department of the interior: home decor

i think there is too much shit/furniture in my apartment to paint. plus the paint is actually in reasonably good shape? i think i need a pro.

My scheme: walls in silver gray. Wood trim refreshed in gloss white despite its imperfections -- the impression of cleanliness is what matters. Bedding: Navy and white geometric/basketweave/ring pattern. Accents: a clear cool yellow for pillows, yellow to repaint the bedroom door(s), cafe curtains instead of full drapes to let in more light.

my bedroom walls are a mossy green, and the living room is a dove gray. kitchen is lighter blue. all trim is gloss white. maybe i should just put up curtains or change bedding or get new rugs.

How to paint in a room full of stuff: move all the stuff to the middle. Buy 10 cheap shower curtains from the dollar store and/or the cheap folded drop-cloths from the hardware store. Cover everything in middle of room, and tape into place. Work around it.

xp those colors sound REALLY NICE!

what i would love is a renovated kitchen/bathroom and refinished floors (my parquet is SO sad). sigh.

they are not bad! i think what would really help would be to have less furniture but that is a whole other battle :|

You know, I think sometimes that "less furniture" is the answer and then I see a room like this:

http://g-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/2612905/060611KristinCollinsHouseTour_05_rect640.jpg

and even though the busy-ness of that kind of room would drive some folks crazy, it works surprisingly well. I guess it really is all about color, scale.

To elaborate:

http://g-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/2612945/060611KristinCollinsHouseTour_09_rect640.jpg

http://g-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/2612915/060611KristinCollinsHouseTour_06_rect640.jpg

yeah, i think the tall ceilings relaly make the difference. i have not-tall ceilings and a LOT of black furniture. i thought it was so great that all our furniture matched when we combined possessions, but now i kinda wish there was a bit of variation.

Ohhhhhh black. Yeah. Can you spray-paint some of the furniture?

honestly, it's all ikea and that seems like way too much work for this stuff. i prefer black... just in a larger space?

You and absolutely everyone else!! :D

There are some good spray paints, apparently. You could refinish a set of something in a weekend probably. And if it's just IKEA, you won't mind taking a chance with a paint job?

Picked a 4-legged round footstool from the curb on my way home last night. Totally mid-cent, upholstered in robin's egg blue vinyl with those cigar-shaped wooden legs that everything had. Am totally gonna recover it! But in WHAT, that is the question....

Kitchen needs a complete overhaul. I won't use it unless I am wearing dark sunglasses to shield the hideousness. When dad was alive the entire drywall ceiling came down in the middle of the night. Dad didn't, uh, do the upstairs plumbing right and it just caved. We need a new one. Surfing about kitchens is a nightmare!

Look at this fabric almost every day and want it for cafe curtains/half-windows.

http://tonicliving.com/items/flatironyellow%2Ejpg

lovely!

so: Missoni for Target collection? http://www.fashionologie.com/Missoni-Target-Preview-Pictures-18689603
wld not buy the clothes, because i'm a snob like that - real thing or bust imo - but the kids clothes are cute and the housewares and pillows and things are pretty great for the price!
(of course, Canada doesn't have Target... in 2014 tho! lol)

i actually think they did an awesome job translating missoni to a lower price point, this is prob the most successful target collab yet. that said, missoni not really my cup of tea stylewise but i still think it's p great

isn't dr3w dani3l into missoni? paging dr. dr3w!

I get paid on Fri and have made a list of all the tools and supplies I want so I can patch, prime, and repaint my bedroom walls and woodwork. The total is like $260 incl spackle, primer, three kinds of paint (wall, trim, ceiling), a stepladder, and assorted tools. Oh and a hand-sander for the woodwork.

Gonna do it while my roommate is out of the country, because I fully expect TOTAL DISRUPTION and my entire wardrobe in piles in the living room.

wow! i've been needing to paint for oh 6 years and have been saying i will for 2 years. soon, soon...

Missoni is def my cup of tea and though i appreciate the translation of the patterns to a lower price point, i just personally don't usually go in for cheap knits (haha i say that as if i own/buy expensive knits all the time! lols) - maybe i'd have to see them in person to really judge. i really like the plates and cups and bowls though! and the bedspread and pillows!

linking bcuz img is lol hueg but i v much love the missoni hotel kuwait's uniforms:

http://plussixfivepsf.tumblr.com/post/6029392184/official-uniform-at-kuwaits-missoni-hotel

They're totally amazingly great, yes!

i still need to take photos of my kitchen! it keeps changing. and by changing i mean "fully manifesting the experience of grandmothering during the late 1970s"

Want to see. Now.

laurel i promise promise pinky swear i will get some photos up soon. but you can look forward to:

crewel embroidery of woodland vignettes
mrs butterworth
ducks!
boy scout mugs
pyrex pyrex pyrex

among other things

I am very excited to see your work, elmo.

ooh those are the best hotel uniforms!

okay, here are some things that exist happily in my kitchen

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6206/6050881449_fe34bcb6ba.jpg

chrome cafe stool!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6070/6050883891_796b0f4f21_z.jpg

behind the sheer curtain is a little galley pantry with cupboards, dishwasher, and sink. top left and top right are crewel embroidery; yellow frame is a culinary print from the late 60s; propped on the door jamb is a photo diagram of ~spices~ taken from one of the time life nature books

oh and those ducks are a cool screenprint on canvas

love!! i don't really have a kitchen that can be decorated, but i'm fixated on expanding counter and storage space. i found a crappy kitchen cart/butcher block thingy with extending sides, and my husb has kindly been "antique-ing" it for me.

thanks! it took us a really long time to figure out how to hang stuff on the (infuriating horsehair plaster) walls

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6197/6050883487_0830dba2fc_z.jpg

some plates over the stove! (the floral one is a tiffany dessert plate that i found for 70 cents)

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6208/6050883357_7786679e57_z.jpg

where the magic happens. i made the curtains. right are ikea shelves i stained. spices and pyrex and the beloved dutch oven!

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6087/6050883111_0fcba65c17_z.jpg

a map! and coat rack, which is urgent & key

ha, i think those are the same ikea shelves i'm planning on getting! probably gonna paint them a smokey lavender to match the sage-green kitchen cart.

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6080/6050882975_4ddc2d7738_z.jpg

raccoons made out of yarn! schlitz! mrs butterworth! animal crackers! some cow-headed creamer thing!

THE RACCOONS. I like everything else okay but I am SLAYED by the raccoons! Also we had like 6 of that animal crackers tin when I was a kid.

So lovely and lived-in overall! I yearn for a kitchen this kitchy.

Do you find that the plates above the stove collect aerosolized oil and need washing every few months?

the plates have only been there for a couple months and we honestly don't do as much cooking in the summer, so idk, they are a bit dusty but that's it

anyway i will stop spamming the thread, you can see more stuff on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/eo2/sets/72157627327172741/

My word, I love that your kitchen is CURATED, which is basically IS, and everything is so dear. But what about a photo of the overall layout??

elmo your kitchen is awesome! We always have grand plans but never get round to doing anything.

the kitchen is basically the result of 4 years of frequent thrifting and yard sales etc etc. laurel i will try to get some wider shots when the kitchen is more tidy than it is now!

oh i didn't get any photos but you should know that we keep plastic animals in the fridge, iirc there is a t-rex guarding the butter dish right now.

your kitchen is so adorable, elmo! aw! kitchen of love and cute

Apartment Therapy routinely makes me huff and roll my eyes, but two different tours today have given me really specific ideas for making things work WAY BETTER or look way cooler in my room.

http://gallery.apartmenttherapy.com/assets/0279/5694/Shannon_Kaye-005_rect640.jpg

This is a thrifted piece of furniture, I think a dresser, with cabinets added above it later and painted to blend into the wall. So ODD if I think about it too much but really perfect for making the shelving not LOOM OVER YOU when it's so high.

http://gallery.apartmenttherapy.com/assets/0279/5874/Shannon_Kaye-0023_rect640.jpg

And this technique of painting large squares on the walls and leaving the corners white? GENIUS for my entryway.

And this is not, like, the world's greatest stroke of genius or anything but I like the wine bottles as boot trees. :)

http://g-cdn.apartmenttherapy.com/2738064/IMG_2245_rect640.JPG