apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

In DC, there are many church-run stores of donated goods. St. Albans (by the Nat'l Cathedral) runs the Opportunity Shop. They would accept clothing and small household goods. I think there is another church-run store in Georgetown. And definitely another church-run store in downtown Bethesda.

MY room is getting hotter.

We don't have anything in there but a bed with 100% cotton sheets, and two night stands of stacked books, and a space for the dog to sleep. While I'm gone this summer, my husband is working on the walls and floor, then we're getting the lucite console from CB2 to finish it off.

It's definitely more hot than not, and it's a very restful place.

I would have to say that my room is hot, although not quite as hot as I would like.

I'm planning to work on my closet this afternoon and am hoping to find new blinds for the bedroom this weekend. The metal blinds that came with our rental when we moved in are still up and I really don't like the way they look--we can't afford to replace all of the blinds in our apartment yet but I feel like at least if i can get them for the bedroom that will feel better and lighter. (All of the windows are nonstandard size and it seems like everything I have found is $100+/window.

The room does not get much natural light so I think a fresh coat of paint would really help as well. Those lucite tables are really pretty from CB2, I currently use storage cubes for bedside tables but they are really dark. Maybe I could make shelves with boxes for the stuff that is in there and put one of these pretty little tables next to the bed. Hmmmmm...so much to do.

We're not doing The Cure, but we've been at a bedroom impass for quite a while!

We would like to get a new bed to change up our bedroom, but are struck by the lack of beds with storage in them that are both modern and not $5000.

I love the LAX bed we saw on the site, but that doesn't provide underbed storage. Ideally I'd have the LAX headboard and then some sort of bed with drawers beneath it. But where can I find a nice modern storage bed that won't cost me a kidney? The Bluedot bed fits the bill but is rather boring.

My bedroom is a definite NOT. I mean my closet is ok, but other than that all I have in there is a bed (just the mattress & box springs on the floor but I DO have really nice bedding), my dresser and 2 mirrors. The carpet is disgusting and I can't wait to rip it up and paint the concrete floor and throw a rug down. Maybe a flocati type rug, something really cushy.

The room is a converted garage, so it's very long and narrow, the only logical place for the bed is under the bay window at the end of the room, which makes a headboard impossible, which is why I haven't bought a bed frame. I have tried other combos, but the opposite wall is the closet and if you put it on one of the side walls, it takes up almost the entire width of the room. Ugh.

But it's functional and comfortable enough to sleep in. I don't spend time in there except to sleep anyway. So I'm not immediately concerned with fixing it.

The bed/window combo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambernussbaum/52302044

Curious what everyone thinks about the window as headboard thing. I also do have a vase with flowers on that windowsill now. I hesitate to put anything delicate up there because it's my dog's favorite bird watching spot.

I need to work on my bedroom some more. I have some pre-Cure pics linked. Not much has changed. I hung the tapestry using a curtain rod above the bed. Lot's great, but that's the only change. I think we've got too much furniture in such a small room, but we need the storage. It's a challenge.

My bedroom's linked at my name. I'm really annoyed with it lately, but I'm focusing on my living room. I'm thinking about flipping to a more neutral/soft color scheme for summer. I think half the problem with my feeling about it now is that I've got "outbox" stuff in the corner...and, if you scroll through my pics, you'll see the dusty TV and somewhat beat up Ikea table (vintage--color no longer available! :) ) I need to expunge all that stuff.

Max, have you ever checked out the Anderson Ultimate Bed:
http://www.ultimatebed.com/ultimatebed/index.htp

View the bed there, and I can't give you a price, you have to go to the "Get A Quote" section. Because there are a gazillion options, you can choose only the things that matter the most.

The biggie there are those fabulous drawers for the Underbed Dresser. You can store skis in the long ones at the foot of the bed, or all kinds of other interesting things. I always thought the long drawers would be fine for ladies shoe collections. All four drawers. Hey, you know someone has that many shoes.

There are options like getting it unfinished, so you can do your own color of stain (and there are many colors). Headboard with reading lights. Attaching side tables. And you don't have to order everything at once.

I just did a quickie Get a Quote for a King with most of the extras and it's $1,800 (before shipping). That's kind of pricey, but you also won't need any other dressers to store your stuff. Dropping all the extras, going for unfinished pine, and just getting the 14 drawers and platform, we're down to $823.00. Put on some black/brown dark stain (pine stains well) and you're in business.

Er...I guess I shouldn't say "you're in business" when discussing a bed. Ahem.

Check it out!

Amber wrote:
> Curious what everyone thinks about
> the window as headboard...

Well, I know using your window as a headboard is very UN-Feng Shui. It's like having your back to the door in your office.

Sleeping is your most vulnerable moment. Since you described it as a garage apartment, I can safely assume that you're on the ground floor. So, a window is your homes greatest vulnerability. So, placing yourself in your homes most vulnerable location while your in your most vulnerable state is generally not recommended.

Christina,

I was just at Target and saw an endcap with new lucite end tables for around $40 in the furniture section. They came in clear, red and another color that I can't remember. I didn't have time to take a close look, but from a distance, they looked pretty good. You might want to check them out. Maybe you could use those in lieu of the CB2 tables for now and put the money you would save toward your window treatments.

I sort of had to trade off a hot bedroom for a not bedroom so that I could have a proper home office. Having a real area to work at home in has been so wonderful, that not is not problem.

Max, take a look at these:

http://www.foamorder.com/captains_bed.html

http://www.bedroom-furniture-collection.com/Platform-Bed-Storage-Ratchet.htm

http://www.flou.it/index.asp

it seems so funny to say my bedroom's hot,that's so paris hilton
and that is not hot. anyway, four years ago i decided that to pamper myself after a long day at work my bedroom should be a restful retreat.i bought a new bed,linen sheets drapes all in neutral colors cream, camel,icy pale grey, and white. i did not buy any sets or matching groups of sheets i mixed different labels so i could keep expanding my collection bed linens blankets and duvet covers. there is no televison or radio just a group of bedside books (one of them is apartment therapy) that i never get to finish.

Thanks Andree, I've seen that bed. It's not particularly my style, though it does have a lot of storage.

Anne, the Captain Bed and the other one are quite nice, I'll have to look more into those. One good aspect of the Captain Bed is that I belive having one officially makes me a Captain. If I get it I plan on adding that title to my business cards and having my wife call me "Captain Max." I may accessorize with an eye-patch, I've always found those rather dashing.

The Flou bed's are great, but the last time I priced one out I think it came to over $4000.

Okay Max...er Captain Max

Much less than the Flou ones, similar style:
http://www.haikudesigns.com/europa-platform-beds.htm

Take note of mirror available too.

Max, old platform bed post on AT:
http://tinyurl.com/mt96k

I'd never seen the lift-up ones, other than the one you'd sent before, and I'd want to check out that mechanism first. Drawback of lifting the entire mattress to access storage...both people have to be out of bed! You can't use it for regular storage, like clothing. Secondly, you'd have to walk or crawl into it to get to the stuff in the middle in the back.

For me, at which point the mechanism would fail, fall on my head, and flatten me between the floor and the platform. That's when the mechanism breaks and leaves me stuck under the bed.

Or, of course, there's the "launch into wall mode" when the mechanism fails again and sends me flying. Uff da.

Drawers make more sense. No mechanism to fail and trap or launch.

Let us know what size and colors you are considering, and it always helps to provide links with pictures of things you've looked at and liked, but whose prices are outrageous. I can't find it if I don't know what I'm looking for.

LAX bed:
http://www.designpublic.com/shop/mash-studios/4690

Bludot?
http://www.bludot.com

It's a flash site, so I can't do a link to the beds and there's only the one anyway.

Do you want one that has the end coming up a bit vertically, like at Blu Dot? Or one that has the platform extend beyond the mattress on the sides? Do you want the underside of the platform to be fully enclosed, like on the Europa and the Flos (cover page bed), or with an extension horizontally, leaving part of the underside open, like on the Marina Bedroom set on Foam Order?

How many drawers? One? Two? Three? per side? Big drawers hold big things, and are a big pain if they're heavy. Three drawers hold lots of little things, but no big things. And I have no idea what you are trying to store.

Why does this keep saying it didn't load and it really did go through? Darn threads!

Maxwell, that's a nice story. At first I thought "Aw...how romantic"...and then I thought "I woulda had him arrested".

Really. That's just creepy. How exactly does one "Stumble into someone's room when they're not there"? And the rest from there...STALKER.

Dude. Seriously. Ewww.

It's such a violation.

Well Andree, after a birthday party, I invited a handful of friends back to my house to see my new kitchen. I'd just finished everything off and I was really proud of it. Among the friends was a guy I'd known for years but didn't really know too well who'd just moved to my neighborhood from Brooklyn. He really liked my house and kept asking where I got the different [weird] things I have around the house. A few days later, he emailed me asking if I wanted to get dinner, just as neighbors.

We've been dating for a little over a year -- our aniversary was Monday. His house has rayguns and a tiki bar. We get along really well.

don't know whether anyone else here is interested in vacuums, but it's been my fixation over the last week or so. then our shark, the third vacuum we've owned in five years, up and died today. i took it as an omen and finally coughed up the cash for a miele. we settled on the compact sirius, with HEPA filtration. we're going to try it without the turbobrush thingy first, since we only have one 5x7 area rug (plus 2 cats). right now i feel a little ill having spent almost $400 on a vacuum, but all reports are that it's a good investment.

and let's face it, our bedroom will be so much more hott without the cat-sized dust bunnies under the bed.

Y'all have a bedroom? ;)! Am I the only poster who lives in a studio? I did do some bedroom-related stuff as part of the Cure: new bed frame, new mattress, new shams, new comforter. I was fine with the sheets and duvet cover. No TV, telephone or computer in the room with the bed.

Amber, I would conceal the bay window with floor-length curtains that extend the entire width of the wall. A headboard in front of that would work just fine, but I'm not sure how to accommodate your dog. Accommodating my cat often poses decor challenges, and I try to keep her happy. She rules the roost.

Christina, to get more natural light in a room, I would choose curtains, not blinds, and not bother repainting.

Sorry if it sounds like I'm obsessed with curtains, but I replaced the blinds in my studio with curtains (sheers and opaque panels) as part of the Cure and I am extremely happy with them. The room gets much more light, the temperature is less erratic, and, surprisingly, they make my room feel larger and calmer. They are also easy to clean.

Mary, THAT sounds romantic and a good way of getting to know people. How else are you going to find common ground without talking? Yes, we CAN get a feeling for a person by what's in their space. Unless it was done by a free-rein designer. Or a family member. Like parents redecorating and passing on a whole bunch of stuff to their kids.

But, geez, I'm tainted, I've BEEN stalked, by more than one person, in more than one place, and it's scary. There was a guy who'd pick me up somewhere in my drive to work and FOLLOW ME TO WORK and then park by my car to watch me walk in. Ewwww

And another guy IN the mall (I worked in a jewelry store as credit manager) who'd follow me on my break...literally 7 steps behind me. EWWWWW

Although, I did meet a nice guy when my district manager decided to put a halt to the inside-stalker. I set off, the stalker followed, and my DM followed them. I ducked in real fast in a men's clothing store and hid behind a display of suits, and that's where I met the guy, a salesperson wondering why I was hiding behind a display of suits.

I've been followed by other people when driving. I've been followed out to my car. I've heard enough explicit descriptions of male anatomy and what said part was doing at that very moment to make me wish I could carry a fully-charged taser at crotch-height forever.

I've involved the police in some matters. I've had my phone tapped or whatever it is to try to track down the person who would call me repeatedly and just breathe...I'm talking months.

So...with that as background, any guy that went into my room and wanted to sleep in my bed...I'd be terrified.

"Hi, my name's Maxwell, and your room is peaceful, yeah, I was in there when you weren't in there, without your permission, and I want to get to know you and sleep in your bed."

Okay, that's NOT the way he said it, or the way the other person reacted, but that's the way *I* end up reading it. I don't want a strange man even staring at my stuff. hahaha

The better I dressed/looked the more trouble I had. I've found I'm much happier with the bed-hair and homeless psychotic look. If having a nice bedroom means strange men will be stumbling around wanting to sleep in my bed, I'm covering the bed with cat litter. Used cat litter.

"Are you lookin' at me?"
"Don't look at me!"
"Don't look at my stuff"
Ahhhhh
running away in horror

Amber, I'm liking your room, and seeing a gazillion things flash before my eyes. What, if anything, do you want to do? You don't have to have a traditional headboard or bed frame that attaches to anything. Paint can give the illusion of the white framed window coming down on either side of the head of the bed...insta-headboard.

Shutters, grilles, plywood, sheet metal, fencing (like inexpensive woven bamboo fencing, just cut to the height of the bottom of the window sill).

Painted hollow core door. A rectangle of PVC pipe draped with sheer materials. Several cork bulletin boards, on which you've used those flat-heat tacks to attach postcards or paint chips or fabric swatches or magazine pictures.

Tacked up fabric. Clearance kitchen bottom tiers put on dowels in bright colors or interesting patterns. I'm the Queen of Cheap, and know there are soooo many ways of adding the headboard LOOK without the expense. Much more creative too than a regular headboard, and you can change many of the looks with the blink of an eye!

Jess, from what I've read, you made a good choice!
http://tinyurl.com/ncsqt

It says there that a HEPA filter is optional but that the standard bags meet HEPA standards! That could be a money saver right there! Maybe using the HEPA filter ONLY when you're having the most allergen problems, or using it occasionally.

I'm not sure how the filter works in those machines or where it goes, but if it's easy to remove and put in, use it only as needed.

And it's so lightweight. A 10 pound vacuum! You might find cleaning a breeze with a vacuum that is so lightweight.

I have all carpet, so I continue on with my upright. And it's a chore to push over carpet, I sometimes envy those of you with solid floors. Okay, I always envy those of you with solid floors.

Things you take for granted...textiles absorb scents. Including carpet. And it would be splendid if the carpets smelled of fresh mown hay (sans hay fever). But they don't. You can wash your floor, I can't wash my wall to wall carpet.

It's a never ending battle of vacuum, steam clean, and then reabsorbing the smells of the household. Then more vinegar and baking soda and steam cleaning. I'd rather have buffalo-sized dust bunnies.

Jeffery -- I also live in a studio, but that doesn't stop me from having a bedroom. It just happens to bleed into my living room, office and kitchen...

I don't interpret rooms that narrowly either. Strictly speaking I have two rooms and a bathroom. However, I do have seven areas, or rooms in that sense, even if they are jammed into 550 square feet (including three closets)

I understood where Maxwell was coming from. If a some bedrooms can turn us off, why can't some turn us on?

For a bedroom, I'm not so much aiming for "sexy" as I am for "restful" (maybe because the idea of a sexy bedroom conjures up lots of drapery and red-painted walls, which are not my thing at all). If a place is calming and soothing then I find that conducive both to sleep and for intimacy.

Our bedroom looks fresh and cool: blue-grey walls with white trim, pewter-coloured antique iron bed with white linens, white armoires and framed photographs we bought in Scotland. Our bedside tables need to be replaced (they are a light-toned wood, and don't really go with anything else we own) but they are pretty simple in shape and thus pretty inoffensive until we find a better solution.

We don't have a television, stereo or telephone in the bedroom, and my husband and I want to keep it that way.

I am getting so much done on The Cure this 3-day weekend, as well as doing social things, going to movies, relaxing, etc. Today especially I woke up early and got started on going through a box of old files I had in the closet and trashed so much stuff. The box is gone! True, a bit was integrated into my weeded-out rolling files, my tax box, and here and there, but I got rid of most of it. Feels so great!

At the end of this Cure, I would like to do a better job of not staying on top of the clutter issue, so I don't have even semi-major cleanings to go through in the future. And, this wasn't bad since I've moved so many times over the years and gone through major declutterings in the past, so I didn't have all that much stuff I haven't dealt with around.

whoops- that's staying on top of the clutter issue, not NOT staying on top of the clutter issue. When you want to post something quickly, you can't, but when you don't...

Since no one's commented on Jen's room...
I understand the dark paint choice, and love the color. The tapestry has probably really drawn the room together!

I like the idea of making the window into more of a headboard, but have to admit that having my back to the window would really freak me out. Maybe I'm just paranoid....

I'll make some comments about Jen's bedroom, too. I'm glad you rehung the tapestry. I really like it, but it seemed a little too droopy before (although I was fine with the original placement). I think you might get a little more punch if you put one or two darkish green cushions on the bed. I don’t like the droopy reading lamp clamped to the headboard: Maybe matching wall lamps/sconces would work better. I think the window needs two curtain panels, not just one, and I think the rod should be hung higher. The comforter needs a cover, maybe in a green lighter than the walls or a brown darker than the sheets but lighter than the bed. I think the rattan storage boxes are nice, but I think the room would open up a bit if they were moved (do they fit under the sideboard?). I like the furniture--warm and nice quality.

I got even more done yesterday - I got part way through the closet in the bedroom, a big undertaking. I probably spent at least 7 hours all told yesterday working on the Cure, including taking donations, returning stuff to a store, and selling some books at a bookstore. I have a huge pile of seasonal clothing that needs to go into the storage area in the basement (not a pleasant task - that's a building re-organization project waiting to happen again). And getting the dead-file box and some other stuff out of there is allowing the closet to breathe, as per the book. Wow. It was very satisfying to get things moving in there and I did the hardest part, so the rest should be relatively easy, although time and work intensive. Still a lot to do. In the bedroom, I still have bookshelves and a freestanding Ikea slim closet unit to work on too. My goal is to get everything out of the Ikea unit and either get rid of it or move it into the now more spacious closet, and then sell the Ikea unit. Then, the room will breathe more.

Did not do much this weekend because I was away, but am VERY excited about my new CD sleeves which just arrived at work. They are just like jewel cases (places for art and book) except they aren't--they're thin! They're from univenture and I bought them at bags unlimited online.

DC Folk, Where do you usually take donations? I remember finding places and then I lost the list. I've got a bag and then some ready to go this weekend.

Christine in DC,
I generally take clothing donations to those donation boxes that are around town. I go to one that's on 18th and California in a parking lot, right by the Zipcars. I can't remember the name of the organization, but I looked it up and it's in Virginia and they provide clothing for local people. When I was on Capitol Hill, there was a dropoff box with a different org that was pretty near where I lived, but these change sometimes and I think that box might not be there anymore. For women's business clothes, there's an org called Suited for Change that you can donate to.

Non-clothing is so much harder in DC, since there's no handy Goodwill shops around that I know of. I either save stuff to donate to my favorite rummage sale (Whitman Walker - which didn't happen last fall!) or take it out to Virginia.

JenPDX-
Thanks for the info. Is the one in Georgetown on P St., just over the bridge from Dupont?

Thanks Pixie, and Jen PDX...I usually take my stuff to the Goodwill in Annapolis (job's there), but I hate Goodwill..I feel like somehow my stuff is going to profit them (I know, I know, they're a nonprofit, but I feel like it's more a retail business than some other places!).

for wht i can afford, my br is hot. most people comment on how pretty it is when they come in.
i have a beautiful iron bed that is designed to look like cathedral gates & everything else is simple. i have 400 count sheets & a silk comforter. there is an antique chipped & scratched wood side table w/ a modern steel lamp.
my abstract paintings in jewel tones frame the bed, a purple embroidered fabric from india hangs on the wall, & a large, framed print of flaming june leans against the wall.
my room is all about relaxing, sleep, & lux.