apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Antique hardware, books, tools and utilitarian items. Here's the start of my flickr set:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/noaccountingfortaste/sets/72157622448087069/

I think your bedroom is far from blah, but rather a calm ahhhh. You probably just got bored with it. I think it looks very relaxing, except for the stuff on the drawers.

My vision is to create a warm, cozy, yet light main room (living, dining, kitchen). For New York apartments, it's not a small room (about 450 square feet), but there are still a lot of limitations. I live in a brownstone (yea!), so it's narrow. I brought in some new furniture that I thought would be warm, but it's too dark and dense, so it sucked the life out of the room. I can't wait until I can get it out of here! Then I'll be able to get our home off to a good start.

old movies.
Also magazines (still mourning Domino)
My collection/style trays:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/autzve/collections/72157622139307648/ Needs some updating. Perhaps this week I can get the new pictures up.

I have to say out of the four different bedroom pictures, I like the "currently" room the best.

I also like the current room the best!

My inspiration, strangely enough, is the iron skillet. Seriously. I want my home to be filled with items that are not throwaway. I want the pieces in my home to be built to last generations. The iron skillet is to me the definition of something that is built to last generations that you don't just throw away. I'm tired of college-style furniture and decorations. I don't want furniture made out of particle board. I want things to last. I also want things to be made out of natural materials. To be warm, comfy, inviting, earthy, relaxing.

I have found the change of weather to be very inspirational. The moment it cooled down, the words escape, embracing, snuggle and haven came to mind.

I want to be enveloped in textures and layers that create a feeling of warmth and reminds you that yes winter is outside, but inside it is a haven of warmth and goodness. Home.

A couple things inspiring me right now:

This texture: http://www.westelm.com/products/b472/?pkey=cblankets-throws

This warm and inviting loveliness - http://a323.yahoofs.com/ymg/homebeautiful__12/homebeautiful-168688492-1255326336.jpg?ymAaFCCDhkRhJR7.

I've been getting a lot of inspiration from various sneak peaks on Design*Sponge lately. I'm revisiting my desire of a couple of years ago to have a wall that is flannel grey or to paint my bedroom a pale blue grey.

The picture of the green headboard makes me want to do something I've always dreamed of doing: wallpaper an entire room in astroturf.

My goal right now is to create a calm, comfortable bedroom and a dynamic living room.

My current inspiration, oddly enough, is my own messy house! I've seen how much potential I have in the things I already own, now it's more a matter of weeding out clutter (it draws attention away from truly wonderful items that I love) and giving everything a home.

My latest inspiration is this cottage. It's small, but functional. (I think it has more counter space in the kitchen than my house does. And it has a separate laundry area!) It's clean and sleek, yet still has character. (It could use more color and more bare wood, though the river rock makes up for a lot.)

my inspiration lately has been more of a cabinet of curiosities style - old bones, strange displays, utter uniqueness

I lived in an attic apartment with slanted walls before. I liked it. I'm also short so it wasn't too bothersome. My roommate hit his head in the shower all the time.

Inspiration: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/7860/macoto-murayama-inorganic-flora.html turned into a chandelier (the third from the bottom)

My inspirations right now are mixed-media paintings and assemblages (Cy Twombly, Joseph Cornell...)... I currently have a lot of neutrals and blues in my apt, so I'd like to add more happy colours, perhaps some shots of yellow/orange....... I want my space to come to life! Btw, I'll be doing a deep clean, and a partial one-roomer with my bathroom (need to redo the tiles - yikes!).

I think I'll keep be using kaboodle as my online inspiration board; I'll be updating it this week: http://www.kaboodle.com/endofmay/home-sweet-home.html

my inspiration comes from nature... organic wood, grass green, the oranges and pinks and reds of flowers, sky blue.

My inspiration is to have a house that finally no longer screams 'poor college student' to something that reflects the fact that we are adults. I've been decluttering like crazy and, after 5 years of living in our house, we're finally starting to paint, hang curtains, and put up artwork. So I'm basically putting into motion a plan that's been in the works for years.

For this cure, I'm focusing on my kitchen. My inspiration comes from casual British country and granny chic.

I also really like Canadian designer Sarah Richardson for her clean functional furniture lines and her use of vintage pieces in new settings. I particularly adored Sarah's Cottage this summer. She uses old and new seamlessly and her rooms are functional first and then beautiful.

I'd like a wholly livable space for once. I live in a studio and somehow (!!) there's a whole 1/4 of the apartment that I don't live in at all. Probably because light never makes it all the way back to that corner.

My inspiration is having just moved to our first home together. I want to "graduate" from having a place where my stuff is to having a home. I value form & function, so I want to weed out all the junk I've collected over time and only keep things that I feel connected to. Through that process I hope to discover my personal style.

I've been getting a charge out of my flickr design crush: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gigi_sean/
and try to use his eyes on whatever I'm working on in my space. I've got a design challenge: 3 sons, 1100 sq ft, and a home acupuncture practice. I am interested in working on the spaces one sees when coming for treatment: entrance, foyer, bathroom (this room drives me crazy!), treatment room (also our bedroom !).

Our very green lounge needs to be degreened, although I'm not allowed to repaint so we'll see how that goes. Also, budget is TIGHT! We're still planning to open the fire, change the curtains and the sofas. The budget part is our biggest challenge as we also have studenty posters in the room along with a plethora (sp?) of kids DVDs that are starting to dominate - yuck! Anyway, here's a first bit of inspiration....
http://stores.shop.ebay.co.uk/LUNANOTTINGHAM__W0QQ_sacatZLUNANOTTINGHAMQ5fQ5fW0Q51Q51Q5farmrsQ5A1QQ_sidZ4341315?_nkw=light&submit=Search

I love all the lights from Luna in Nottingham.

My biggest inspirations are some of my favorite experiences, such as driving along the highway on a sunny day with the radio going, or my travels. The sense of openness and possibility, as well as a feeling of excitement and adventure. I love bright colors, such as reds and blues. I want walking into my apartment to give me the same sense of happiness that I get zipping up my traveler's backpack or driving with my favorite cd playing.

My most recent and current inspiration for my home is Norway! Yes. The country. My husband and I decided a few months ago (after reading an article in Womens Health mag) that we are going to move to Norway in less than two years. We just bought a home in CA--our first home--that is roughly 2000 sq. ft., which is a huge leap from the 1000 sq. ft. home we were renting prior; needless to say, we have a ton of unused space, and endless amounts of storage in our new home. Don't get me wrong, I am definitely NOT complaining, especially since most of you reading this are probably in a small apartment and are cursing me right now... :)

Thinking of moving to Norway, and our new life there (and the shipping fees for our crap), has inspired us to down-size and think twice before purchasing material goods, and keeps us focused on purchasing valuable and timeless items that we want to take with us, i.e. MCM furniture, vintage pieces like rugs and textiles, and gifts our friends and family have given us. This thought process has provided us with guidelines--discipline, really--for staying true to ourselves and planning for the future, which I think is so important when there is all this junk out there that one could impulsively buy and regret later...we're surrounded by it!
One last thing:
It's refreshing to be a part of this AT community, where readers like me value Kilims over PS3s...

Crisis. I am making a rabbit room.
I like how Maxwell put it, crisis is a good motivator, but doesn't give good direction.
Anyway, The most recent crisis relevant to my living space is my youngest daughter dumping 4 rabbits on me when they (the rabbits) were evicted from the horse barns at the racecourse. I already had 2, so that made 6. I did get 2 of them off to the House Rabbit organization, so am left with 4.
I'm sure there are many AT readers going WTF?
Rabbit rescue can't take any more because a local shelter closed, & left them with 17. 17 rabbits.
The shelter I volunteer at is in the middle of a cat hoarding crisis (over 50 cats & kittens) so they have no room. I usually end up being the foster home for bunnies anyway. The last foster rabbit really made a mess of my cured living room. I almost had the room put back together when these showed up.
-So-
I thought I was going to get a sewing/guest room after my youngest moved out, but I have to solve the rabbit situation, not just keep trying to work around them.
The room has to function, like how a laundry room has to function.
I would like for it to be lighthearted & fun, but not 'cute'.
In relation to the rest of the apartment, this gets a rabbit out of my bedroom (!) and another out of the kitchen (!)
That result sets in motion finally being able to make those rooms nicer.
That is why this is not such a ridiculous idea.

Chloe C, I think you have the most exciting reason to cure!

Chloe C -
That sounds awesome! I would like to see some of the photos after. I have a bunny who monopolizes my storage room, but we are lucky that he can roam the rest of the apartment without damaging it. Will your bunnies be free to roam in their new room?
I wonder how you could make two spaces by separating bunny level and people level. Could you have a sewing table over a bunny cage?
Thank you for giving these rabbits a place to live. To everyone else considering making a Rabbit your next pet (great for appartments) please go to a shelter and not a pet store.
Cheers!

ummmm.... i really don't know what my inspiration is. i've been trying to seek out inspirational pictures all day and don't really see a common theme or relation of the pictures i'm drawn to with my actual situation.

i just really want to fix and organize my entry way/main room/living room/kitchen (they are all the same room, basically). but everything feels very OVERWHELMING and i don't know where to start. does this mean i'm not ready for the fall cure?

I guess this just goes to show that one person's inspiration is another's (my) "I just moved and haven't decorated yet" because the top left photo is identical to my room at the momet.

My inspiration is Maxwell's project. I'm going to do a bedroom Cure too. I desperately need a new mattress and I need to research and decide what to get. I also need to either fix or replace a lamp in the bedroom and the bed side tables could be either spruced up or replaced--I got some stain ages ago and never got around to doing that. If I get those things done, this will be a massive success. If I can squeeze out some more $$ after the purchase of a mattress, it would be lovely to get some new sheets too. A couple of Cures ago, I replaced the water heater in the bedroom closet and then painted the closet since I had to take everything out to do that. Big, big success, esp. since I needed to replace the water heater forever.

My Mother Is Moving In!

I am also doing a bedroom cure. I'd like to do both my room and my son's room but we'll see. He seems perfectly happy with his room where I am not happy with mine. I also need to do a general cure with focus on cleaning out the closets. And I have little projects in the living/dining room like having one chair re-upholstered and another one a diy. I also need to do something with my dining area. But the main cure is my bedroom. I want an all white room with natural wood elements but not minimal, I want to feel like I am floating in a cloud with really good art hanging on the walls. I need to pull up the carpet and finish the floor and paint. Biggest problem is my clothes or I don't seem to like to hang up my clothes and they end up draped on everything. So thats my task for this 8 weeks. I'll post some inspirations soon.

My inspiration is...finally being permitted by my "landlord" to paint the overwhelming wood paneling in my son's room. His is the last room to be tackled, but I've apparently managed to prove with my color choices elsewhere (on drywall) that I won't go batty, because I've got the go-ahead to paint the wood now. I say "wood", but I'm pretty sure it's cheap home depot wood-grain laminate of some sort, and it's overwhelmingly dark. So that will be my first step, and I hope the rest of the room will follow; it's a very, very big room and already burdened with too much furniture (and toys, three years of toys), so it'll probably be more about purging and rethinking finishes than actually adding things.

My inspiration is my embarrassment ; quite frankly. my apt looks like one big fat storage compartment and i am SO SICK of it already. I can't EVER have people over and an terrified if anyone even SUGGESTS it. i crave a calm, cozy, nurturing, comfortable home that i can be proud of and reflects my personality. i bought this book years ago and could just not get motivated. too overwhelmed. i hope its different this time.

I'm curing my summer kitchen which should take all my energy to achieve. My summer kitchen is part mud room, laundry, storage, and play room. It's also a beautiful room that shouldn't be neglected anymore. Inspiration for me is Abigail Ahearn: http://www.atelierabigailahern.com/interior.asp and Ilse Crawford, especially her Soho House NY: http://www.sohohouseny.com/#/bedrooms/playhouse_750_sq_ft

my current loves are chalkboard paint and wallpaper. i'm feeling my walls are in for some big changes. get ready boys!

bad joke of the day (so bad it's painful!):
what did one wall say to the other?
meet ya at the corner. (i feel you wincing.)

Lots of crisis to motivate me - several small glimmers of hope. I must start by saying that right now we live in a double-wide mobile home, and we know that it's not our permanent dwelling place, but it is temporarily permanent since we are barely into our 3rd year of marriage and I've finally achieved my dream of being a pharmacist and have been at my new job for a whole month now. So, I'd really like this place to feel like a home rather than a temporary holding place for our stuff while we budget our money wisely to be able to improve ourselves, which means my big limitation here is that the budget is $0.

Getting uncluttered is the #1 goal for me (including purging closets and dressers). #2 would be to turn our entry way/living room into a functional yet creativity-inspiring office (double-wides are only so wide but very long and our original office space is so far away from the rest of our "living space", and in the south we have a den which is where we entertain guests and have the TV and our normal living activities). Lastly, I am very inspired by our new comforter set http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/EnlargeProduct.asp?SKU=114217&ZMPHT=380/83067114217CZ.JPG and would love to get this cozy, snuggled-in feel throughout the rest of our house.

Appropriately, I feel inspired by fall...it makes me feel happy and cozy, and so that's the theme I'm going with in my home. And I'm also inspired to Cure by my desire to entertain and have my home comfortable and organized.

I'm moving in to my own apartment (no roommates) for the first time (at age 25 - it's about time) and am ready to have a home that does not look like a dorm room. I also finally will have multiple rooms in which to house my stuff, and am wanting to eliminate clutter as much as possible. My big inspirations are bold colors and shapes and a bit of absurdism. I am collecting images (mostly from Apartment Therapy and http://www.isuwannee.com/) at http://www.imgspark.com/image/listing/cellosubmarine. The Mondrian painting there is my biggest inspiration.

Also, thanks to Ashwenna for the great links - I love your style.

Wow - I was meant to stumble onto this site! I love to decorate but always a little short on money to get to my visions. This time I saw fabric - French General - which started the ideas for swapping bedrooms. Going down to a little one but moving all the sewing to the master. Cannot wait to purge, purge, purge and then organize. So I will start with my pictures in my head and hope they come out into something wonderful to look at every day. I am excited for the journey to begin...

My inspiration is a potential impending move - my boyfriend (who I live with) is applying to medical school residency programs. I'm currently in Toronto, but he's not sure where he might end up. Consequently, I'm not sure where I might end up. In case it's a smaller city, I've been trying to soak up everything I can. I've been taking craft classes like crazy, and I'm studying to write a professional accreditation exam for my field of work. We have a room we share as an office, but I know I distract him when I'm in there. He needs to study for school, so I mostly hang out in the living room. I'm fine with that, but I get sucked in by TV and don't get anything creative (or even non-creative!) done (all my stuff is in the office!). So, I'm working out a way to move some stuff into the living room, and to put some stuff in nice containers so my supplies will be more portable, and will hide away nicely. Phew, it felt good to write all that down!

Since i am doing two rooms i have two different visions.
I want my bedroom to be different than my entire house, which has an eclectic mix of things i love in every room, plus tons of vintage knick knacks with a lot of mid century decor.
The bedroom i want to be a resting place that speaks to a different personal side of me, that is minimal and calming and more like a spa, but a spa that i would design. I love the rooms that i see that have the big soft looking comforters and feel really simple and luxurious.

I want my extra room to gain organization and functionality. I want shelves for reference books and materials and for it to be a more personal reflection of things that i love & that inspire me that don't fit anywhere else in my house. I would love to make things that i have been planning to make from collected objects to hang on the walls, or at least feel like i have a place to do that. And I want to get all of the objects that belong on display to finally find a home in that room. and for once, i want a room that is monotone : all kinds of green!!