department of the interior: home decor

finally bit the bullet and commissioned some custom LP shelving from a local woodworker

3 feet wide with five 13 inch shelves

should make a pretty big dent in our need for storage, we've been dealing in crates and boxes for a bit too long now

okay this video is kinda corny but oh man i love this house

http://youtu.be/L7mKPRlTgvM

well i mean

topanga

yeah

thinking bout things

breakfast so rustic

maybe i'll blog after my nap

but for real v, if you like that house i highly recommend tracking down a book called HOMEMADE HOUSES, A GUIDE TO THE WOODBUTCHER'S ART which is chock fulla rough-hewn indoor-outdoor handcrafted living

https://www.etsy.com/storque/media/bunker/2009/03/3038026950_4b804054db.jpg

sorry, HANDMADE houses

"homemade houses" lol good typo elmo

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/helicoptersss/media/Picture23.png.html

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/helicoptersss/Picture23.png

yeah i love this stuff so much

http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6152/6242226585_ab36833a11_z.jpg

agree, what's not to love

i need some advice on my new living room decor

i kind of want to start all over with a much lighter, airy-er look, but i can't afford any major purchases of new rugs/furniture so i'm gonna try and work with what i have which is a kind of poorly-thought-out, trying-to-be-an-oldfashioned-library look. our library isn't gonna be in our living room anymore, even!

so basically i have two persian rugs (dark green, navy, burgundy, beige, cream tones, all v muted)
an overstuffed dark green couch (slightly yellowish undertones, rather than blue)
a dark brown half height book shelf
a dark brown antique half height dresser with glove boxes built into the top

i need some inspiration on how to sort of ~decorate~ around these pieces that still play off the ye olden look but also feel a bit updated?? idk

nb wall art is already decided

Brighter/lighter pillows & afghan/throw on the couch to pick up the cream tones from the rug?

yeah ^ soft furnishings are a pretty easy way to decorate a space and can be DIY pretty cheaply if you're even the slightest bit crafty

yeah i'm def thinking about a couple of throws bc of our dog (5 more days till she comes home!!!!), but also lighting (why do US homes never have ceiling fixtures in the living room???). i really hate the floor lamp we have right now, but it was cheap so i don't feel bad about buying a new one (or two).

i already have some super cute pillows (military animal busts) but they're black screen prints on khaki/olive, so too dark :/ i don't want to replace them but i think i might need to.

Make everything except those pieces you already named be white/soft buff/light tan colors and possibly go for the rubbed/weathered look in your woodwork and walls.

Throw the rugs down not square and maybe overlapping w each other on a diagonal somewhere, to define the functional furniture groupings and traffic areas.

Chuck a cream throw blanket mussily over the sofa to break up the large green object (NB this is better for winter than for now, wtf, weather?)

thrift store lamps can be spray painted whatever color/s you want! just look for good shapes.

US homes don't have ceiling lights in the living room because ceiling fixtures are an abomination and don't illuminate anything either usefully OR attractively. Buy literally ANY kind of thrift store lamp (okay not ANY but almost any) and just spray paint it or add texture, and a new shade.

i have ceiling fixtures with dimmers and i like them but mostly they are pretty unflattering/gross

Throw the rugs down not square and maybe overlapping w each other on a diagonal somewhere, to define the functional furniture groupings and traffic areas.

i like this idea a lot, but i need to cover as much of the main part of the wood floor as possible bc of dog claws scratching it up :/

i have a little dining table that i'm hoping i can fit into the corner where the windows are, and i want to paint it and the chairs cream, which i think will lighten up the space. would like to paint the shelves and dresser too, eventually.

i've never really noticed dog claws making much of a difference on my floor but maybe i'm not looking very closely
i wouldn't worry about it as much as the HAIR
dog hair makes my life miserable

Dog claws?? How long ARE your dog's claws?! We've had dogs and wood floors for 30 years and the floors aren't scratched up. Heh xp

Yeah honestly it's easier to get dog hair off a wood floor (sweep lightly) than out of the rug (requires vacuuming/sticky roller/wet sponge), so I encourage you to leave some bare floor where you can.

it might not be an issue, depending on how much they wear down with street walking, but right now she absolutely can not stand to have the points filed down. i wouldn't care if it was my own house but it's a rental so don't want to risk having to pay for the floors to be refinished.

her claws are pretty long right now (she's a husky)

protip: get a dog that doesn't shed

failing that, shave your dog

Furminator, make a carpet/throw from felt dog hairs or spin into yarn

I think for every furminated hair my dog grows back five more. Lovely balls of dog hair gather on dark wood floor and roll like tumbleweed.

ok so my living room floor plan is working out pretty well so far

and so is the bedroom

but

the only place to put our bed is with it directly under a window, the sill of which is right at level of the bed. they are old windows and are gonna be drafty in winter. i think i'm gonna get a thermal curtain, but the problem with that as a single solution is that in order to be long enough to do their job, they're gonna end up getting pulled a lot (bc our pillows will be up against them), so i think i need some kind of faux headboard. i don't really want to attach anything to the actual bedbox, but i also don't want to put any huge holes in the wall.

any ideas?

A solid thing that stands on the floor and is pushed up against the wall by the bed frame? Liiiiiike, forgive me for this but just as a basic example, an old door? Or an old iron gate/fence/thing?

if the window slides up and down, check to see if it's a "double-hung" window that allows the top half to be lowered rather than just the lower half to be raised

I mean you could still glue/upholster foam cushioning to a piece of plywood and screw 2x4s onto the sides as legs that position it at mattress height. Then wrap the 2x4s in the upholstery material and staple gun it on the backside. You can just rest this against the wall if you want, with the bed holding it in place.

Doors are a great idea -I had been thinking of old folding screens bc of something I saw the other day, but doors would work better and there is a place nearby that has tons of old house stuff

So guys, the place we're buying is a co-op and requires 100% coverage in the bedrooms, 80% elsewhere. Any thoughts on wall-to-wall carpet vs. carpet tiles for the 100% areas? If we do go with wall-to-wall, is there such a thing as non hideous wall-to-wall carpeting? Should we just get something unobtrusive and put area rugs on top of it? Recommendations for where to go? Should we just do Home Depot or are local places better? etc.

Does it have to be carpet carpet or could it be some kind of bamboo or mixed material with padding underneath? I assume it's for noise control?

Any kind of "covering", so yeah if there's a nice bamboo flooring material that can be padded underneath, point the wya

Was also sort of curious about cork floor, but wondering about the durability of that

my parents have cork -- it's very durable and adds a nice warmth, I really dig it. The one thing to be aware of going in is that you will likely have to refinish it probably at least every 5 years or more depending on how much traffic/wear and tear you get, so that the laquer can protect it. Once the cork gets damaged it gets difficult to replace it and not have it be noticeable.

yeah that's kind of my fear, especially with kids producing a lot of wear and tear. I would love to be able to do hardwood on top of insulation, but I have a feeling it would get really expensive to redo our whole apt's wood floors.

Is there such a thing as non-ugly wall-to-wall carpeting? I got this image into my head of something extremely low-pile, almost flat, and then area rugs on top of it, but I'm not sure if what I'm picturing exists.

I put cork tile in my parents' condo several years ago and it's holding up great aside from some UV fading around the windows where it gets direct sunlight. No noise issues, great feel. Like with a wood floor, standing water and grit are the biggest wear issues.

You can absolutely get hardwood or laminate floors that sit atop of an insulating underlayment. They're called "floating floors" or "click-lock floors", and they're installed by first putting a sheet of soft foam underlayment cut to the size of the floor, then putting interlocking planks above them. The planks snap together and hold without being glued to each other or fastened to the underlayment. Wood flooring of this type usually is made of a somewhat thin layer of wood over substrate or of engineered wood, both of which are less expensive than traditional solid wood floors. They're not particularly expensive, but you (or an installer) will need a saw to cut them to fit the room. This is one example (not specifically recommending that brand; just using it because it describes how they're installed).

I've also installed "resilient plank flooring" which is a fancy name for interlocking vinyl floors, and these can be cut with a knife, a good paper cutter, or a real tile cutter (which looks like a paper cutter). The better ones look like a reasonable facsimile of wood, stone, or marble, at least if you don't look closely. Finally, there's stick-on vinyl tiles, which are cheap and easy to install (though I don't know if they will pass "full coverage" rules as there usually isn't a padded underlayment).

As for where to buy, the big-box stores like Home Depot or Lowes are usually cheaper, though selection is smaller and the quality sometimes lower. Probably worth checking out real flooring stores as well; the better ones are competitively priced, sometimes higher quality, have much wider selection (especially of off-the-beaten-path styles), and are stocked with people who really understand flooring.

All that said, I don't think wall-to-wall carpet is ugly at all. There's some great looking carpeting out there with interesting patterns and textures, not just the plain solid color cut pile that many ppl think of when they hear "wall-to-wall carpeting".

i think a good wool carpet can be great. i don't find it hideous at all but why don't you look at sisal, coir or seagrass? I love these (although they can be very expensive, i dare say you can get them fairly cheaply).

my friends have sisal and i love the kinda rough but smooth nubby feel of it underfoot although it can take a bit of getting used to.

http://www.alternativeflooring.com/collection/naturals

^that's a uk site but i dare say you can easily find it where you are.

http://www.happyhomesfurniture.co.uk/gallery/large/GPC20109483_CoirFruit_N_Fibre.jpg

that's coir.

I'm not usually a whiny baby but I find a lot of sisal coverings to be painful in bare feet. I still like the way they look, but a) ouch, and b) they trap a HELL of a lot of dust and grit under the weave. Also forget ever getting crumbs out after they sift underneath.

I've never used them because mostly they're expensive (by my standards), but I have a permanent interest in Flor carpet tiles.

Imo if you already have wood floors, no modern interlocking system is going to look A FRACTION as good mostly because they're made out of cheap fake or reconstituted wood. Might as well just by a lot of area rugs from overstock.com.

*Some of them* are made of cheap wood or an overly thin veneer, and those indeed can look cheap. But the better-quality floating interlocking wood floors i've seen are nearly indistinguishable from nailed-to-the subfloor wood planks when installed, except that there may be a slight "give" when you walk on it from the soft padding underneath.

Most of the older houses in my area have the original builder-grade cheap oak floors still in place, which by now are usually worn and pockmarked. I've seen refinishing attempts, but they never look as good as just plopping a new, smooth, polished wood floor on top, which also gives you the chance to upgrade to a more interesting species of wood such as cherry, maple, or heart pine. At least for a co-op or condo, it seems to me the easiest and least expensive way to an attractive floor.

Personally I don't find it to be a great substitute for 100-year-old aged wood with patina, not to mention that old "builders-grade" oak from 1910 is different from current standards, but if you like the new look then ymmv.