apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

zooza: I'll check out the pitt at oxford next time I'm in England. Actually, one of my "inspirations" was the Soane Museum in London.

How is reno coming along?

JonathanB - you would love the Pitt Rivers - it is an amazing place and I bet you'd want to take half of it home with you! You've also reminded by that I'm overdue a visit to Sir John Soane's. I haven't been for years. On the subject of that type of 'collector's museum', I can also recomment the Museum of Natural History in Dublin, if you're ever in Ireland. It's completely politically incorrect (stuffed animals crammed in up to the rafters) but wonderful nonetheless.

The reno is plodding on. I seem to be working all hours, with not much to show for it, but it should all come together some day soon!

Elizabeth in AL, make sure to try a small sample of that Behr Lagoon in a small area first. I liked it so much in the picture that I went out and got some and it did not look at all like it did in the photograph! I've always wondered how much deviation there is in mixing paint at different Home Depots.

That Behr Lagoon pic is one of my favorite pics I've ever seen on AT. I keep coming back to that color for my living rm, though I'm afraid it will be too dark.

Art, how exactly did your results vary?

In the photo the lagoon looks rich and warm, my sample looked almost like a 70's bowling alley plastic blue. It didn't have the depth that it appears to have here. It definately did not look like this. It actually scared me when I put it on the wall. Maybe closer to the Apartment Therapy title bar at the top of this page. I would never try to discourage anyone from using it but just highly suggest trying it out first based on my own results.

mjoe, going back to the bedroom slideshow I see how the apartment is filled with dark, rich tones througout. My place is very bright, minimal and somewhat sterile right now with white and aluminum and concrete so I think I just tried to use a color that was maybe out of context for my space. It looks really nice here with the brown comforter, the bedframe and the wood floor.

muh! I don't know what we are supposed to be doing, but clearly we aren't doing it! I'm still hanging in there and while I won't be done by next week, we should be pretty darn close. We spent the day putting together furniture, then taking 6 boxes of books to a thrift store, and then tomorrow we'll sort through some more stuff. I'm so excited, even if I am not on schedule!

Any plans to finish up this week were just side-tracked by family stuff. But I was on this Cure more as a contemplative Zen journey thing to see what happened than because the apartment was actively bad, so it's all good.

Can anyone help me? I want this print for my office but I am worried that the olive background will fight with my chartreuse walls!

http://www.pushmepullyoudesign.com/hoopoe.php

And Wende, I like the idea of Curing as a "contemplative Zen journey", that sounds like about what my tile guy is thinking too. But I think any way to help declutter and improve the flow of my home is a step in the right direction. I just took a bunch of old clothes (love 'em but they don't fit, sniff) to the consignment store and swapped them for a few cute things that will definitely see some use! I am Curing in fits and starts around the edges of the whole Bathroom-Cure-Not-Happening issue, I now know not to barter or get stuff done as favors - cash money makes the home improvement world go around!

And I am serious about opinions on that print, I have been coveting most of that website and waiting for one that would work in my office, I'm hoping this is the one but color on my monitor is so questionable!

Anne - it's a great print (I like the others there, too). But looking at the photo of your office on flickr (the picture with Keep Calm, your tuba and guitars and a blue picture), I do think it's the wrong colours for your room. Your other art work in there is mostly bright, primary colours, and the hoopoe background is more muddy. But... could you think about using a brightly coloured matt when framing? That might lift the background up a bit.

Zooza: we have a great place here in new york -- the american museum of natural history -- the best parts of which are cheerily (and cheesily) 19th century. ethnic and tribal material mounted choc-a-bloc up to the ceiling. The pacific northwest rooms are my favorite and I live in mortal dread that the museum is going to get around to redoing them. if you ever come to new york, it would be an honor to let me show them to you.

anne: art work as wall paper -- when it "goes" with the space in question -- isn't my thing. If I like it and can figure out where to put it, up it goes. however, a bigger matte and a stronger frame -- which you can get away with because of the graphic punch of the art work -- in carefully selected neutral colors will work to make the transition smoother. by the way, I liked the posters myself.

Anne -- Hmmmm... on my monitor, it looks possible that the print could be great there (and I'm one of the people who finds it visually jarring if the art isn't in the same brightness/softness/color range as the rest of the room). No wonder you're unsure.

If you love the print, get it, frame it, hang it. You can always move your art around to different rooms.

Or paint the wall behind the picture (like a frame) to put all the colors in the room in perspective and establish a bit of distance between the painting and the green on the wall.

Sorry to crash this thread (I'd be Curing if I weren't about to move) but I am obsessed with this blue.

Art -- The thing that fascinated me so much about this color in the House Tour was the way the color looked so different, and equally beautiful, in each pic of their bedroom. If I may ask, what is the light like where you did it? Also, I think you have a good point about the warm/dark accents there.

Anne (in Reno)
I think if you frame it similar to the other pieces; black frame, white mat, it should be fine. Just let this piece show a little more of the mat than the others.

mjoe-the light in my bedroom is very bright and everything in the room is light as well.

Thanks for all the feedback, guys, I think I am going to risk it! But however it seems that my laptop is trying to eat my thesis so I first must determine how to retrieve all my data and then find out if I need to spend my next paycheck on a new laptop. Or just on fixing my old one. Then the hoopoe will be mine!

Well, to my amazement, we found a dining table, and the round bamboo rug I'd been lusting after was clearanced at a fraction of its original price.

So today's task is to get things superficially tidied, as it's another week back East for us. But at least I feel like we've accomplished something substantial this round.

wende: congratulations. finding a dining table is no small accomplishment.

oh, wow, art. thanks for telling me that.

i'm still leaning towards something along the lines of that color, but, as was advised (by lorijo, i think?), I think the undertone of my wood will probably not match that greeny undertone to that color. anyway, while BF was at work, I went to pick out color samples and when I brought them home, he decided he'd rather go with me, so I think we're going tonight.

however, we did get an over the toilet hutch for the bathroom, and put up a wall cabinet across from it, and i'm waiting on my tile hooks from urbn to hang towels on (i for some strange reason cannot stand towel bars...) and the bathroom looks so nice, i want to spend all day in it! before, I was really getting an awful feeling in there and HATED to take a shower in there - it was really creepy!!! So now that there's white bathroom furniture on the white walls, it really looks uber serene. i love it.

tonight we are doing some major cleaning of the bedroom and i have like a bazillion piles of clothes to wash (still from the move!!) before I store them for the summer... we don't have an ikea here so I'm hoping somewhere will have some nice under bed storage around here because it is much needed.

thanks to all, and i hope the paint we end up choosing doesn't look like a 70s bowling alley!

oh and on the deviation of the paint at home depot, it really does change. i think it has to do with the people mixing - at least here, and not to speak ill of anyone, but in alabama, they aren't exactly the most experienced employees - maybe two in the entire store. when i was in highschool i painted my beroom a dark, more primary color blue and i didn't realize how thin it would be on my walls so i ran out with one big wall left to go - i took the original paint (left some so they could match it exactly) and when i painted that last wall, it was more purple. i had to do a layer over the entire room and it was EXTREMELY frustrating.

oh yeah, and someone had suggested for me to paint the trim. i asked the landlord and he said i could, but it could only be white, and that there is one problem - the trim is done in oil based paint and he said we'd have to sand it all down before doing anything to it. anyone have any ideas for an easier way to paint over it - other than using more oil based paint?

There's a primer that allows oil-based paint to take latex paint, but I can't remember the name. Any paint store or hardware store should be able to direct you to it, though. The primer not only mediates between the two paint types but gives the paint the "tooth" needed to accept latex, so using it should eliminate or minimize sanding.

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I'm amazed at the difference in the energy of the apartment that rearranging the furniture makes! Now I feel ready to bring home flowers.

Yeah, that's backwards, but flowers when things aren't "right" don't inspire me -- I "get" why they're important at pulling people out of a rut where they really feel stuck, but they always feel like a very top layer to me, and top layers get done last.

I really can't get over how much better I feel about my place. I organized and painted, rearranged furniture and cleaned. I don't know why I needed to "cure" with others to get this done-but it worked!

This weekend we cleaned the garage, I put out some of my garden stuff, planted two trees and some bulbs. I also bought 4 chairs at a yard sale- Yippee! I am posting a pic of one of them as I need some help deciding how to proceed with it-it's a "project" chair. My Mr. also bought me 2 paintings and I have to figure out where those will go now.

My party is a little different-Friday is my son Max's birthday and I'm having some people over- his favorite food is pizza so we're having that delivered but I am making his cake from scratch.

Thanks everyone! This has been fantastic !

I don't know why I needed to "cure" with others to get this done-but it worked!

Part of the magic, I think, is that once you find yourself talking with other people about their Cure efforts and you hear yourself contributing to solving their problems, it seems much easier to solve your own.

Just had my first experience with IKEA cabinets this weekend. Fun! Fun! Fun! I had such a great feeling of accomplishment after snapping everything together, fitting it into place and then polishing it off with a countertop and doors.

I turned a 6' hallway closet into a bar with frosted glass and abstrakt white doors and a 2 1/4" thick limestone countertop. The tricky part was the half of a concrete column right in the middle of the closet. I had to cut the back of the base of the center cabinet to fit the column (the other half of the column is in my bathroom). Then it just took a lot of shims to level the countertop and base cabinets.
The closet was somewhat useless due to the column in the middle so this creates more storage and becomes a focal point for the apartment.

I would highly recommend IKEA's cabinetry for simple storage uses like these. They are very easy to put together and the BLUM hardware is top of the line and easy to isntall as well.
Maybe I can post pictures on AT:Chicago? Countertop still needs to be permanently installed and sealed and I need a backsplash, shelving etc. but the cabinet installation I thought would be interesting.

lorjio, I know exactly what you mean. Before the cure, we thought our apartment was okay, but with the changes we've made in the past seven weeks, I cannot believe how much better it feels. Just walking around my apartment makes me so happy now!
I had been dreaming about having curtains forever (I am a bit of a geek) but the bf was strongly against them. Somehow the cure got us both looking at our apartment in a different way. Seeing what other people were inspired and the improvements they were making really helped us realize the things that could be improved in our own space. One night about halfway through, he suddenly said, "I think the living room needs some curtains." Music to my ears!!!
Now they are one of our favourite things about our apartment.

so while i've done close to nothing for two weeks (apart from being awed by everyone's progress; zooza and ladyj i bow before you) this week will more than make up for that. my friend's offered to paint my bedroom on thursday -- so there's the push to move everything out of the bedroom in preparation for that, get new switchplates, new bedding, air purifier, etc. the old nfp problem -- love the start, need a fire under my butt and a gun to my head to get me to finish. on another note, i've been contemplating a wing chair but now i'm thinking that the bedroom with all it's curvy louis-n-old hollywood-ness needs a modern element. the aha moment may have been precipitated by seeing the silver arne jacobsen egg chairs in the home section on thurs. how eggy & comforting & . but that is all getting ahead of myself. i think i need to see how much room the new bureau takes up. write more when i come up for air at the end of the week.

oh btw, maxwell, your note about why buy an air purifier was jaw dropping. that the air inside my apt could be dirtier than the air outside. eew. i'm on my way to bed bath & beyond to buy one right now!

The only Curing my bedroom needed was a proper extension cord for the lamp, and the switch from cold weather to warm weather bedding. The down comforter and flannel sheets are packed away in favor of crisp, cool, pink cotton sheets.

I'm working on my balcony as an outdoor living space. I potted a bunch of flowers and herbs, and I'm in the market for a tiny cafe dining set. I want a table that's big enough to eat and do homework on, but small enough for my tiny porch. I think 24" round table and two chairs is a good size for a 3.5' x 7' balcony, any suggestions?

"I'm amazed at the difference in the energy of the apartment that rearranging the furniture makes!"

You know, that's about all I feel I've been able to really do (and finish!) so far during this Cure - rearrange my apartment. And I too am AMAZED at the permanent improvement it has made.

Makes me see design in a whole new way now, as totally context-dependent. Take the pointy-triangle-y Noguchi lamp I got when I moved in and have hated ever since. I spent the last couple years moving it around in a random way on the floor and wondering upon whom I could unload it. Now it sits atop my main desk, and you can see it from the entryway of my studio, creating a silhouette right smack in the middle of my beautiful picture window, and it looks SMASHINGLY good. I'm still finding it hard to understand.

So I don't feel like I've done much work at ALL overall (it's depressing), and I hate the many new problem's my curing has unearthed that will take a loooong time to address.... BUT I am deeply grateful for my new floorplan arrangement. For the first time, it supports the activities most important to me.

Holy moly! The tile guy was just here, and when I get back in town in two weeks (I leave Friday) I should have LOTS of nice pics to post! I'm trying not to get too excited but Yay!

Great news, Anne! Obviously he's passed through his Zen phase into something more productive.

I'm just checking in very briefly because I, too, am going away in about an hour, but only until Monday. Just wanted to give everyone working towards the big finish a cheer of encouragement. You can do it!

:-)

Have a nice trip, Zooza ( but i guess it's for work ?!), and Anne, i hope this time he'll finish his work! And nice trip to you, too.

I'm on day 7 of the serious things, and still, no mayor problems.
I've got a bit stressed monday evening, when i realized that the gazcounter and the device it was fixed on might be too high to for the sink above. But, after running on tuesday evening to IKEA to take measurement of the depth of the sink i ordered, it seemed ok, it would have just demanded to rise the worktop by 2cm. But better, this morning the plumber came to cut off the gazline , and he took off the device and the counter ( as i switch to an electrical stove ), so i worried for nothing basically...

Tomorrow the contractor who took off the walls will come to finish. He will also plaster around the spot where the plumber worked this morning.
And then it will be my turn with painting the kitchen this weekend. Will be tough, a friend from Zurich asked if she could sleep over at my place this weekend...but she knows about the chaos ;)

So far, everything's going so fine, and i must say, i've been sooo lucky with the choice of contractors. Communication works well, and little extras or changements haven't been a problem. I think, this is a mayor ingredient of finishing this project successfully, and a big relief for me, as i can rely on them. (If you live near Geneva-Switzerland and are looking for a plumber, electrician or general contractor in construction, contact me, i'll be happy to recommend mine!)

Some new pics are on Flickr, also of a funky spot i've bought today (hmm, actually i bought two, one for the bathroom, one for the living room).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18145526@N00/

anne, tile work -- now that's good curing!

the good news is my friend got a job. the bad news is that she was going to paint my apt friday so it's all been pushed to next week. ah well. still hoping to be done by 5/15, when i host book club.

i know i'll keep going along, even after the cure officially ends. i've begun to find it addictive, this tweaking of my apt/life. i've got the next set of projects organized -- the dining room and then each of the closets will have their own cure and then the hallway (i'm thinking horizontal black and white stipes but that could change). somehow "decorating" seems less daunting, thanks to maxwell's (well-thumbed) book. the odd thing is that now when i go into other people's apts, i can get a feeling for their life by what's going on in their apt. now i understand why my european friends have a tradition of waiting to invite friends over; it's your psyche exposed!

I think I needed a break from my hectic schedule..I'm planning to do some major make over with my house and intend to go for a trip for a while...I'd like to visit those lovely scenery in time...
For now, i have to prepare the things I need for the make over and of course my car for the trip...I've checked out all my auto parts and luckily they were all in excellent condition except for my GMC brake pad which needs some replacement..
But anyway, i find this post very interesting and worthwhile...It gives me new and better things to do...

Thanks a lot..I'll just visit from time to time for some updates...=)