Name: Adam
Location: Somerville, MA
Type: Rented 3 bedroom (two roommates)
Go to: Adam's Original Entry
Adam's favorite OTHER entry:
Oh my! Thats a tough choice. I certainly liked the boldness of "Beth's Technicolor" and the slick look of "Gregg and Joe's Warm and Modern". But the one that stuck with me the most was "Joel's Lime Loft". Its a great space that I feel like I could live in. It's classy and hip without being pretentious. Its got some gutsy color choices and a clear sense of design, but also has a playful side. I'd say hands down thats my favorite.
Adam: Congrats on making it to the finals!
Love the curtains in the dining room -- where are they from?
I'm always curious about decorating dilemas when living with roommates. How did you and yours agree on colors, wall art, furniture arrangement, etc?
OMG, Gregg & Joe's Warm & MOdern was one of our favorites too!....anyway, cool space.
Adam. Fabulous video. Wonderful place.
Excellent Choice! Great color use throughout.
I like the fourth photo especially.
And love the music in the video.
love the pink bathroom!
and so happy to see you in the finals!
oooh, I'm so happy to see this one in the finals. yippee!
adam - I love the desk in your room, where did you get that?
Love that dining room in the 7 photos. I wondered how I missed that the first time around. Those b&w curtains with those b&w comic book prints are great. Really love it with the orange and it isn't too Halloweenish like I would have thought. Fun to see.
Nice pick judges! I especially appreciate that Adam shares his place with roommates- I lived with 3 other girls for a couple of years and decorating by consensus isn't the easiest thing...Congratulations on being a finalist!
The gnome still kinda freaks me out, but I love the rest of it. The orange dining room is great. Good luck!
I too love the curtains! They are exactly what I've been looking for. Can you tell us where we can buy them? Job well done!
Hey, Adam --
Yours was one of my favorite entries in the entire contest, so I'm really glad to see you in the finals! It made me feel good.
Me three wants to know the source of the curtains...and can you tell the story of your bed loft?
Congrats!!
I just re-read the original thread for this entry.
I'm glad you've been vindicated. Interesting to me is how did the judges know from those two pics (and you were right, one of either of the two desk spaces would have "perked up" the original entry) that you carried colour so well through the rest of your place?
Inspriational and your photography is to die for. Congrats!
Okay - wow! Thanks everyone - I am SO happy to get to share my house with you! The roommates were just a stroke of luck - I'm an artist, one is a graphic designer, the other works in education and theater. So we're all pretty artsy - and sometimes we do disagree - but we all get along most of the time. Lots of the color was here when I got here.
The dining room curtains: are actually a shower curtain from Bed Bath & Beyond. it was exactly the graphic look I was going for - and its cotton - so I chopped it up and ran it through the sewing machine.
The birch desk in my room is from Offi. I found it on craigslist for a STEAL! The other is an old oak desk from the 60's that my work was throwing
out.
The loft bed was also here when I got here. It was very rickety and just plain raw wood (eww). But nothing that some paint and a few hundred wood screws couldn't fix. It's a little unnerving at first, but it give SO much storage I cant think of how I lived without it before.
and I cant stress enough my thanks to Apartment Therapy for seeing something in my original entry. I was truly stunned when I got the email because there were just so many great entries.
finalists were chosen from the top scorers in terms of votes.
it's just a lucky fluke that the rest of his place is as colorful and fun as the bedroom!
Adam,
It's great fun to see more of your place. I didn't really notice how wonderful it is on first viewing. I am totally amazed at your collection of vintage chairs. What also amazes me is that so many students have great places. This is a far cry from what I had as a student, and I never met men whose places looked good. I think the internet, Target, etc. has made design more democratic and that's a good thing.
I love your place. I imagine you will always have a great place. It would be interesting to watch your style evolve. I'd love to see what happens when you have money and have your own place.
YEAY! Adams place is a finalist!
I met Adam at an Eames Film festival event at the Boston DWR a few weeks ago-and his house fits him to a tee- quirky and interesting.
Awesome to see you up here kiddo! Congrats from one chair freak to another. xxxA
Somerville-holla :)
Great job Adam, the orange dining room is very cool.
To be honest - based on the original entry - I wasn't crazy about it. BUT boy - was I wrong. You haven't stuck to just 3 colours as many people suggest - yet it all works, and it looks great! I'm anxiously awaiting to get my first apartment and love so many colours that I was "afraid" it couldn't be done without looking like a mess - but you've proved that it can look fabulous.
Great compsotion in your photos! I'm glad we got to see more.
I love it! A great choice.
Hey, Adam. Somerville shout out! Represent, brother. Your win is as exciting as the Red Sox in 04 and I take the same undeserved pride in your apartment as I did then for something I have nothing to do with and yet inexplicably feel happy about.
Love the apartment, gnome as thematic anchor, music in video, the mix of colors and you for taking multiple photos of the gnome in your video. I'll cheer you on from the sidelines even though I suspect you are a competitor in the rapidly escalating Boston craigslist battle.
Now go forth to victory.
It was so interesting to see the other rooms which I think are so much better than the original entry. Who knew? I really liked the juxtoposition of the black and white comics pages in the orange dining room with the black and white curtains.
Looking back on the original entry - oy... what was I thinking with those throw pillows!?
In the postings on my original entry I really tried to stress the point that having a cool house doesn't mean you need lots of money. All you need is time and dedication and a small budget and not be afraid to get your hands dirty.
The curtains in the living room are made from a piece of fabric that cost $10. I lined the curtains with a white sheet from Goodwill ($2). The dining room curtains were made from a fabric shower curtain. The table cloth was one of those giant window panels from Ikea (hemmed up, of course) The comic artwork sells for about $5-$30 for an original page.
The chair collection has been put together from various places - my dads barn, craigslist, ebay. The only one I splurged on was the red chair - a birthday gift to myself :-D The big leather chair was a junk store find for $150. (you can imagine the shape it was in!) But some sandpaper, shellac, a staple gun and a piece of leather from eBay brought it back to life again. ...did I mention I was hands on? lol.
I think a lot of the problem is inspiration and access. Places like DWR are GORGEOUS - but sometimes totally out of price range, and that can be intimidating. Your house doesn't have to look like a catalog page to be fun and livable.
PS: I am not a student. When I was my house had a gold velvet couch. I was young...I didnt know any better. ;-D
Most of my favorite entries fell in the East coast section and this was one of them. I liked how the focus of color was about the objects, fabrics, furniture in the room. Painting a wall is easy, (well, not exactly, but...) however incorporating a group of colorful pieces in one room and having it work isn't as simple. Well done and congrats.
Love the red shoes as the intro to the video. Nice personal touch. I like how every room has it's own personality. Great job.
Adam - I wasn't totally sold looking at your initial pics, but I have to say I'm impressed at your creative use of color throughout your home. Nice job..it's also great to see someone from Somerville!
Hey Adam, congrats on being one of the finalists!! Great work you've done.
I'm thrilled that you picked my place as your favorite. That is a fabulous compliment so thank you! I, too, am a hands on person so I appreciate the work you've done to your place very much... well done, indeed. And nice video, too!
Joel - I can only reiterate what I said in my initial comments... the whole vibe of your place was great - from the trash day finds to the handmade lamp. Loves it!
Gregg & Joe - I hope you guys do a house tour after this. The green and the red that you used were great, intriguing colors - and completely absent from the rest of the contestants.(points for originality!) Plus, I'm a total sucker for prefabs! All I want is a glass box to live in somewhere...*sigh*
Jenn & Chris - I loved the lamp in your entry (go Boston BTW!) I'm thinking of getting something similar to replace the bird adorned lamp in my bedroom - something reminiscent of an Arco lamp - but not totally in that direction.
EXCEPTIONAL! Your house and your presentation of it was awesome. So very unique and creative. Your dining room actually made me say aloud "That's cool."
It is totally not my style at all, but your commitment to your own style made me respect it all the way. Kudos and congrats!!
Adam, you are my favorite finalist thus far! very cool place.
Adam, love your space, there is loads to look at. Excellent choice on Lemon Jelly as the background music too!
I don't know that anyone's mentioned it, but I love the shot of the living room.
adam's true colors in his own words:
QUOTE:
:...what a mean thing to say! Of course I live here, I'm not 3, and I would certainly hope that when you say "fruity" you're not making a bigotted comment. Altho if you were it might account for your unwillingness to appreciate other peoples style. If you can't say something nice, or even useful, dont bother.
Posted by adam at 10/11/06 2:29 PM
SO RIGHT , SO GRWON_UP and CONCERNED ABOUT BIGOTRY, wow, WHAT A WHINER, um i mean WINNER
QUOTE:
if YOU brought someone 'serious' to MY bedroom I'd be concerned.
Lapo- some people-like you- view Eames' furniture as a status symbol. I view it as a design interest. (A photo of my bookshelf would reveal that) I dont shop at DWR and my mattress is perfectly comfortable. (conceit: the throw pillows were a bad decision for the sake of the contest)
Its easy to have a gorgeous house if you've got money.
Posted by adam at 10/27/06 11:04 AM
DEEP, TOO and SO SO RIGHT!
Lapo - there is a difference between criticism that is constructive and criticism that is disparaging. If you were offering some good suggestions I'd willingly take them into consideration.
Posted by adam at 11/01/06 10:31 AM
LIKE A DOG WITH A BONE...
As for my 'design interests', I'm glad you feel confident enough to write off one of most influential and expansive design teams of the 20th Century as "boring". Perhaps you are right. Afterall...the Eames ONLY operated their studio for 40 years. They ONLY reinvented the way people design and buy furniture. Their photographs ONLY comprise 5% of the Library of Congress' print collection. They ONLY created hundreds of films, ONLY created museum exhibits (stills showing today), ONLY worked with IBM, Westinghouse, Boeing, and Polaroid, ONLY have artwork and items in most Modern museum collections. You're right. I should just... NOT be interested in them because DWR promotes their furniture, and because you think it's cliche.
Posted by adam at 11/01/06 10:31 AM
AH, THE ANGRY YOUNG MAN, so HOT AND WORTHY
Fun response. -"ego blasts of rage" - hehehe... Raving crazy...but fun ;-D
Posted by adam at 11/02/06 5:45 PM
TAKING IT ALL IN STRIDE N SHOVING IT IN EVERYONES FACE...AS USUAL!
U R A SORE CONTESTANT
ALL THE SUNNY 'TUDE NOW CAN'T HIDE YOUR INDIGNITE HATEFUL CAN -DISH- IT- OUT -BUT-CAN'T- TAKE- IT RAGE.
POSITIVE COMPANIES DONOT GIVE THEIR CASH PRIZES TO SORE CONTESTANTS.
FAKE REPLIES WON;T HELP EITHER....LOTSA LUCK IN LIFE U WILL NEED IT ALL.
gosh... I guess I'd better come clean. I tried to hide it, but that photo of my pink bathroom really expresses just how rageful I am. I'm sorry for losing control like that.
you Lost brother,
Fair n Square
For All the Reasons ( ranting, rude, ridiculous ) you created
in your initial- honest, uninhibited, revealing- responses.
honesty is -in the end Adam- the greatest kindness. If you reread my first post to you, you will learn something that wil benefit you the rest of your life.