apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Clearly these condos are haunted. It isn't a question of incan./flour. but good/evil. :P

One of them has set a fire and the other has a big tv.

It could be the lighting fixtures. We have Mission-style fixtures with golden mica and golden opaque glass. It gives the whole room a golden glow at night, even with an environmentally-friendly bulb. It's amazing what a difference there is from the fixtures that were there before.

http://www.lightingforum.com/arroyo_craftsman/arroyo_craftsman_index.htm

Diminishing fenestration...

I wonder how this building compares to others around it. How does "your" apartment look from across the street?

I think the incandescent/fluorescent could be the explanation, or just more/less lighting.

Of course the first floor looks warmer and more welcoming, regardless of type or quantity, but I've always preferred yellow light to white as well.

The top floor looks like it's lit only by a tv and low lights.

maybe it's the light fixtures/lampshades, although i thought incandescent vs. fluorescent at first. my mom has these cream colored traditional lampshades with warmer light bulbs. makes the whole room yellow (i always hated it). i prefer crisp white (or black) shades & bulbs (modern-ish). i can't stand fluorescent lights though. (i'm obviously picky :) )

This reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Rear Window. Be careful of what you might see.

poor old fluorescents... can't get no love.

ikea has a few of them rubber coated which just warms the light up a bit.

why I like fluorescents by the bed and in the bathroom: they brighten very slowly when switched on so no shocking there goes sleep forever moment when one turns them on, as one has to occasionally, in the middle of the night

fluorescent party lights are AWESOME... bright RED, GREEN, YELLOW, and the BEST BLUE EVER.... almost gives black light effects without the shame of HAVING a black light.

I 'm a Cinematographer and Chief Lighting Technician for film and TV and I can tell you exactly what's going on, with the lighting at least. I can't say for sure what's happening with the paint colors and window treatments.

Film and digital cameras see color temperature and color spectrums in a more exaggerated way than our eyes do. They "see" more of the orange-warmth of tungsten halogen lights, the bluishness of daylight (and daylight-balanced bulbs) and the excess of green in the spectrum of fluorescent lights. These colors are somewhat visible to the human eye, but on camera they stand out much more.

It looks like in the apartment below you've got warm-ish household tungsten bulbs (2800K), perhaps made even more orange by warm-colored lamp shades, warm colors inside (like the yellowish blinds) and possibly dimmers on the lights. In the apartment above you've got daylight balanced bulbs in the room on the left (5600K), what appears to be a warm colored window shade in the middle room, and garden-variety cool-white fluorescents (4300K) in the room on the right.

For the record, the "rubber coating" on the IKEA bulbs isn't responsible for the warmer color of those bulbs. It's the phosphors used in the bulb that make the light less green. You can get warm colored bulbs without the rubbery coating, while some other rubbery-coated bulbs look every bit as sickly green as the cheapest cool-whites.

nashdp comes through on the white balance knowledge!
word them up!

Forget "Rear Window;" it's Edward Hopper!

http://images.worldgallery.co.uk:80/i/prints/rw/lg/8/0/Edward-Hopper-The-night-window--1928-80728.jpg

OMG I love knowing other people are just as fascinated at the apartments across the street as I am!!

I'm glad you're not my neighbor

I'm with wild-er...

I think the fluorescent vs incandescent bulb seems the most logical explanation. My first thought when I saw it, though, was that the top unit had an aquarium in there somewhere and not many other lights on.

As for ogling the neighbors - I do love the "Rear Window" aspect of this as well. Once upon a time I lived in the city (SF) and always left my curtains open under the guise that if people were allowed to look in my apartment they shouldn't mind me looking into theirs!

In the top floor they are watching TV and in the lower floor they are reading. Makes sense to me.

I have compact florescents, and my light looks like the lower windows rather than the upper.

looks like the top one keeps things dark except for the glow of the tv or computer.

"I have compact florescents, and my light looks like the lower windows rather than the upper."

Fluorescent lights come in a variety of color temperatures, ranging from warm-orange through bluish daylight.

Your lights may appear a warm yellow-orange to your eye, but will photograph very differently. Try taking a photo of your compact fluorescent lights with a digital still camera, with the white balance set to tungsten (the "indoor" setting, usually with a light bulb icon). You'd be surprised how they appear a yellow-green on camera. Especially if you compare it to the light of regular incandescent bulb, which will be more of an orange color.

The top apartment looks like it has daylight bulbs on the left and cool-white bulbs on the right. Not the warm compact fluorescents.

I LOVE YOUR CURIOSITY

Definitely those horrid fluorescent fixtures on the top floor. And thus why I'm not switching from incandescent. It's more important to me that I actually enjoy spending time in my home.

The top apartment is a secret "under-the-sea" themed nightclub owned by Suge Knight, and the bottom apartment is is where a little old lady rocks back and forth in her rocking chair in front of her fireplace, polishing her axe and devising new places she can hide the dismembered bodies of her victims.

could the windows just be tinted differently?

I have compact fluorescents in almost all of my fixtures. There is very little color difference, esp. once you get used to it. I like that my electric bill has dropped by a third and that I'm not trashing the planet.