apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Bravo - I love the attention to detail in every corner of the place as well as the split level bedroom.

You've got some great pieces of art and furniture and some terrific collections, but for me personally the space feels very congested (I'm much more of a minimalist). The lighting definitely needs work. Overall I like it, but I'd do a major editing overhaul on the entire apartment.

Really cute - but I couldn't help but feel like you must spend so much of your life dusting. So many trinkets and things to catch/contain dust. That said, I totally covet the cast iron desk base.

I like it. Very creative. I am not a minimalist either ( although I appreciate it in others) I like how you display/ use objects that oobviously bring you joy.

might want to declutter.

It's beautiful...I especially love your wall of art. I'm just starting to unpack all my art after my renovation. I'm inspired to copy your style. (I'm not a minimalist...viva la stuff!)

All I can think about is how much dusting it must take to keep all of those things clean.

I am a minimalist but I still love your place. I really love how you have used ordinary and utilitarian objects as art, and how they come from around the world. There is so much that is absolutely fascinating here.

I love your idea on the demystifying of light and I might steal it. I am in love with your orange sofa, ceramic tiles and Bulgarian posters. Grandpa's TV is wonderful as well. Wish I had chic grandparents.

The sliding door with ribbon and mesh is beautiful! I enjoyed your place. Thanks for sharing.

I'd like to see less clutter, but your place is nonethelss beautiful. Was it Paige who had that messy, dirty cluttery place recently with all the agricultural equipment? She needs to take lessons from you. There are ways to display objects beautifully.

I enjoyed seeing your place, thanks for sharing.

P.S. Are those posters from Bulgaria vintage propoganda? Does any know a good source for Communist propoganda posters?

Thanks for sharing your great apartment: it has warmth, coziness, and ingenuity. In addition, I really appreciate how it reflects your interests, personal and family history, and personality.

(It also makes me glad to know that AT editors don't live in icily stylish, mind-numbingly minimalist flats. Thanks, Jill!)

I'm not the only one who loves old egg prints! I have two Rev. Morris ones framed in my living room... love yours in the kitchen. Very quirky, cozy apt.

I'm a bit more of a minimalist but its a struggle, a real daily struggle. That said, what I love most about your place is that it is real. I love what you've done with old pieces - you've given them respect.

It becomes tiresome and boring to see the same old mid-century modern apartment - although I love this stuff - but I learn more from and appreciate more apartments with personality. Yours has personality. Love it.

I love it, despite being a lover of minimalism. I can't stand the thought of dusting numerous little trinkets but your collections are refreshingly unique. I bet you've got a really quirky, fun personality.

Really cool stuff. Don't you want some more color or something in the bathroom though? Maybe something pale.

the wine crates is the closet is the best idea ever!

Jackie (the original one) is so right:
your apartment feels REAL... not currated or self-consciously on display.

in the closet. in the closet.

are the best idea.

sorry - must proofread.

too excited.

I love this flat. Every section has been given time and attention. The different collections are amazing. Very livable and interesting.

I have two of the hinged-lid Russian tea tin that's in the medicine cabinet. I've never seen them anywhere before!

Yes, I love the wooden wine crates in the closet. Where does one find these? Do you just drink copious amounts of wine?

kkf--I have started picking these up too, only I didn't know what to do with them! I might steal Jill's idea and put them on my bookcase, but I also thought of making a side table from one or a shadowbox. I get them by trolling my local liquor stores storefront. I would just check in front or behind of wine shops.

Your sense of style, creativity and attention to detail combine to make an enchanting home. The photography is also wonderful!

hey neighbor! i recognize that view...not too far from my own apartment. : )

love the colors, especially the orange couch. thanks for sharing your home.

your apartment is wonderful, i love the wall of art work. I also love the burette used as a case type thing, so creative.

Love your place Jill. You are an original. Your touch is everywhere in your place.

I can't believe what great shape that orange couch is in.

i can't decide whether to be inspired or self-deprecating.

vous-etre une artiste!

Jill, it looks incredible. Did you redo the bathroom door's inset pattern? I love it. Everything is so unique, original, refreshing and so well arranged and assembled! Everyone, hire Jill to help you fix up your own places!

I really like the bathroom, its nice that it is so stark. I have to wonder what has stopped you from decorating it in the same vein as the rest of your apartment. Your medicine cabinet is lovely. If a guest were nosy enough to peer in, he would be greatly rewarded.

Sam,

Collections are not clutter. As far as I see she has no "clutter".

Love it. It's a home with a lot of personality.

Artfully done! Bravo. While I like to have fewer things, that's just my own pesonal preference You've done a great job displaying your collections. And I love your kitchen. Just goes to show that one doesn't need a McMansion kitchen to cook often and cook well. Entre nous, is that a Clicquot top chair in your medicine cab? Thanks for letting us peak into your home.

I get so pissed off with people who write "might want to declutter" - thats the way people like to live OK - its not clutter - its precious possessions - you wouldn't go into a museum or art gallery and say "too many items in this room. why don't you get rid of some?" - this site is not about competition to see who can have the least amount of stuff in a room!!

I love this apartment - it might not be what I'd choose but it is beautiful and well-thought out - it looks easy to live in and the collections of items are displayed perfectly - there are some very interesting uses of found objects and materials but they have been made to look polished - and that orange sofa is da bomb!!

Love your collections! Especially the bits of nature on the cafeteria trays. Love the whole place. You must be a very hard worker to put all that together so wonderfully...

And, as for the clutter controversy, rather than define clutter as quantity, I prefer to think of it as things you neither use nor love. These clearly loved collections are anything but clutter.

I love your artwork and your windows. Your space has an unusual shape but you have done a great job of creating continuity. I agree with others who say it seems a bit cluttered but I have seen much worse! Your pieces are interesting and mostly collections, which create the illusion of one large object rather than hundreds of little ones.

That said, I am terrified I would get drunk and slide off of the lounge. The hard wood looks like an uncomfortable place to read!

Love the Berkeley parking meter. I was there that summer also. Damn I miss that northside neighborhood.

Thanks for sharing. I really enjoyed my trip round your home.

Jill, bravo, I love your house! Thank you for sharing. It really exudes warmth, and I particularly like the combination of textures and materials: metals, ice cube tray, different woods, and I LOVE the collections of rocks, plants, shells, whatever they are--they bring the outdoors in and in an artistic and interesting way.

I am curious why you went for the glass shelving in the kitchen.

Tara

Hi All
Thank you for your comments, all of them!
To address some of them:
1) To get wine boxes, you must go into wine stores and inquire whether they are getting rid of any of theirs.
2) I am also very happy at how well my aunt took care of her couch for 30 years.
3) I would not say that my collections are clutter, no.
4) The posters are vintage communist propaganda.
5) I agree the bathroom is a bit stark at this point. When I designed it, I was overly conscious of how low the ceilings were and I wanted it to feel as big as possible. So, I removed the door and used only white. The only thing I plan on adding is an electric wall rack for the towels--ubiquitous in Europe.
6) I used glass shelving in the kitchen because, again, I was extremely sensitive to the potential claustrophobic factor. So, I wanted to use materials that would be as close to invisible as possible. Glass won out.
7)Jean, I am so excited that you have the same Russian tin. It belonged to a friend who hosted me in St. Petersburg. I was thrilled to see it, and he couldn't care less about it, so he let me take it home.

Jill:

We love it all......you are great.

Irene and Sig

I really like the exposed I-beam in the loft. It stands out so much more as an architectural (sp? is that a word? it's early) element on its own.

I am also in love with that orange sofa. I'd love to curl up on that with a coffee and a good book on a rainy day.

i appreciated seeing your space. to those who suggest de-cluttering, that would be very difficult for someone (esp a creative person with lots of stuff) living in a 650 sq ft space.

i have a similar situation and it's not easy to keep everything tucked away somewhere.

jill, you get my props!

-----
chelo

Ingenious repurposing of often-discarded materials. I'm so impressed! Also love the bathroom door, and many other elements...especially that beautiful exposed iron beam, and how you left the ceiling rough around it. The beam looks like a living thing that is pushing its way up into the ceiling.

i LOVE your place! i agree - you have a dear collection. it is not clutter. i COVET your sleeping area. envy, envy, envy. yours is one of my favorite house tours ever! maybe esp. because i too have a collection of old cameras.. :-).. and multimeters.. hope to show my home to the AT community too sometime!

absolutely love your tour and your home. bravo for creatively mingling old and new in a way that (i suspect) represents who you are. you've given me some great ideas as i try and hone my first real apartment.

kudos and thanks again from all the way over in san francisco

Your apt. is amazing. I love the collections, the stoved, the door on your bathroom, grandpa's TV and your sheer creativity in all aspects of your home. aud

Since there's lots of color in accessories, love the white walls and particularly love that she left the bathroom serene white.

Jill's loft reveals her to a T: artistic, resourceful, one-of-a-kind, fiercely loyal to her family, endlessly curious about the world. The art and collections are the accumulations of years of travels and explorations.

Did I mention the delicious food she makes in that tiny kitchen?

Yay Jill!

Dear Jill,

It is very brave of you to share your home so publicly.

It seems clear to me that you have had an enormous amount of fun collecting all your wonderful things--from table bases to sand-dollars--and that you are intrigued by things you come across that are new or unusual to you. And I agree with those before me who've said you clearly have given a tremendous amount of thought and consideration and LOVE to your home.

I'm wondering if the "clutter" vs. "minimal" issues raised aren't really more a matter of scale. One can have a lot of things in a home. If they are properly "displayed" and speak with and to the architectural space they inhabit, most people will not experience them as "clutter" no matter how many objects there might be.

From the slanted point of view of the pictures you've put on this site, my feeling is that the very large height of the apartment is overwhelming the small scale of many of the objects you have collected--and it is winning.

I would suggest that you might want to think about slightly bolder, bigger and possibly more daring ways of showing the groups of items you have.

Little bottles of dried things, flat trays of shells, etc. seem too small to me. I've seen amazing collections of shells, for instance, combined together into a huge, elegant, glass bowl--something that might have a large flat area but is in and of itself a big statement (Pottery Barn has some really interesting shapes in that regard--or they did a few months ago.)

So, rather than call it clutter, I would just say you have a lot of wonderful things that bring you great pleasure, but they aren't necessarily holding their own in the design composition of your home.

As for the desk area, no one really likes to see other people's desk work. I realize it is "real" and your are living there! Perhaps some uniform "magazine holders" in solid red or black or even white would help things look a little less like you were in the middle of a project and we interrupted you.

Just some design thoughts. Meant to be positive suggestions. Hope they seem that way to you.

Thank you for sharing. I'm often reminded of how easy it is for scale to trump everything else in design.

I LOVE IT! it looks even better than i remembered. congratulations!

Louise: I thank you for your thoughtful response to my home. I will think about what you suggested and see what can be done about it.

I know I have to work on the desk to enclose in-progress projects in something that allows them to be hidden out of sight. If they are too hidden, however, I fear I will forget about them. I don't want to.

I will try to battle the scale of my apt. I think the wide angle lens I used to take the photos might be a bit misleading, however, in terms of the actual size of the apartment. But you are right, the collections are tiny and perhaps when moved from my previous apt with regular height ceilings to this one, they were rendered diminutive.

Hey Jill - Can you explain a bit more about the custom glass frames for your posters? I'd love to do something similar but not sure of the process, the backing, etc. Thanks!

Hi Ryan
Sorry to not respond until now. I am not sure I would recommend what I did. I bought custom cut pieces of glass from a glass place in Brooklyn and had them delivered to my house. Bought the little frame kit that comes with metal l shaped things and string at Pearl Paint, where I also bought acid free paper and acid free foam core. Put it all together and hung it on the wall.

Let me guess: Jill finds that the tactile and visual stimulation fuels her creativity.

It truly isn't a clutter-vs.-minimalism issue so much as two different ways of processing the environment. Minimalists find visual busy-ness distracting to the point of being emotionally sapping. Collectors who go for the full shelves and the trays of stuff (rather than collection-behind-doors) thrive on the sensory stimulation and find themselves bored and depressed if they have to live in a minimalist environment for long.

This is a great space. Not what I would do but I would certainly love to visit. I usually dont like spaces with so much white. But in your place the white is just a canvas for all the wonderful found and loved objects you display. Its so crazy because you have so many I am sure everytime friends visit they discover something new. I am a packrat too so I would definitely take some pointers from how you have artfully displayed your collections.

Wende, you really have a flawless way with words, no kiddin'.

OMG! Love, love, love, love, LOVE it.

I feel like an amateur now.

I love it and don't find it cluttered at all. In fact, it makes me wish for a split second that I didn't have cats so I could display more stuff like you do. My kitties would not stand for a collection of small things near a ledge--they would need to experiment with gravity to see what happened if they pushed it over.

I think it's awesome! A really warm, personality filled home. Makes me wish I lived in a better city for finding 'things' on the street and saving furniture.

for the record, i am not the sam who posted above (guess it was before you had to register) - I love this place!!!!!!

So inspiring!

Must not have a cat.

Jill, You're making me late for work because I can't stop looking at your home.

It's beautiful! Peggy (I think it was anyway), Ebay.co.uk usually have vintage communist propaganda posters.

while I like your place for the most part I would really dread being the one that has to dust all of these natural collections and other nick nacks

I absolutely love your home and will be taking several ideas from you. I love that your house looks lived in and not cold. Thanks for allowing us in!