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Full time photographer Albrica Tierra lives ITP and loves it. This queer artist found her community in an aging Black community in the SE side of Atlanta where she jokes - It feels like the country. A true advocate of “buy Black” she has made it a point to decorate using Black art, creators, designers and maker all while sprinkling in her own photography in the mix. Watch to learn more about Albrica’s space.

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High rent, small spaces, nosy neighbors — we put up with A LOT of things to live where we love. In Sweet Digs, Refinery29 gets a peek inside the homes of the coolest people we know, from tiny studios to sprawling houses, and ask the real questions like, "Wait, how much is your rent?"

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Transcript
00:00So around the house you'll find these small painted bees. There's a total of
00:0412 bees. Feels like a game of where's Waldo. I photographed honey hives so I
00:09got to really be like fully immersed in like the world of the honey bee. It just
00:13felt like fate when I met my dog at the shelter and her name was Honey.
00:18Hi my name is Albreka and welcome to my sweet digs. I live in southeast Atlanta.
00:25I live in a three-bedroom two-bathroom house. My mortgage is a little over $1,100
00:31a month. It is a historically black neighborhood. It's a very quiet peaceful
00:36place to live. I really love it here. This is my living area. I really love to
00:42entertain so I like inviting a few friends over to come and chill. I just
00:48try to make sure that my living area is like cozy, welcoming, good vibes, good
00:52energy. I've lived in this house for two years. I closed on it right before the
00:57pandemic really hit in 2020. I would describe my home style as a little bit
01:02of everything. I borrow from a lot of different styles. Afro-Bohemian, vintage.
01:07I like to call it modern vintage. One of my best friends, Candy, wanted to do an
01:11accent wall for me so she gave me this giant squiggle that I feel like is very
01:17whimsical. This mirror that's also featured here was a vintage mirror given
01:22to me by my grandmother. She kind of had it in the closet and I was just like if
01:25you don't want it can I have it? And she was like sure. I think my favorite piece
01:29in the room is my frame TV. It was definitely a splurge but well worth it.
01:34It is a great way to like showcase my own art. I'm a photographer. I've been
01:38photographing for a little over nine years. I love to really express who I am
01:44through like art. I have a lot of art that I like to feature including my own art.
01:48Throughout my home I like to display a lot of black art especially art by queer
01:52black women creatives. For example one of my favorite pieces is the peach color
01:58barrette that is on the top of my door. I really love to put queer black women
02:03artistry first since I also identify as a queer black artist. You're also going to
02:08see a lot of vintage and antique and secondhand pieces. The best home find I
02:14have I scored off a Facebook marketplace is my faux fireplace. A lot of people
02:20never realize that it's not really part of the house until I point it out. I try
02:24and just like look out for really special and unique things when I'm out
02:28thrifting and like antiquing. Just one of my favorite activities. This is my small
02:33dining area. The chairs and the table are all thrifted. One of the ways that I help to
02:38define the spaces within the open floor plan is to use area rugs. They help to
02:42define different zones in the house. Certain pieces came with the house like my
02:46lighting fixture. This is my small bar area. I love this burl wood console that I
02:52got from Target. It was like an item that had been sold out for months. I was super
02:57happy when I was able to get it. This is my kitchen area. Very small but very useful.
03:03Love the layout of it. This actually started as a very blank space. Everything was
03:07just white and white and white. I removed the doors from the cabinets to make it feel
03:12more open and it makes the kitchen feel a lot bigger. One thing that you're gonna
03:16find especially in the kitchen area is a lot of plants. This is an area that gets a
03:20lot of natural light so I like to show my plants off. I have a very vast
03:24collection of over 50 plants. After taking the doors off in the kitchen I just
03:29wanted another pop of color so I got my cabinets painted green which is one of my
03:34favorite colors. This is my pantry. It's a walk-in pantry. I kind of lucked out with
03:40this house when I saw how much storage I had. Another luxury is my laundry room.
03:47Honestly it's one of my favorite spaces because of these sticker decals that are
03:51on the wall that look like terrazzo. It was really fun to decorate in here. This is
03:58the guest bathroom. Whenever I have guests over I want them to feel as if
04:03they're in a luxurious place so I have small amenities for them to feel
04:08comfortable and at home kind of like a spa. I'm really drawn to lime wash paint
04:13which is featured here in the bathroom. Lime wash paint makes the walls kind of
04:17look like stone or plaster so it's a very light pink wash. The guest bedroom. I
04:24definitely wanted my guests to feel like you know they can get a good night's
04:28sleep so I try not to keep the color palette too busy in here. It is very
04:31neutral. It's very calming. I also have one of my own photos featured here that I
04:36feel like it really ties the entire room together so people say they always sleep
04:40great in here. Alright so we're headed into my bedroom which is very much
04:47inspired by more of like a modern Parisian feel. My bed is actually a
04:54second-hand Ikea bed that I got off of Facebook Marketplace. I just went ahead and
04:59painted the headboard to match that same rust orange that's in the kitchen so that
05:03color kind of follows throughout the entire house. There's plenty of storage
05:06underneath the bed which is why I decided to forego dressers in here. The
05:12fan above the headboard is from Urban Outfitters and I feel like it really
05:16tied the entire room together. The most sentimental part of my house is my altar
05:21that I keep in my bedroom. Just a place for me to meditate and pray to my
05:26ancestors and spend some time with them. One of the best things about this house is
05:31my closet. There's a ton of space in here. I am a lover of shoes and purses. I wanted
05:38it to kind of feel like you're walking into a boutique essentially so with the
05:42racks and the shelves and the jewelry display every time I walk in here I feel
05:48like a princess. This is my bathroom. So when I first bought the house my shower
05:54space had this really ugly tile that came with it. It's still there but I was
06:00able to temporarily hide it with IKEA decking. So the wooden pieces that you
06:05see here and on the floor is just wooden tiles that click together that I can
06:09easily take up if I decide to change the tile underneath. This is my office space.
06:15A place for me to get my work done as a photographer. I spend a lot of time in
06:20here photo editing. Sometimes I also use the space as a mini studio where I can
06:25set up for portraits or even some small tabletop shots. It is the most colorful
06:29space in the house. It's just a place to let my creativity flow. This photo came
06:35from a photo book that I created which was about the evolution that you go
06:40through to become an adult. This is my patio space. When the sun comes in it's
06:49very very warm and there is really no shade around here so I wanted to get an
06:53umbrella to make it a little bit cooler. Utilize some different types of patio
06:58chairs and a bench which I love to drink my morning coffee out here sometimes. I'll
07:02bring a speaker out here if I have friends over. We'll chill outside have a
07:05couple drinks and just talk. As you can see the backyard is huge. There's a lot of
07:10space. I definitely wanted to buy this house as soon as I saw the backyard
07:13because I was thinking oh my dog's gonna love it and she absolutely does. She's
07:16out here all the time. One of my ideas for the concrete slab in the back is to
07:21install a greenhouse since I am a plant lady and also maybe like a barbecue grill,
07:26a hammock, a fire pit. These things are yet to come but one of the things that I do
07:30have right now is a veggie garden. I do have a green thumb. It kind of runs in my
07:34family. My great-great-grandfather was a tobacco farmer so I feel like it's just
07:38kind of in my blood. I grow a lot of kale and squash, a lot of herbs in my own
07:44veggie garden. In my flower garden I'm currently planning on growing some
07:48lilies, some marigolds, and some hydrangeas. Since I acquired my home during the
07:55pandemic I wasn't able to open it up to all my loved ones like I wanted to. As the
08:01pandemic is shifting and things are opening back up I feel like I'm going to
08:06be able to bring all of my loved ones into the space that I have curated out of
08:11love and care. So hopefully they feel the love and support as they're coming
08:15through and they just think of my home as a safe space. Well thanks for stopping by
08:21and checking out my sweet digs.
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