to locate the ideal place. The online listing photos of the apartment weren’t particularly inspiring, but Boekel saw potential in its simplicity, natural light and sky-blue bathroom tiles.

“I knew once I put all my things in there it would look really cute … I could make it my own,” she says. “I still pay quite a bit of rent, especially compared to what I paid with my housemates … but for me it was just worth it to have my own space.”

Since moving in, Boekel has modified the apartment by hanging a curtain across the living room window to conceal old blinds, covering the bathroom floor with removable black and white stickers, and hanging paper lamp shades to softly diffuse light. 

These updates have created a more comfortable and personalised space that can be easily reversed when she decides to move. “I feel like I’ve found enough ways to customise my space to not feel like I’m living in someone else’s house,” Boekel says.

What characterises Boekel’s apartment are its furnishings, including several second-hand pieces she’s personally upcycled. These items were sourced over several months from online platforms, including a dated six-seater sofa covered in irregular spots and brown vinyl.

Using nothing but four $15 white boucle-style blankets from Spotlight and a staple gun, Boekel turned this couch into the 1970s-inspired curvaceous centrepiece of her apartment. 

What drives Boekel to DIY is the challenge to furnish her home efficiently and stylishly on a budget. “I enjoy the challenge of seeing something that’s really expensive or out of my budget and trying to figure out how I can have that without going broke … It’s like problem-solving.”

By upcycling second-hand pieces over time, she estimates almost the entire apartment has been furnished for under $1000.

Boekel’s home DIY projects are documented on her TikTok account, which has quickly amassed a significant following. A 12-second clip of the couch has over 15 million views alone, in addition to popular tutorials on turning a Kmart ottoman into a bedside table, and creating a mid-century-inspired floor lamp for $40 using an Ikea salad bowl.

Her tip for finding quality secondhand furniture is doing daily searches of online platforms such as Gumtree, specialised Facebook groups, and eBay. Searching keywords and regularly engaging with items (by saving or liking listings) on Facebook Marketplace helps to fine-tune the platform’s algorithm, unearthing more pieces specific to your taste.

“What helped me was looking at my Pinterest boards and asking myself, ‘What am I seeing here?’ There’s a lot of wood, mid-century, curves and waves, so I search those keywords and see what comes up,” she says. 

Boekel’s home is a testament to her creative eye, talent and hard work, resulting in a truly personalised rented space.