apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I can't wait to see the whole house tour!

yes, looking forward to it. the dog is very cute too!

Happy Anniversary!

When my husband and I married, we didn't have any duplicates except silverware. Therefore, combining our households was easy. In the years since we've been editing.

How great that you're combining two small cools into a large super-cool. Congratulations, and I'll be more than happy to take your castoffs. :-)

Where can i buy a rug like the one in the last picture ? its made up of small rugs and makes up a big one..

When I look at the details of that house, and imagine that there is a sidewalk out in front, and where to walk, and that kids in Brookline are allowed to walk to school, and there are trolleys and corner groceries... I can't for the life of me understand why people abandoned all of that for cookie cutter suburbs in California or Texas... With 16 wheelers for cars, and phlegmatic children who can't do anything or go anywhere for themselves until they get their drivers liscense...

what a lovely place.

@vicious: they are Flor tiles. You can find them here: http://www.flor.com/service/flor/shop/item/Stampede/1244752500-7392.html

Happy Anniversary!

I love you place and esp. your bedroom curtains as seen in the "Kayla's Hall of Blues" pic. Where are they from?

this is amusing for me, because my husband and I just celebrated our first anniversary, and we are moving from 800 square foot apartment to 1500 square foot house, and we're renovating said house. We are willing to compromise on most everything, but our biggest issue is what to hang and what to pitch. We both love art and pictures, but we have completely different "hanging styles" PLUS, he wants it all done in a day, and I like to think on it, move things around, etc. These next few months will be wonderful, but also funny. Our only true fights sense we got married was when we first began integrating my hanging art with his, it makes me giggle just thinking about it.

ooh, i adore that sectional sofa!! Details?

Cannot wait for the tour. I always enjoy your photos that give us a sneak into your home. Plus your dog just always brings a smile to my face. Such a cutie.

considering my now-husband didn't have anything much to his name OR a definitive decor "style" i thought we were in the clear....
when we moved into our first apartment together he brought along this SAD cd tower that had band stickers all over it and was leaning a little too far to the right because of it's shoddy construction and was permanently missing shelves... it was a mess! so i asked him if he would mind if i replaced it for him with something newer and better... and *bigger* to hold all of those random cds that just gathered in tall wobbly stacks at the base of the tower. he said "yeah, i guess - i just want to have them easily accessible." and he left for work. well, i'm a woman of action so i hauled that cd tower right on down to the dumpster, got in my car, and headed out to buy a new shelving system for the cds. i was so proud to show him the new home for his cds when he returned. AND HE FLIPPED OUT! it wasn't the cd tower but the band stickers on it he was angry about... they reminded him of good times in his life when he'd seen those bands, gone on road trips, and shared time with friends and my lack of respect for them was a sign to him of my lack of respect for his interest in those things and people. i was accused of "turning him into someone he was not" and forcing him to change... it was terrible but it taught us both big lessons about the value of nostalgia, personal history, tradition, and memory attached to our *things*.
although i'll admit i still rule the roost when it comes to decorating our first home (we just bought it and got married this summer) i try to take into account not just what he wants things to look like but what feels like home to him too... that way we can write new personal history together and make new memories in this place but still honor who we are and where we came from to get here.

Everything my husband owned was from Rooms to go and it had to go. He balked but gave in and I made a mint off a garage sale (who buys that stuff?, but in a similar situation to midcenturymama, I had to tell my husband that his poster collection (posters of different cities) was not exactly going to fit in. He collected these from citites he had traveled to so I put them up in his office our old house to keep him happy. He still has them in a closet somewhere. For a man, he did come with a really great set of pots and pans though!

Looking forward to that house tour!

Bacon! I think there should be AT:Bacon

I can't wait to see the full house tour. Your apartment looks lovely based on the few photos seen here!

My cohabitating boyfriend is not so design inclined (at all) so basically I've been the one to do and pay for pretty much everything, which can be a little frustrating, but at least I get the make the choice :-).

My boyfriend is in the process of moving to my house. Our biggest problem is just going through all our "stuff", and neither of us thought we had that much. Realizing that we do have so much is making it easier to get rid of things we don't need/want anymore. We're both visual/design oriented with similar tastes, but it's still a compromise of how it all goes together.

My boyfriend & I are probably moving in together in August. While our tastes are not exactly the same, they're pretty compatible, and I'm glad I won't have to make every decision myself!

But I think the most important thing is a similar idea of what's worth sacrificing for. He wants "real" art (i.e. not posters or prints) and I want "real" furniture (i.e. heirloom-quality pieces). With our budget, we'll each have to compromise or else go hungry!

Seconding the request for AT: BACON. Because, y'know, there are dogs, and there are dogs, and then there's Bacon.

I second AT: Bacon.

Oops, I guess I third AT: Bacon.

When my boyfriend and I moved in together a year and a half ago, we had few duplicates. We made a deal, though: he gets to keep his hideous bed frame (that I absolutely loathe) and I rule pretty much everything else. This means (amongst other things) I get to put up my canvases and framed images on the walls, while striking down his awful posters.

I think the biggest key was patience. Without that, goodness knows how much more friction there would have been!

I found the merging of the things to be difficult, especially when one person doesn't want to get rid of any of his things.

I look forward to seeing your house tour...I think this is a fantastic topic for AT to cover, since it is something so many of us face.

My partner moved from far away and from a roomate apartment, so he brought nothing with him. That being said, he still vetoes a lot of things, and I always consider him and ask for approval before I make major design decisions. There are a lot of things that would be different otherwise, but its his place too :)

AT:Bacon !!!

One word: PUPPY!!

Okay, more than one. Can't wait to see the full house tour!

If you start with next to nothing, it's much easier!

Love the curtains from Kayla's apartment. Anyone know where to get something similar?

Looking forward to the full tour!