Apartment Therapy on Thinking Big

a big color.jpg Breaking from tradition, the freedom to fall....or fly. Last Friday I was riding home on the train, staring deeply into the New York Magazine home design issue and getting inspired. Then, thanks to Megnut (and Boing Boing), I started recieving a ton of comments to a post I wrote about painting my floors red over the weekend. The result? I am more than convinced that not only are people hemmed in by their clutter and possessions, they don't have the space to TAKE RISKS and have fun in their homes. Why is it that only the most expensive, interior designed homes have big fun statements and look comfortable and expressive?? I don't think it is just having more space or more $$. It is having the gumption to not be attached to stuff, to let go, and to try something new. Most of the posts I recieved yesterday voiced pleasure with seeing the change to our floors, but a number voiced horror that we would do such a thing. Case in point. We did do it, and we're going to do more and it feels great! AND if we make a mistake or dislike something, we are also committed to fixing it. Maybe that is it, we are comitted to our home and worshipping no idols.

a - lou reed.jpg But what about inspiration? The picture top right has been my inspiration this past week. In a totally white apartment, which I have issues with, but admire for the chutzpa, the brilliant things are the organic and handmade objects like this amazing painting by Peter Gee. While in another article, there is a photograph of a room in Lou Reed's house with this amazing lamp by Garouste and Bonetti (can't find any link for these two French women aside from their book).
And then there is the ancient interior designer, Albert Hadley, who did this drawingroom on 5th Avenue with his partner, Sister Parrish, in bright, high gloss, taxicab yellow years ago. Bold, colorful, fun.

yellow room.jpg What the hell am I trying to say here? Forget the concept of clutter. Forget the concept of trying to figure out storage. Rise above simply housing your belongings in your apartment like a big storage closet and think of your home as your canvas, your refuge, your only place that is entirely you. Put art in it. Put handmade in it. Paint your own picture. And get rid of anything that stands in the way. MGR

Comments (4)

Yes!! Thanks for voicing something I've been working with since I bought my house (I'm not lucky enough to live in NYC, but I do get a house). Rules, schmules, the bolder the statement the happier it makes you feel. It makes you think: hey, this is my place, it's for me!

Couldn't agree more! It amazes me unwilling people are to paint their walls or even just a wall something bold and colorful. It's just paint! If you don't like it, you can just paint over it! But no, they persist in sticking with white or some neutral color just because they're afraid of being experiemental.

As someone's who's lived in a rented apartment where I couldn't paint the white walls for 3 years and am now moving into my own home, I chomping at the bit to buy some pink, green, yellow wall paints. And metallic gold for the ceiling.

I applaud, almost without reservation, the sentiment of breaking out of conventional modes of thinking when designing your home.

BUT...for many people in NYC, there are a pretty severly limited number of rooms with which to work. The ubiquity of the white and neutral palate is the result of a Darwinian process--these gentle colors make comfortable living spaces. Parrish/Hadley's clients have 20-room apartments; they can spare a room to be taxicab yellow--they're not in that room 24 hours/day. When you live in a small space, those "bold" color choices often become painful after a few weeks. Better (I have found) to go with a neutral box filled with exciting objects, like your top photo.

Again, love the philosophy--just beware when translating into a 350 sq.ft. studio. Most people don't "just re-paint"--they live with a tragically bad paint color for years.

Tragically bad? How about all those people who have dingy, smoker's-teeth-yellow walls with black smudges and pencil marks? That's tragic to me. No "white" wall will stay white for more than a year or two, so why not experiment? I have two "exotic red" walls in my 250 sq foot studio. They are beautiful and bright, and when the light hits them just right, everything in the house gets a flattering rosy glow.

Zach's so-called "Darwinian process" just makes everything bland. Some people can and do have beautiful spaces with neutral colors, but most are the interior design equivalent of putting on sweatpants and a tee shirt in the morning...