apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Live in your space a little while before making any big purchases. The feel of the place will help. Think about how you want to use a room and how you actually do use a room. Accept that you will rearrange your furniture at least once soon after you move in.

Don't worry about it until after the move. It's hard to know how to work with a space you haven't lived in yet.

I agree w/ Tiamat - Live in your space a while and let it tell you what it wants to be.

This happens to me all the time in designing, blogging, and decorating, which I am doing now that I bought a house for the first time :) I find that trying too hard to think about what I had forgotten doesn't work because well, the fact is...I forgot. Instead, I go do something I enjoy, something I am passionate about to keep my brain free from thinking too much, and not feel the stress of needing to accomplish something. For me, I love plants and everything green so I go to nurseries. I also love reading AT, How About Orange, and other design and craft websites - this should get your groove back on. Also, now that I bought a house, I still go to all the open houses around my area to get ideas - I think this works best! Good luck!

OT - any idea where those curtains in the picture are from?

1. Find something that you love and bring it home, even if it's only a yard of terrific fabric. It will give you ideas
2. Start going through magazines and tearing out what speaks to you.
3. Go through model homes. Even if you only find something you hate, it will get you thinking.
4. Make a list of what you don't want. You'll soon realize that what is left is what you want.

pier 1 curtains

Laura - go to your favorite, dreamiest home dec store. no matter how expensive it is, go there and walk every inch of the space. then, go to the bookstore and flip through every home dec magazine and book that catches your eye. Don't look to plan, simply look for pleasureable images.

You are bound to find your spark.

"any idea where those curtains in the picture are from?"

Pier One: Discontinued and on Final Clearance

Yes, agree with everyone that you should get a feel of the place before making any big decisions. Slowly you will get some ideas about the kind of structures/frames that will work in a particular space. All you will need then is to give shape to your ideas. For that, AT is always a great place. Also, try browsing all and any magazines/blogs etc that you like -- in short, all the pretty pictures. Collect all the pictures you like and try to think what it was about each that captivated you. You will be surprised where all one can find inspiration.

Agreed about moving in and then beginning to decorate. You need to learn where the dark corners are and the too bright sun in the summer window is and how to deal with the window that looks into the building across the street. The practicality of the space will begin to tell you what you want to do. Then you get to begin making choices.

Agree with the wait a few weeks suggestion above - I switched our office and guest bedroom about a month after we moved in to our rental house - and now that it looks like my grandmother may be moving in with me and my husband, I'm rotating it all (our bedroom to the guest bedroom, guest bedroom to the office, office to our bedroom) so we don't have to share a wall :-)

For me though, once I start one little project, I kinda get on a roll... I'd say after a few weeks, just jump in headfirst and see where it takes you!

Oh, I just went through that this summer with my first apartment by myself.

My best piece of advice: Don't rush it.

I know you want you place to be gorgeous, and it will be! But trying to do it all at once is overwhelming and takes the fun out of building a home. Whenever I look at photos in magazines or websites, especially of other people's houses, I always try to remind myself that these photos are the products of months and years of effort.

Cheers! Can't wait to see pics of your new place!

Congratulations on the new place!

Consider things like the direction which you face in your apartment. The angle of the sun through the windows changes greatly if you face south as I do. I'm just starting to get a tiny bit of sun in the apartment.

My east and west facing neighbors are blessed or cursed with sun that reaches completely across their entire space. It's rare that any of them will open their blinds during that sun time, it gets too intense, even here on the coast where I am.

The amount of light, and the time that you get light may well heavily influence your choices. Morning light, for whatever reason, never seems to have that delicious golden glow as it does at sunset. My light is mid-day, not golden, and rare.

This really matters for your choices. So many people choose the gray these days, and it would be DREADFUL in my apartment, as it's often overcast, and gray outside during summer. Add to that getting no sun inside at all if there is clearing. My apartment is like a cave. But those east and west neighbors, they're in an oven on high, with flames, LOL!

Any color placed in one of the full sun to the other side kind of apartments will bounce that color around the entire room. A red rug will make the room RED. See what I'm saying?

But in a cave-like space, it could handle very intense colors without guests requiring sunglasses.

That is why you live in the apartment with bare necessities for a little while. Pick up paint chips, lay them on the floor. Prop them on a shelf. A small bulletin board can be used and moved around, with your samples tacked to it. You don't have to hang the bulletin board, just prop it.

That will help guide your color choices.

You also want to get a feel for the sound and temperature of your place. If sound carries, or it's very cool, you may want to insulate against sound/temperature with thicker fabrics, heavier furnishings, deeper rugs.

If you can hear your upstairs neighbors every step, don't do that to your downstairs neighbor. LOL! Get slippers and thick rugs.

If it's hot and/or sound doesn't carry, then you may want lighter weight items, more visibility through them, "open and airy".

These are things you won't know right away unless they are intense...really bright light, really loud sounds, etc.

Those things will help guide you to what will work best for YOU in YOUR apartment.

agree with all above - I waited 1.5 years before even deciding on paint color, and most of all, start small! once you've done a couple of corners and you gain confidence in loving what you've put together, the rooms will be easier to do. good luck!

Don't hurry. Take your time to think how you want to live.
Find items you love or that speak to you -- one, two at a time, max. Thank about why they resonate and try to find other items similar to it. And then, try their opposite, for contrast: put an ornate frame near a modern chair; an antique-ish table against a stark modern wall. Stick to a few colors you can live with for a long time - natural wood, black, white, grays - and use trendier colors on easily replaceable accents like throw pillows or vases. And finally - keep it simple. Minimalism - or something akin to it -- speaks loudly and more profoundly than a chatter of chachkes.

Rule One: A space should reflect how you would like to live your life. For example if your are an outdoors person, your space should accomodate things that reflect your outdoors personality.

Rule Two: Use color to help you achieve the mental state that works for you. For example if you want to feel relaxed, pick calm colors.

Rule Three: Follow your heart, the best design reflects your personality and not some picture from a magazine.

Best advice...stop looking at design magazines and website.

Make sure your big ticket items (sofa) are neutral.

one word. jeteye. if u aren't yet familiar with it, you should acquaint yourself soon. this is a tool for your web browser that allows you to collect and organize clippings from websites (like photos) in a cyber-inspiration-journal of sorts. it appears as a side column in your browser allowing you to collect while you browse in as many tabs as you like and each clipping maintains its source and date (important info). doing this has made it so easy for me to spot design ideas and concepts that I consistently am drawn to so I better know what to look for to put in my home now and in the future. for instance- I was feeling really frustrated with the color of my living room recently and I didn't know why... I looked through my jeteye clippings and realized the color of the room was one I enjoyed but it was simply lacking some bright contrasts which I seemed to be drawn towards according to my clippings. I brought in a couple more colors from other parts of my house and the room felt a million times better without spending a dime! This is also a killer blog tool for you bloggers out there... ;)