apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

puts a smile on my face (my kitty sitting on my lap as i type this)

aww now I wish I was at home snuggling with my kitties instead of freezing my butt off at work. :(

I thought you were getting the boot from your place?

John--I am, just gonna do a final house tour before I move!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/76123902@N00/2248445789/

our pets get to enjoy our homes more than we do! i think they show up in these photographs because it adds some life and makes the space seem less stagnant.

great pets johnnyslimane!

i want a kitty but the landlord won't allow them. :(

Oh, Laure, I love your chair! I just picked up the identical chair second-hand and it's my new favourite. It had disintegrating thin foam cushions that needed to be replaced and I took a chance on fat foam and I'm going to head off to the marché saint-pierre on Saturday to buy material. I've been humming and hawing about patterns and colours and just today was thinking that solid blue or solid pink would probably be pretty sweet - such a nice surprise to get a glimpse of what it might end up looking like. :)

Ditto, barnicle! I like seeing pets and living plants (not cut flowers or silks) in the tours because they show that real living beings inhabit those spaces. They're not just showpieces. :-)

El Jinx--

check out my own hemming and hawing about fabric choices here ad here. It's fun but it can become stressful!

Thanks laure! And they pretty much always stay there so they can get a good view out the window. There is also a daschund running around the house somewhere, but he was probably too busy sleeping to pose for this picture.

Hey, thanks for the links Laure, although I now realise that our chairs are fraternal twins, not identical twins as I'd thought - mine has wood slats on the back instead of the rubber bands. :) I ended up sorting out an interim solution last night with a shocking pink wrap I bought for about €5 for a wedding a few years ago. It looks much better on the chair than it ever did on me and it's big enough to wrap right round the seat and the back so I'm going to tack it into place while I make my mind up. Still so many other colour choices to make in my flat that I need to take things slowly!

As in, 5 euros.

Sigh. I love my cats. But there are issues...like the fact that one just threw up a new-old mid-century piece and ruined the finish in two places (other than refinishing, by the way, anyone have some ideas? Oils don't work--I have two dull puddles on the top).
I offer this as comfort to all who have had the same issues: In a book on cat art I read awhile ago, an interviewee mentioned that he thinks of his cat scratches, messes, etc., as patina.
Makes me smile...and it really helps!

okay-- i notice no one else is disturbed by this post! Huh? I know there are people everywhere (unfortunately) who bring unsuspecting animals into their homes and purses in the spirit of accessorizing. And i realize the intention behind this post is sweetness-- an aesthetic expression of admiration for our loved ones. For me it pretty much missed the mark, landing in the realm of objectification. I'm just imagining how people would respond if, for example, there was a post collecting loving husbands'/boyfriends' photos of their female companions as a nice accent to the kitchen or something. Same framework at work here I think, even if the subjects portrayed are furry ones.

Yes, the phrasing is a bit unfortunate - but the post isn't promoting the 'objectification' of pets or anything of the sort. I don't think the comparison you make, kellygreen80, is a fair one. The post says we find the decor enhanced by their presence, not that we actually consider them decor. The title is not to be taken seriously - its a slightly comic overstatement quickly clarified by the post. Pets show up in the pictures because they, like decor, reflect an owner's personality and lifestyle, and pictures are more interesting with an animal or person in them (think of looking at the endless scenery shots of a friend's travels.) Relax!

I was expecting that "relax!"... I caught the humor, and read the entire post carefully, hoping to feel better about the post title. I just think that the comedy was a little off, which can happen sometimes (think of the New Yorker's recent catastrophic intentions to be humorous on the cover!) True my comparison with gender inequality is hyperbolic, but my purpose in using that metaphor was to point out that when discussing the relationship between two living subjects, one perspective should not be privileged over another (although this is getting into the teensiest semantics, that point is easily illustrated with a very basic examination of the meaning behind words like "owner" and "pet"). I understand that my politics about animals are perhaps less common. I certainly don't expect you to have the same opinion as me, but perhaps instead of advising me to relax, you could simply considering where I am coming from and be a little more mindful of how the post could be (mis)interpreted. I don't think it's in keeping with our mutual respect for our animal friends to (even jokingly) equate them with the objects in our homes. A person's relationship to any thing, living or not, will reflect knowledge or information about that person. From a purely logistic stance, your justification falls short. I'm certain that there are countless ways we could have paid tribute to these animals in the context of home design AND have been cute or funny about it without using such unfortunate comparisons.

All I can say is, I love including my dogs in home photos. I got my first shelter chihuahua shortly after buying my first home in 1996, and she's alleviated my chronic depression ever since. I wouldn't know what to do without her or my other two psychotic tinies. The fragile must stick together.