department of the interior: home decor

lol

Apartment websites love to tell you to get all your painting done, shelves hung, etc before you move in. I always wonder what universe they live in that this is even an option, first of all, given the pace of the rental market and the necessity of moving in and out of places on the same day or paying double, and then second I always have to live in a room for a while before I know what it needs. Have to see the light, see how I tend to use the space, etc. Maybe real designers can look at a place and apply their acquired knowledge on the spot, but I can't.

what you need is more orange

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vlwtUxWWMlU/Sf5uRF9YcTI/AAAAAAAAA8I/PDdO66xHVzg/s1600-h/orangecoral.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vlwtUxWWMlU/Sf5uRF9YcTI/AAAAAAAAA8I/PDdO66xHVzg/s1600-h/orangecoral.jpg

ah fuck it

in other news i got a stussy doormat

http://i0.wp.com/hypebeast.com/image/2013/05/stussy-livin-general-store-welcome-large-mat-1.jpg

radical

good adjective for it ;-)

Apartment websites love to tell you to get all your painting done, shelves hung, etc before you move in. I always wonder what universe they live in that this is even an option, first of all, given the pace of the rental market and the necessity of moving in and out of places on the same day or paying double, and then second I always have to live in a room for a while before I know what it needs. Have to see the light, see how I tend to use the space, etc. Maybe real designers can look at a place and apply their acquired knowledge on the spot, but I can't.

― Tottenham Heelspur (in orbit), Thursday, 5 December 2013 23:23 (Yesterday) Permalink

This is all true, in terms of how best to make decisions, but in terms of practicality, especially with a toddler, it's 10x easier to just have everything done in a span of a couple of weeks when the apartment is empty and you don't live there. But it's scary because you're spending more money than you've ever spent in your life, and you have to make a bunch of decisions at once, even if you're not fully renovating -- how/whether to refinish the floors, colors to paint, even small things like do you want a dimmer switch in this room, do you want olde-fashioned or decora switches, what kind of blinds/shades do you want to put up, rugs (co-op so floor has to be heavily covered), rug PADS, etc. Also buying makes you feel a little more invested in how it looks. Current apartment we didn't even think about painting, just fuck it lets keep the off white for whatever 12-24 month period we will probably live here (which was true).

I just spent more on a rug than I think I've ever spent on any furnishing -- every single piece of furniture we own is either craigslist or hand-me-down with the exception of a gift couch (although you wouldn't know it from our awesome taste, ha). But I wanted a friggin huge rug for the bedroom to make sure sound isn't a problem with the downstairs neighbor and the co-op board, and I guess I wanted it to be nice.

I think part of the problem is I just don't like that EIK space that much -- If we have the money down the road, I might want to just partially open it up so it's not all symmetrical and cute

dropping some $$ on a rug you love is worth it. we bought a beautiful wool rug when we first bought our house and I still look at it occasionally and go, yep that's an awesome rug...it was crazily discounted to like 80% off the original price and it was still more than I'd ever paid for a piece of home furnishing, lol

We had like two months to work on the house before we moved in and it was awesome and awful and it taught me that even though I am mostly capable at doing home repairs I really don't like it all that much. We ran out of time to redo the floors before moving in which is my biggest regret as having to move all our shit into the kitchen, bathroom, and garage for a week would be a huge pain.

We also painted our bedroom a blue that was much too dark, then a nice tan color that turned out to look much more old lady rose color on the walls before getting it right.

I've just replaced all our crappy living room furniture with stuff that's more open but now I need to find some nice forms of storage - mixed sized boxes, some lids necessary. I've got a few places to check out this weekend but if anyone can suggest some good stores who might sell this kind of thing, that would be awesome.

(No wicker or cane unless it's particularly unusual or vintage)

almost done with my bathroom remodel, pictures forthcoming!

it now has hexagon white porcelain floor tile, white subway tile up the wall (one wall to be finished) and I'm prob buying a new vanity/sink soon

oh yeah, and PAINT

Have been repairing our couch over the past couple of days. Not sure how it's going to turn out
The couch is cheap, a few years old. It's a recliner, some parts leather, mostly vinyl (like I said, cheap). Anyway part of the vinyl on one of the footrests has worn down and has a tear in it about an inch long. I toyed with the idea of sewing it, but I'm not a great hand stitcher and it could end up looking like a horrific frankenstein scar so I went and googled around for repair kits instead. The one I got is for cars - it allows you to fill and paint the tear, rather than just patching over it.

You get backing fabric that you can poke inside the tear, then you apply adhesive to the backing and the tear and glue it all together. Then you fill whatever gaps with more adhesive, which dries hard and smooth. You can do that a few times til you've got it filled to your satisfaction, and then you paint it and then heat-cure it.

I'm still on the filling stage. A bit concerned about the heat-treating stage...some reviews say that part doesn't work right, that the tool they provide is garbage but we'll see.

Funniest thing to me is half the instructions are solely devoted to mixing colors ie "BLUE and YELLOW make GREEN, BLACK makes colors DARKER, WHITE will make colors LIGHTER'

luckily I don't have to go down that road, my couch is black :D

Feeling pretty pleased with the way the new living room is shaping up

http://i.imgur.com/1xQzP5t.jpg

Couch looks much nicer without sheet draped over it, but you know, toddlers.

neat! that looks really cozy!

i want to post pics of my living room - it's the most "nested" and content with a space that i've been. It's 99% there, just a little more art to hang, and one piece of furniture on the way. oh man, PLANTS - they've made a big difference. except i'm having trouble keeping some of them alive :/

I dislike when furniture is lined up against the walls and prefer conversational groupings that use more of the inner floor space, but again, toddlers.

I hear you. We tend to move things when we have people over.

I kind of like the way these modular orange shelves have become a mainstay for us, like we'll probably just keep reassembling them and shifting them around as needed and never throw them away (could eventually go in kids room e.g.).

The light coming in the window looks beautiful tho. Bright rooms speak to me.

All right I'm back!! I'm in a new space and I have to pull together a living room and a bedroom this time.

Both are currently dirty white, so they need repainting even if it's just "white" again.

What to do what to do.

I'm not really into the "purity IS my statement" of all-white, but the room faces north and there's a tall building across the st that blocks some light, so I want to keep it as airy as possible. It just seems like such a waste not to use ANY color. Maybe I can get a very vividly colored sofa/rugs later on?

it doesn't have to mean purity

How do you feel about more of a buttery kinda white/cream? Or gray?

That's what I'm thinking! I don't like warm/cream colors much, so it would have to be cool/blue without looking GREY. But the light in here already tends to be kind of grey, so maybe I should go with a "truer" white and let the light do the rest? I need I DIED.

I also have a coved ceiling and all this picture rail, so I have to decide where the dividing line is where the color stops and the flat white ceiling starts. Also there's a big arch that fades in the wall. Do I just break off the paint in a straight vertical line?? I guess I could run it under the arch and around the other side into the dressing area (to the left of the pic).

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/CeilingProblem_zpsae4d6815.jpg

There's the problem spot.

I need ideas for two high-ceilinged reception rooms, separated by double doors which are usually open.
It's prob going to be some kind of grey but avoiding 'neutral' taupe kind of thing. 2 different shades or entirely different colours, perhaps.

All my cool wallpaper ideas have scared me off and I'm putting them into small rooms as I think it'll be crazy overwhelming in the big ones.

I am a big fan of crazy wallpaper in a small room. Not that I have managed to put up wallpaper in any room, large or small.

xp we have very similar archways in our place and we took the easy way out and just went all the same color on both sides/underneath the archway. Anything else seemed like it would be jarring, but maybe there's a solution I'm not thinking of.

I wish I knew what that kind of arch was called so I could google it.

IO, we had something like that in our old flat, but we made it a very definite divide between 3 different surfaces (also there was a door immediately one side of it). Can ilx-mail you pics if you want.
I tend to avoid absolute whites as they look prison-cell-like in shadowy places. But there are all kinds of off-whites that you can't even tell are off unless you put a brilliant white next to it.

Yeah, I feel the same way, Hurting. I'd actually like to stop the wall color at the picture rail and switch to the flat white above it, but then what to do on the arch wall?? Ugh.

gradient fade?

Possibly! Seriously!

Kinder, in your sitch with two rooms that have some separation but need to flow, I would think about, when you're standing at one end of the sight line, where are you moving, and what will make you want to go there? Like is the travel through both rooms in a straight line? Or is your most common path through a side door to a kitchen or etc? Examine your common pathways and then think about what kind of light or warmth or visual interest would draw you through them.

I like the idea of having one wall painted in a color or wallpapered in something strong but put it in a place where it's a focal point through the french doors, in one direction or the other. Gives the gaze something to fasten on and pulls you through.

Am interested in your pics btw! My ilx mail is my normal email so I should get it just fine. :D

Common wisdom for a north-facing room is a warm beige/light yellow, like quincie said. These shades all feel more traditional/conservative to me than the cool greys and blues do, but I only want to do this paint thing ONCE so I guess beige it is. (I don't want to get a grey paint up and then realize that it's all wrong.)

I'm not actually painting NOW, I'm not doing that until our lease is signed, so in a few weeks. But I need CURTAINS and I can't buy them until I know what color the walls will be!

just hang up a sheet in the meantime
(or hang up a sheet and leave it up there for as long as you live there, like i did)

Haha.

Does anyone have a UK bookcase recommendation? If all goes well with the new house i'd probably aim to turn one of the bedrooms into a library so i'd be looking for about 3m of continuous bookcases along one wall and maybe 2m along another. A modular system like the Ikea Billy one might be a good idea but it looks a little flimsy for heavier books. The cheap Argos one i have at the moment has stood up to a certain a amount of abuse (for example)

http://i.imgur.com/QY4OtzT.jpg?1

but it would be good to get something better, and maybe taller, if possible. Custom-built is likely to be excessively expensive.

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/j_bdules/media/Picture004.jpg.html

we had 2 Ikea Billy bookcases at my old place--they were fine. my roommate bought both used on craigslist several years prior. (one's the LH bookcase, other not pictured, but was similarly loaded)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v616/j_bdules/Picture004.jpg

i use billy bookcases with the extra shelves on top and the corner wedge bookcase thing, all bolted together. the shape gives it more stability (i hope) and it looks kinda classy.

ikea sells a set of little v-shaped brackets that you use to keep it together