apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I am totally in for this, elbow grease version--I'm going to do my bedroom and maybe my living room. But first I have to...um...clean up a bit and...um...find my AT book...*blush*

Rats. I'm moving at the end of the month. Guess I'll have to catch up at Month 2.

Hey, Mlle Kate, if you want the book fast Amazon should be good and we can send you an autographed copy on Monday morning if you buy it through the store. We UPS it, so its fast.

www.store.apartmenttherapy.com

I've been waiting for this. I'm in the process of slowly decorating my first apartment, and I am in need of help from this fabulous community.

Thanks Maxwell, but I already own it. I just have to FIND it. (insert embarrassed eye roll here.)

Yea!

I need to update my pics with stuff I've finished since the last cure...

perfect timing. i just moved into my new place a month ago--this will get me off to a good start.

oh gosh. i move into my new condo on the 23rd.

*despondent wail*

i want to participate in the cure!

Yay, I posted my "before" pics! That took a lot of courage! I'm in for the Deep Treatment. Can't wait to go through this process with all of you.

Lisa - I looked hard for the clutter you mentioned, but couldn't find it! Your apartment looks great and I'm sure the Cure will make it even more fab!

I've also posted my before photos - and hope they make everyone feel better about their own spaces! I'm hoping for quite a transformation during this cure.

I'm also changing my AT posting name - it was Susie in England, but I think I'll go with Zooza instead as that's my blog and flickr name.

Susie

Sounds great! I've read the book and sorta-kinda made a budget last night for my living room. I have been obsessed with finding the right sofa. I am almost ready to commit to a Restoration Hardware sofa with down cushions. (Yummy! I've sat upon it and it feels so good!) Anyone have any comments about quality or the down cushions over time?

Do I need the book to participate?

Lisa in Sacremento - Your place is going to be SO fabulous. It looks to me like you're perfectly positioned in the starting gate for a really grand transformation. The place has a LOT going for it (LOVE the dividing shelf thing separating the kitchen.) You're going to do great.
Annie - So long as the cushions have a foam core or something more substantial that the down is wrapping, you're in good shape. That's exactly the way a hig-quality sofa should be made.

Sheila -- it's helpful to have the book. Maxwell does a great job of outlining the tasks for each week, but the book goes into more detail, and has the "state of the apartment" quiz that it's good to do at the beginning of the process. That being said, you can likely get away without having the book, but, is there any way you can get hold of a copy? Nearby bookstore? amazon.com? (see Maxwell's comment about an autographed copy, above)

Zooza -- I love your new name! I'll take the time to look at your pics after breakfast.

lisa in sacramento -- great apartment (you've done a lot already with a tiny space!) I love that room divider, and your stove, especially.

I'll post before pics once I've taken them. I'm moving, so the before pics will be of the empty apartment. (And, if you want to see clutter, you should see my living room right now, filled with packing boxes and bags of shredding to take to the recycling bin, and stuff that needs to be packed... ACK!!!!)

Annie, if your sofa has 100% down cushions you will likely spend a lot of time fluffing them up. I grew up with down cushioned sofas and chairs and it wasn't a lot of fun to keep them looking good all of the time. My parents eventually had the down replaced with synthetics and not only were the sythnthetics better apperance-wise they were actually more comfortable to sit on. There is absolutely no way I'd ever get down cushions on any furniture.

Sharon- Thanks for the feedback!

Sydney- That is a concern of mine though these do have a foam core with down wrap so I think I'll be ok

To all This is going to be so much fun...I have
been trying to get this thing done for soooo long.
The support will be great!

I like so many of your places already...and there is so much potential! I always have an easier time giving advice to others about what to do with their place than committing to my own.

Maybe I'll figure out how to post some pics...I'm new to this blogging thing

Annie

Annie, down-wrap over foam core is a totally different thing! I have down-wrap over foam on my sofa and it is great. Very comfortable and always looks good. It is 100% down you want to steer very far from!

Here are my before pictures.

I have been WAITING for this!! "THE" book was on my wish list and I got it at Christmas! I can't wait to start. I thought if I went it alone...I might not finish what I started...but now...now I'll have support! ~grinning from ear to ear~ I know I can do this!

Anthea, I love that red stenciled wall!

I have wanted to do something similar to a wall in my bedroom, but the walls in this place are that damn textured type. I suppose it wouldnt work for me, would it?

Anthea,

You're stenciled wall is really cool. Did you have to draw lines first as a guide for the stencil or can you just follow your previous stencil?

Great color too!

Anthea - Whoa. I looked at the photos from when you first moved in. What you've done with paint is amazing, not just the red, the black and white is fantastic.

I'm just hoping to GET my apartment to the place lisa's (in sacramento) is at. This round of the cure for me is just getting the bones of my apt to a relatively healthy place. All the thrills and frills of decor will have to come later... It's hard to keep my focus on my Deep Treatment goals though... I find my mind wandering off to the shopping list of the future. I'll get the courage to post some pics of my before soon. Feeling awfully vunerable about the state of my mess though. I too, am doing the cure after recovering from a long illness. It's daunting how bad a home can get when you simply don't have the energy to focus on it.

I'm just hoping to GET my apartment to the place lisa's (in sacramento) is at. This round of the cure for me is just getting the bones of my apt to a relatively healthy place. All the thrills and frills of decor will have to come later... It's hard to keep my focus on my Deep Treatment goals though... I find my mind wandering off to the shopping list of the future. I'll get the courage to post some pics of my before soon. Feeling awfully vunerable about the state of my mess though. I too, am doing the cure after recovering from a long illness. It's daunting how bad a home can get when you simply don't have the energy to focus on it.
p.s. I'm REALLY grateful for the wait on posting. part of my fear of posting my pics has come from reading the open threads and readers submissions lately. I've been reading the old book blog for some time and got really inspired to improve the health of my home. but the mean things being said in the open threads lately (by a small Few thankfully) have made me a little hesitant to open myself to that kind of attack.
Thanx MGR & KGR for your kindness & consideration in this community and for making an effort to keep this a supportive web space. :)

Lisa in Sacramento, would you please adopt me? I've searched for clutter in your apartment and even the areas you pointed out don't seem cluttered to me. In fact, I congratulate you on your well-thought-out solutions to living in a small space.

I'm wondering if you could move the sofa so that it is perpendicular to the wall, using the space where the chair is for your table? Then you might play your keyboard in the living area and your sofa would be facing the tv and therefore it would be easier to watch. In additio the table would always be available for meals or bill paying or whatever. You might then place the chair in the kitchen alcove w/a small tray table and hanging light you could have a comfy place to eat, read and hang out. Additionally, it would make a more intimate seating when you have guests. I was thinking abamboo shades would be a nice replacement for the levelors in the kitchen. They would give a nice shot of color and be inexpensive as well. Could you put your tv and other media in the bookcase? If the bookcase were in the space where the media center is now, the books and other items would make the tv less prominant and also make the entry to your bedroom more open

I was in Barnes and Noble the other day (the one on Broadway and 66th) and the Apartment Therapy book was very prominently displayed in the section about organizing; it was at the end of the bookshelf thing.

Stacia -- just wanted to say "I hear ya" about the nervousness in posting pics of your home. I was really nervous about it in the Fall Cure, because I'd read what some people said about other people's places in home tours and whatnot -- but I found the Cure Community (and that deserves capitalization) was a very supportive community, and really worked at lifting each other up, and giving encouragement, and only constructive criticism. Turned out I enjoyed the comments people put on my pics, and got some really good ideas from them (especially from the ones that were constructive criticism!)

My "before" pics are going to be even more delayed than I indicated earlier in this thread. I went in to the new-to-me apartment today, and discovered that it's not quite move-in ready yet. They've painted, and carpeted, but haven't had a chance to clean up or to put curtain rods back, so it's not yet ready for its close up. Oh well, more time for packing. Oh boy...

Hi -
Ok, I don't live in an apartment, I have a house (a *quite* small house, but a quite big lot), and I don't live in NY, I live in an almost rural suburb of Pittsburgh. But here I am, in the faith that a house cure works just as well. My question is - anyone else here a non-NYer house-dweller?

I guess I actually have 2 questions - I've got bulbs showing green, and hellebores blooming like crazy, now that the snow's melting off them, and even a little red primrose blooming by the birdbath. Lots of my next 8 weeks is going to involve cleaning up the garden and carrying on about the daffodils. Am I going to drive everyone else here into a coma if I blither about bulbs and garden tools, or will I find a few kindred spirits?

Joanne

sign me up---we've got baby stuff to declutter, it never ends!

Forgive my naivete, but does "joining" mean you just check the blog every day for posts? and follow the advice given? hopefully :)

Joanne-- as long as you share lots of pics so we can live vicariously! I live in Minneapolis, so it's definitely not NY, though I do live in an apartment, last cure, we had both, it's the same concepts.

SCB--I'm excited to see your new place, and how fun to take what you've worked on last time to a new place and start from scratch, so to speak, at least with the arranging and enjoying.

i'll be cheering from the side lines :)
expecting my AT book to arrive shortly! YAY! but due to classes etc no time for a cure. plus, as part of that surprise for my BF (from the bedroom post) i did a pretty deep clean/sort of many nooks and closets (under the sink, under the bathroom sink, all bedroom closets, and even somewhat inside the biggest closet full of "Stuff", and resorted the linens shelf).

cheers, everyone!

Joanne: I've seen a lot of house posters (non NY in particular) here before. From what I understand the major points and ideas of neater living don't restrict you to a tiny space!

Stacia: I'm in the same boat as you all around. I got and read through the book today and am planning on taking my pics Sunday afternoon, hopefully after I've done some of the vacuuming and moping bits... It has gotten outragous in here. Can't wait to see what everyone else is up to!

Joanne - I've got a house. Well, it's a 500 sq ft back-to-back terrace, so we only have two outside walls (and one of those is half underground), but its does have stairs! I'm in the UK and I'm doing the cure.

For everyone who is nervous about posting their pics - here are mine. We're doing the office in our 1050 sq ft house. (It'e all about perspective, isn't it? Our house is seen as very here in the Detroit area - it's not. We have space that we don't know what to do with.) I'll give some more details about the space once the cure starts all official-like.

See y'all tomorrow!

Lisa: I too assume that 'joining' just means checking the blog and cheering each other on...

Joanne: I have a house too AND love to garden. I'm in the Northeast so I won't be doing too much out of doors for a few weeks (the ground is covered in a foot plus of snow). My goal BEFORE I heard about the 'start' date of tomorrow was to get my living room done BEFORE gardening season arrived- so this is perfect timing!

Anthea:
I'd like to view your pics! Where can I find them? in 'House Tours?

Annie-- If you click my name, my flickr page will pop up.

Thanks for all the compliments. Chickylou and Art, I decided to stencil after I saw Curtis' apartment. (Give credit where credit is due. Thanks Curtis! I love your place) I bought the stencil from the stencil library (just google Stencil Library). It's called DE317 in the Art Deco section. It's a repeating stencil, so I didn't think I needed to draw guide lines, but now I wish I had. I found it very difficult to keep the stencil repeating in a straight pattern around that door in the wall. The pattern is VERY crooked up near the ceiling. I cut it out from the frame in the pictures, but trust me, it doesn't look very nice.

In addition to guidelines, I'd also use much better brushes. I bought a cheapo stencil bruch from a craft store, and I ended up switching to a proper oil painting brush eventually. You can see the dfference; I had much better control over the paint with the pricer brushes.

My biggest problem was that the stencil leaked after I'd done half the wall. The old paint would dry on it, and then the edges wouldn't lie flat. I ended up going back over every single line with a tiny brush and white paint to clean it all up. I spent WEEKS on it. I still fuss with the it occasionally. I keep a tiny pot of the red and white in my closet with tiny oil brushes, and when I have a free evening I sit and fix things. The imperfections don't show up in the picture, but they are pretty obvious if you're staning in front of the wall, and they drive me bananas. I've heard you can buy a spray on adhesive, and that it is better at preventing leakage. I'm repainting the green desk in my living room during the cure, and I plan to use another stencil on it's side. So I'll let you know if the spray adhesive works.

Art-- I think a stencil would look good on a textured wall. My only concern would be that you'd have problems with leakage if you can't keep the stencil flat...

Thanks, everyone, for such nice responses to my photos!

skywaykate - your pics from the last cure are really inspiring. love those cubes you found at Marshall's!

zooza - I purged some of my clutter before taking the photos. My pride got the best of me, which is why I sighed with admiration when I read that you had taken your pics as-is. Guess I'm a little insecure about my apt -- something I'm hoping the Cure will purge ME of!

Sharon - Love the pics on your company's website!

stacia in N.Cal - I was feeling the same sense of trepidation, but everyone here has been so nice!

ebrown - pack your stuff 'n come on! :) *Love* all the flower photos on your blog. Did you take them all yourself?

Does Belledame73 post on here? Thanks to her for all the great suggestions & feedback.

I've been reading the archived AT Cure blog and have to say I am intrigued, inspired and plan to join the Cure starting on the 5th.
Maxwell, is there a formal registration process for the AT Cure?

I've been working my apartment for nearly a year. I'm doing most of the work myself with a few exceptions. The kitchen, floor installation, plumbing & electrical work. My first apartment, I've started from scratch with regard to furniture--shopping sample sales, antique stores and the mid-priced stores (IKEA, West Elm, et al). Definitely a warm person, I can only imagine what I will find when its time to declutter. Paint is an obstacle, I'll ponder color choices for weeks. I've attached a link to my photographed progress.

http://picasaweb.google.com/apreziotti/ApartmentRenovationC506?authkey=Axftio-ndSM

Looking forward to getting the book this afternoon.

PS: My apologies if this posts twice...my browser blanked out on me. :)

I am looking forward to doing the cure, my main go is to declutter and organize. I already have the book and have done a few things, such as a landing strip. I can't wait to start.

Lynne

ebrown - also, thank you for all those suggestions. Unfortunately, the "livingroom" is not actually big enough to turn the sofa perpendicular to where it is now, but I have definitely toyed with the idea of turning my dining area into a reading nook. Putting the TV in the bookcase is an interesting idea...I'd need to cut the back out because I have a regular old tube TV and it wouldn't fit inside the bookcase very easily. But the idea of putting the TV inside some sort of cabinet is a good one...will keep thinking...

Thanx everyone for your encouragement!

smallcitybeth: Thank you too. like i mentioned I Read all the posts from the previous cures (printed them ALL out, in fact, and read them as my bedtime reading) and it's kinda neat to recognize a previous curer. knowing you're a veteran to the process (and not a cure 'virgin' like myself :) makes your kind words mean a lot.

Joanne: I also don't have an 'apt'. Tho i refer to it as one. I actually live in a small mother-in-law cottage attached to a tiny pre-war one car garage - which is in my land lady's back yard. it's neat. I have a sliding glass door and my own yard. sorta. i've started all sorts of gardening and landscaping projects over the years. most that were more than I could handle and many that have never quite gotten finished. I too think this will be part of my long term cure. tho this time around i'm concentrating on CLEANING MY DAMN KITCHEN. ick ick ick. Oh. and I live in VERY RURAL Northern California. Humboldt County. Big Redwood Trees, crazy folks, old hippies, redneck ranchers and loggers, and a reputation for... well... If you've heard of Humboldt County you may have heard of Humboldt "Green". I'm six hours North of San Francisco. We have a target. A Kmart. And there's a walmart in the next county - about 2 hours away. There's a very 'high end' design and art community here however, so for those special 'have to have the best' pieces I have resources. And of course, online shopping.

(I do have live in NY on my list of things to do before I die though)

Okay. total duh comment here. Where do I find the instructions for posting pics on flicker?
I know I've seen them. Are they with the worksheets and excerpts?
Having complete "der!" moment here.

Alright, I'm officially in. I was at *least* going to be unofficially in. I moved into my condo in Minneapolis (what's up skywaykate!) last November. Then the holidays came. Then I visited my sister in SE Asia. Now I've been here FAR too long to NOT have had a housewarming party...the troops are getting restless! An added challenge is that I might have a foreign exchange student stay with me over the summer...so I've got to actually do the 2nd bedroom instead of just ignore it as planned :)

I still have moving crap everywhere, hopefully I'll take pictures soon! Although here is a link to the realty pictures...you can see the hideous orange dining room I've already painted over (which bears mentioning, for SURE...took 6 coats...and I may decide to do more in the future!)

HELP - I'm drowning in STUFF ! I moved from a large house to a 1BD apartment in the city. I've gotten rid of truckloads of stuff but still have 3 times too much.
I want my new home to reflect my new urban style !

I also need some guidance on posting my photos from flickr!

Okay, apparently I successfully posted my pics. Here are the "before." My roommate is still in graduate school and I'm only two years out of college, so I'm working with an extremely tight budget. I'm well aware of all the flaws in my one big space that is supposed to function as kitchen, dining room, living room, and library/office. We have a TON of books because my roommate is getting his PhD, and I work from home. Unfortunately, we really can't get rid of any. However, there are MANY things in the room that need to be decluttered and can be gotten rid of or hidden. I moved back home to New Orleans less than a month before Hurricane Katrina. After the evacuation and having to live away from home for several months, I never felt like I adequately organized my apartment and sorted through my many boxes of things from college. The painting is my roommate's. It was done by a friend of ours. It kind of scared me at first, but I do like the color, so we've compromised. Also, the sea green clock from the 1940's and my collection of colored glass are two of my favorite things in the room. I'm really looking forward to beginning the cure. I'm hoping to make a lot of progress on a small budget and ultimately get rid of a lot of the unnecessary clutter. Can't wait to see everybody else's befores and afters.

Definitely going to participate, but I'm going to be off a week since I'm taking thirty students to Paris from March 9-18. HOWEVER, I've established my OUTBOX and plan to use the Paris trip to gather ideas for my style tray, so there. The book arrived last week--autographed!--and I read it cover to cover and am very very excited.

My eventual (evil) plan is to finish the Eight Week Cure and immediately roll into an Eight Week Classroom Cure, since that is a disaster area. I'll post pictures at some point--I have a HUGE classroom with disco balls and a four-hundred-pound clock--but it's more out of control than my apartment and needs the LESS IS MORE mantra applied to it, too.

Good luck, everyone!

Got my befores up. It was eye-opening to take photos of my apartment. I'm going to try to blog about the whole thing as well as uploading my photos to flickr.

Flickr is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/twergi/sets/1014770/

Blog is if you click on my name. Can't wait to get feedback. I feel like I'm starting so far behind everyone else in terms of design and style, which is shameful for me since I'm a graphic designer. What can I say? Its been a hard year.

REMINDER: Please tag your Cure photos with 'apartmenttherapycure' so they will show up in the group pool. When you have uploaded your five or six pics at a time, you can enter this tag and it will assigned to all of the photos in the upload.

Then everyone who checks the Cure pool will see your stuff instead of having to come here and scroll for links.

Thanks.

Scratch that! I meant to say Add your photos to the group pool (after you've joined it). THEN we'll see it on the group pool page with everyone else's.

If you are new to flickr one tool that can help you out is the flickr uploadr - you can just drag pictures in from your desktop and it will resize them and let you tag them and it makes everything very easy.

That said, I will be doing a very disorganized one-room Cure as the electrician is coming tomorrow to rewire the master bathroom. But that's just fine by me as I didn't think he'd be able to come for another week or two!

i read ahead in the book + i'm ready to clean my floors. i'm posting about the cure on my blog too.
i'm shy about pictures of our home.

I love the idea of joining the "Cure" online, but am moving on the 25th from a STUDIO to a TWO BEDROOM. I'm so excited it keeps me up at night as I plan for a real bedroom and an office/study space.... so I'll catch up with y'all when the paint dries and I can start really warming the place up!

Well, here I am again, doing the Cure for the third time. This time I mean to REALLY get in there and do it well. I don't know how it happens, but there always seems to be MORE stuff for my Out Box. This will be interesting.

More pictures up. I've already kind of started, because I'm moving in and unpacking and finding myself wanting to solve problems before they start.

My biggest problem is still how to arrange the main room with the loft bed. I am going to purchase a loveseat I think, but maybe there are other less conventional ideas to arrange a seating area? I'll post a floor plan so you can see what I'm working with, if anyone wants to offer suggestions.

Thanks!

I am all in for the cure-just read the book and I can't wait! I just put pics of my kitchen up, (lja40) and I am going to take pics of my dining and living rooms today. It it eye opening to say the least!

I'm going to try the Cure again and hope to catch up with everybody else.

I couldn't commit last fall since I had so much going on at the same time and had to pretty much quit participating. This spring I have way more time on my hands.

Thanks Maxwell for doing the AT Cure again!!

I'm in too! And don't worry, was it Joanne? I don't have an apt either but I think the principles are the same no matter how big your living space is.

I hope to get my before pictures posted sometime today--if I can figure Flickr out, I've never used it before.

I plan on doing an overall cure and a one room detailed cure at the same time (because my daughters room is driving me nuts and needs to be taken care of!)

Hi everyone!

I couldn't stay away, though I'm on the fence about participating. We're not ready to do the bathroom like I had planned: with tile in the bath tub area. We just got the darn room painted--and the shelves aren't even back up yet.

I live with my 2 kids (6.5 dd and 9.5 ds) and dh in a 1200 sq foot house in western Canada. There's MORE than a foot of snow on the ground out there, believe me! Click on my name to go to my flickr set. All the after pics are pretty much the "before" pics, now. Except I have even more clutter than I had. (sigh)

I intend to read the threads and gauge what I can do. I learned so much about myself during the last cure--such as I tend to be compulsive and obssessive about taking on a project like this--and I really can't let that happen again.

Glad to see you smallcitybeth and AnneinReno. Good to see some familiar names.

I'm cheering all of you on. This will not only change your apartments/houses--but your life.

what if you have completed one room (bathroom) but did not take before pictures? I'm redoing my apartment as well. But only one room is finished. The rest of apartment is going through overhaul, but we've painted rooms already (wait, except the kitchen, it's still horrible)... I want to join!

Is anyone participating so far in LA? I'd love to do some fabric shopping/oogling downtown (never been!) this up coming weekend and would love to meet new people.

I've also created a flickr account to make things easier.

Let the games begin!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7213942@N07/

OK. I'm finally going to get this place under control. Pictures posted!

I can't believe it -- I lost my AT Cure book! :( My whole place could use a deep cleaning but my bedroom in particular has to be cured. Don't know if I'll have the courage to post a before pic and I'm sort of scared of making a commitment to this Cure. However, I do remember that I finally got off my fanny and accomplished quite a bit with the Fall Cure, so I'm thinking about it.

I'm in for the deep treatment. I just posted my pics on Flickr, but I'm still working on descriptions and such. I'd love some advice on what to do for living room curtains...

Well... there are some inspiration pics up, and some of my 745 sq. ft. cottage.
Comments are welcome (additional pics/tour to come)!

The Deep Clean begins this evening... and is my weekend project! Anyone know of a good home for my dust bunnies? They're up for adoption!
Yee-HAH!