department of the interior: home decor

apartment therapy always reminds of when in contemp novels (male, always male) authors describe a certain kind of home as containing 'the artful but disposable furniture, carefully chosen, that also sat in all the other now empty apartments' or w/e but not in a bad way, like those sentences make me mad and i can think of at least five novels last year that did that because it totally mistakes how nice this stuff is, and that its not really all that disposable or mechanical idk im just rambling in defense of my wall of midcentury oil paintings and my danish modern coffee table and my minimalist bensen bed frame

I like fuckyournoguchicoffeetable because they seem to, at least so far, have a pretty good sensibility for things that have gone from fresh to cliche. The issue with a lot of home design blogs is that they tend to turn spaces into a collection of trends rather than the reflection of a personality - they've been good for design, but bad for good design.

well i must admit i recently stopped reading apartment therapy because it does get really really samey but come on it doesn't take a genius to point out when somethings overexposed! (the overexposure kind of does it for you, no?)

and yeah, i agree with fuck your

-- wall clusters x 1000
-- ornamental vintage whatever (typewriters, card catalogs, taxidermy)
-- graphic design-y posters
-- thing that says eat in kitchen

the barcelona chair / egg chair disses are weird though - those are amazing pieces of furniture! who wouldn't want one?

I hate the Barcelona chair

fuckyournoguchicoffeetable

!

why would anyone put a collection of empty birdcages in their apartment? why ONE?

barcelona chair looks like a mousetrap imo, maybe someone should add that functionality to it

http://www.core77.com/reactor/images/designersblock/barcelona_spikes.jpg

only a mercedes and not a maybach? ... i don't know, my friend had a cream one with a matching ottoman, it was amazing to fall asleep on.

i was at a movie theater the other day that had fake ones in the lobby.

The only time I've seen a Barcelona chair that looked really comfortable was in someone's house where the leather was really old and cracked and the edges were worn. It seemed lived in! Normally it's so unapproachable. But maybe I'm just traumatized from years of designing law firms.

that worn-in type is the best barcelona chair, but we can only strive to make it such

what's really ostentatious is the barcelona "couch"

laurel!

thanks for the advice - i didn't really follow your advice EXCEPT in spirit ...

i moved one danish armchair and bentwood magazine stand / side table thingy so that they are facing the wall unit directly, and at a right angle to the window. i moved the rocker so that it is also at a right angle to the window - now the rocker and near armchair are facing each other. i also smashed the plant deep into the corner and spaced out the placement of the speakers and window chair.

i wish i had somewhere else to put the tree and turtle tank, but that's one of the only windows in the house that gets direct sunlight - the south and east facing windows all miss out on morning sunshine because there are tall trees shading the backyard AND the house is on a graded lot so the (southeastern) backyard is higher than the front yard.

if i could move the turtle tank and the plant i would follow your advice to the letter, except the armchairs would be facing the wall unit.

i suppose i could put the turtle stand in the window (and the stereo on the facing wall) but that means getting a new bookshelf for art books (can't be sitting in the sun) and probably also would mean cleaning out the turtle tank twice a week due to the algal bloom it would probably create to have *that much* sunlight.

I'm glad you're happy with the room! I hope it's a little more restful now but still fulfills its social fxn.

the point that got lost in that rambly post is that i am definitely transitioning from chairs and side tables spaced radially around the coffee table to chairs and side tables arranged perpendicular or parallel to the walls and facing towards or away from the wall unit.

without evening moving the furniture much but just re-orienting it so that it's more gridlike has already opened up a ton of space and avenues for movement into and out of that cramped corner.

it's a bummer because i like that danish coffee table but i guess the next step would be to switch that out for a skinny rectangular coffee table. maybe a fuckyourgeorgenelsonslatbench?

I wouldn't put any coffee table in there tbh. I don't think there's room. That's what I meant by using little side tables or stools or piles of books or etc to put next to chairs instead. I figure in theory all you need is a place to put your drink/cup of tea, that's what the side table is for. Coffee tables are mostly decorative and/or footrests as far as I can tell, because they're a bitch to set anything on when you're actually seated in a chair or couch.

i finally got some shades for the naked bulbs hanging down from the ceiling and after taking in a strong scent of burning plastic while making dinner realized that i was supposed to actually attach the shades to the fixture instead of just letting them rest on the bulb

I'm kind of anti-coffee table tbh, as a tight skirt-wearer and cocktail-drinker. They're murder to reach down to/over every time you want to take a sip. Plus they have to be stepped over or around by everyone who sits down or gets up from the couch/seating area.

i think you're making sense re: the coffee table. friends sitting in the rocker are already using the wall unit as a wet bar, more or less.

hey there is a famous midcentury swivel chair that is very very simple and made in two pieces of bent wood. it does not look fancy or design-y but just like a very simple, straightforward task chair. anybody know what i'm talking about?

it is like if you put a herman miller eames bent plywood dining top onto a swag leg swivel / rolling base, but the seat and backrest parts are smaller and less flamboyant than the eames shapes, sort of a transitional thing from 30s industrial to 50s midcentury, looks like something a WWII architect might sit on

the Nelson chair maybe?
http://www.homeofficesolutions.com/common/images/products/main/herman_miller/nelson_swag_leg_chair/herman_miller_nelson_swag_leg_chair.jpg

no it's not that crazy. it doesn't have armrests. it has a simple rectangular backrest (wider than tall) and a simple rectangular seat, both of which are mildly rounded-off and subtly bent.

i said swag leg but i realize that's wrong now - it isn't angled the way a swag leg is.

hmm sounds kind of like a generic Enco-style factory stool?

http://www.use-enco.com/ProductImages/0171770-11.jpg

yeah i think that's the right brand, actually. i kept wanting to say an ARCO chair but i knew i was thinking of the arco lamp.

the difference between what i was looking at buying and that one:

1) legs are more "modern" looking, meaning they don't bend down to a perpendicular foot, they just stick radially out and terminate in legs

2) the metal was some sort of fancy black anodized stuff, like what they use for the legs of nelson slat benches

3) the seat was flatter, no "bump" in it

4) the back and seat are closer to the same size

terminate in WHEELS, not legs

http://vintageindustrial.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/18.jpg

^^ very very similar to this, except with wheels and no "gooseneck" bump on the pipe to the backrest

also, made in the USA based on a classic design and available for under $200, often paired w/ heywood wakefield TV tables as a tiny desk/chair set

mega LOLs at I DIED's floor plan suggestion. typical bloody architect.

(my suggestion would be very close to same)

i should post my floorplan ... my landlord - who is either a self-employed handyman or general contractor, not really sure which - designed and built the house himself. the bathroom is like 20 feet long and 5 feet wide and has one entrance at one end to the master bedroom and one entrance at the other end to the kitchen. my bathroom is a hallway!

it does make sense in the morning though - get out of bed, enter bathroom, use bathroom, exit at other end, i'm standing next to my coffeemaker

whoa i'm impressed by hallway bathroom

also, sorry for being a dork who can't follow display-name changes, but whois the late great?

nnnobody

moonship journey to ponyhair nikes

i am both horrified and envious of the hallway bathroom tbqh

thx for clearing that up for me :)

i think for those of us who have tiny bathrooms, the huge hallway bathroom seems like some kind of dream/nightmare

it sounds like the kind of bathroom that could have furniture in it, like a chair and a bookshelf, as i have boggled at in certain home decor magazines

Ha, yeah me too. I'm trying to figure out if I can put a shelf in our bathroom somewhere. (I actually don't think it's that small, but it's arranged awkwardly.)

i need to put a shelf in my bathroom too

my bathroom is small but i have seen even smaller bathrooms here in montreal and in nyc. at least i have a full-size tub, is what i'm saying.

i asked guy i'm dating if we could go to the country tmrw (he has a car) but now i kinda just want to go to ikea
lol/eye-roll-at-self

also, sorry for being a dork who can't follow display-name changes, but whois the late great?

I'm so glad you asked, I was wondering too!

Also two days later but lol at the Barcelona chair that will eat you.

I have a full-sized tub, but you also have to dry off in it, because there's not enough room to swing your towel/elbows around anywhere else in my bathroom, because the tub takes up half of the floor. It's bigger than V's, though!

This is my dream tub.... has an overflow channel around the sides that recycles any water that falls into it back into the tub, so you can fill itright up to the edge and splash around with wild abandon. The laminar-flow spout drops water from the ceiling to fill the tub. Has a champagne-bubble generator that produces tiny air bubbles that float upward very slowly, clinging to your skin all the while and feeling great. Did I mention there's room for two?

I want want want!

http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/files/ascent-homebuilding/images/hro810_baths4.jpg

http://www.us.kohler.com/common/images/bathing/483x333_images/aaa89482.jpg

that looks like it might cost more than my car

they start at about $5,600, more if you want those colored lights inside. Faucet not included.

that's why I want want want, not have have have....

there's an easy trick to converting a normal tub to something that makes champagne bubbles, but it involves a lot of champagne

I stayed in a hotel recently that had a shower that was basically just water falling out of the ceiling. It was like showering under a waterfall. Amazing.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LOpKkZGIRA4/Tb_5eSSzkqI/AAAAAAAAATY/Q5YTUAFthe8/s320/regendouche+douchekop.jpg

Argh I hate those things.

Why? You don't like getting drenched?

Actually, water falling out of the ceiling more like this one:

http://s7.decofinder.com/0/2/zoom-autre/vig3/433/433907/Regenpaneel_Hansgrohe_France_Raindance_Rainmaker_Ø_600_Mm_Avec_Eclair.jpg

I'm quite the aficionado of awesome showerheads - I own a few and occasionally swap them out just to change things up. Good-quality wall-mounted showerheads that attach to a standard shower arm (or an extension) are actually quite affordable and easy to install, like this one:

http://designawards.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/performingshower.jpg?w=480

you do need decent water pressure for these to work though.

Aghh I hate those 'rainfall' showers. They look cool but they had them in the hotel I was at last week and I just wanted a quick shower without washing my hair or taking my make-up off but NO CHANCE of that. Plus the pressure was crap so the water was just dribbling down from the ceiling. We did look at tons of showers when we did our flat up but we just went with a huge shower head that you can adjust.

Is it a US thing to have the head fixed to the wall? I get a bit IA about it. Our one here is and it's quite low down so my husband can't even stand under it. Showers in the UK are usually on this vertical pole so you can adjust the height easily and take them off if you want to hose under your feet or whatever or even around the cubicle when cleaning.