apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

OH OH OH I got in first, I got in first!!!

Alright I'm sorry I had nothing to actually say just found the open thread empty and not yet full of life!

I'm at the NY Gift show for the last couple days. Can I just say how fun it is to see an aspect of the creativity of a nation collected in a few walkable buildings.

And, how lucky you New Yorkers are. Your city rocks.

I have a question. I bought a drum shade for the lonely light bulb hanging from the ceiling in our bedroom. But there's this hole in the ceiling where the bulb comes down and I need a metal thingy to cover it up. Does anyone know what they're called and where I can get them?

re: light fixture. It depends. If there is a real junction box up there, it's just a junction box cover/plate, which you can get at any electrical or lighting store.

a comment on the new crate & barrel DIY furntiture
the boy and i purchased the leaning shelf and desk from C&B a few weeks ago
the desk was on backorder, and two weekends of the flu prevented us from picking them up until yesterday

all i can say is WOW!
these shelves RULE!!!!
they're light, and goregous and SOOOOOOOO insanely simple to put together, and so much nicer than ikea, in fact, easier to put together than ikea, and probably not that much more expensive than at ikea
and, and and! can you tell i'm gushing??
they've made such an INCREDIBLE improvement in out teeny tiny apt, that i think that i just might be ready to have some friends over (but only two, thats all the apt can hold :-)

ok, I tried submitting this as a 'good question' but I'm impatient and I need a suggestion sooner...
Do any of you display your college diplomas? in frames or otherwise? and where do you display them?

I think they go in a drawer or at one's mom's house unless you're a doctor or lawyer with an office, and then they CAN go on the walls of that.

danae,

after 5 years i finally framed and hung mine (even though i'm not a doctor or lawyer). it is near my working desk, though i'm the only one that looks at it. and since it's in latin I can't even read it :)

I can't think of many 'creative' ways to display it besides a frame (well none that wouldn't destroy said diploma). but most diplomas are printed on nice paper, with calligraphy so they look good hanging on a wall.

go ahead and hang it up, you paid a lot of money (ok and some work) to earn it so display it!

I have my college one displayed and my grad school one in the closet, though I'd like to get a frame. Right now I just have mine leaning against a wall in my bedroom...if I had an office at home, I'd put it there...I'm personally a little torn. They aren't exactly beautiful, but considering the hard work and money that went into them, they represent something to me that I'd like to be reminded of every once in awhile...

Wow, I've never seen an open thread with so few posts so late in the day! Where is everyone? Here is my question: I'm going to Tokyo on Thursday. Any suggestions of fabulous things to see that might not have made the Lonely Planet?

Tokyo: You should try to get a hold of backlogs of articles from Tyler Brule from the FT (www.ft.com). I think he was the founder of Wallpaper*, and he's particularly obsessed with Japan and his column occassionally comments on things to buy / places to go, eat, etc.

Have fun. I'm going home (Australia) on Friday. Yay.

I've been working at the NY Gift Show and will be thru Wed. I need to find some time to do a walk-about. So many beautiful things, so little money.

My parents had my design diploma framed so I had it hanging in the apt. but finally thought "yeah yeah yeah, so what" and I took it down. I have no idea where my first degree is. Probably at my mother's house in a drawer in the basement.

Yeah, I'm a little torn myself.

I can't decide if it's obnoxious to have it framed and up on the wall (kind of like throwing my credentials in the face of every person that enters my home), but I did spend alot of money and work to get it and I do attach some amount of pride to it.

All that aside it's pretty good looking as diplomas go, so it wouldn't look terrible on the wall but it would have to fit in with the framed family portraits and artwork already on my walls. For those of you who framed, did you go custom or standard size self framing? Any resources you recommend? So far the standard university offerings are ok, but a little boring.

Sorry this is off-topic (again)...

Target Alert for the lady fashionistas out there: Luella Bartley's limited-edition collection for Target hits store shelves (and online) for 2 months only starting February 1. Target's "Go International" concept is similar to H&M's limited runs of low-priced apparel designed by Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney. There's also been some talk of Proenza Schouler doing a Target line under the Go "Interntational banner." Online on their website now...

http://www.target.com/gp/browse.html/ref=sc_iw_r_12_0/601-2066945-6699310?node=16275561

(Jeez, someone in Minneapolis should wake up and smell the cross-marketing coffee being served up at Project Runway...)

Returning you now to your regularly-scheduled HOME design-related programming...

danae,

don't be too sensitive about putting it up. it's not just throwing things in people's faces--if people feel that way it's their own fault IMHO.

your diploma is also a reminder of a pretty important (and if you're still in your 20's) a substantial amount of time in your life. why not celebrate it? because you're afraid someone will think you're showing off? that doesn't make sense to me. celebrate yourself!

about framing, measure your diploma as mine was a wierd shape so finding a standard frame was difficult.

How can one be "off topic" on an Open Thread???

I'm in an efficiency. Mine is above my bed, next to a large framed photo of a special event I am in.

It is at the opposite end of the same wall the door is on. Above the bed, it's there for me, but not really out there, like walking into your dentist's office or something.

I didn't get my B.A. until my 30s, so I want it on my wall. I'd wear my ring, but I can't get it over my knuckle.

When my ship comes in, I'll have a study where I can hang it along with the other event pics I can't afford to frame and don't have enough wall space for. :-)

And, custom is the way to go for something that important.

re ann's cb leaning shelves: i have three of them! and i agree, they absolutely rock! i think they make a nyc apt look so nyc-ish. does that make sense?

The worst part of all about my bachelors diploma is that my parents bought one of the college frames when I graduated that has the college seal on the mat. :) It was a pretty cheap (in construction, not price) frame, so they wisened up with my brother and got one custom.

You can custom order nice frames online for very cheap prices. www.pictureframes.com. They cost me about $30-$40 a piece. Our diplomas and architecture licenses are in simple black metal frames, but displayed nicely in a vertical series at the foot of the bookshelf-steps to our loft bed, so we can enjoy them, but they aren't in everyone's face in the public portion of the apartment.

General, completely irrelevant thought...as much as I love AT, it can make my head asplode with all the possibilities of stuff out there, stuff I have neither the talent nor stamina nor fundage to do for my micro abode. [That pseudo-rhymed.]

Danae,

I totally understand your dilemma. I solved mine by throwing my college diploma away. That may sound odd -- especially since I really did love my college experience, made lifelong friends there, worked hard, and went to a school I'm proud of. But when you live in a small NYC apartment, the question always is: Do I really need it?

I ultimately decided that I didn't need the diploma to remind me (or anyone else) of my college experience or accomplishments.

I came to a similar decision about a box full of old love letters. But that's another story.

Wow! Sorry to take up so much space with all this. But I do think it's fascinating which parts of our history we choose to keep, and which to part with....

My husband and I are now the proud owners of a huge warehouse to hold our scrap metal recycling business. Its all open space so I need to put in a couple of offices but I'm stumped as to where to start. Its a business that can track in dirt easily so I would like to keep it industrial and minimal but have some style to it. Any thoughts, ideas or books suggestions etc. that could give me a starting point.
Thanks
cece

Diane,

Re: Tokyo.
I go to Tokyo/Japan about once a year, and I always find it fascinating. You should read Jean Snow's Tokyo design blog at http://www.jeansnow.net . He covers lots of interesting things and has lots of good links.

The food in Japan is outstanding. Even if you eat at some really cheap place, the food is usually quite good. Japanese people clearly put a higher value on good food than Americans do. It's amazing how much more tasty fruits and vegetables are there. Rather than some unripe hard peach or tomato that was picked way before it's ready, like we get in the US, most fruits and veggies there have lots of flavor.

Also, I don't drink alcohol, but I love trying all of the different kinds of soft drinks they sell. The variety of fruit drinks and sodas is phenomenal. The NY Times magazine had an interesting article about this a few years ago, but you need to have the premium service to read it, http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/magazine/10COKE.html

If you're looking for design-y things to do in Tokyo, I personally don't think Lonely Planet would able to give you very good suggestions. But for other more touristy things, it might be ok.

I found a site that posted the NYT Magazine article about Japanese soft drinks: http://polaris.umuc.edu/~tgrodsky/admn687/articles/cococola.html .

The probable reason that "most fruits and veggies [in Japan] have lots of flavor" is that it is very, very difficult to find out-of-season foods there. Strawberries, for example, are usually only available for something like a few weeks out of every year. I think it has more to do with a lot of food being imported than anything else.

http://peterpayne.net/
has regular articles on Japanese culture and daily life. Peter Payne runs j-list.com, and if you're on their mailing list, you get these "culture blog" updates several times each week. This is where I heard about the Japanese preference for seasonal foodstuffs.

PS - be careful of the Peter Payne site at work - it has update ads for jlist.com products, some of which are adults-only and maybe NSFW. You can read a worksafe version on the front page at jbox.com.

Jessica (another one)

I think what you're looking for is called a canopy. It's a decorative plate that will cover the hole in the ceiling.

Speaking from the viewpoint of someone who started college at 14, then attended full-time (but half-assedly) starting at 16 for five years... and yet DID NOT GRADUATE:

Hang that diploma, and do it justice.

(I gasped at Carson's comment about throwing it way!)

On the diploma thing-- I have a family member who displays their MD in the guest bathroom (the intent is irony and humor). Both of mine are buried in a box of "important papers" somewhere. I would never hang mine up (I don't find degrees, advanced or no, to be the accomplishments I'm most proud of), but on the other hand, I would never be offended if someone else did hang theirs. I do tease friends who have their degrees on their address labels, but they deserve it.

regards,
trillium

cece--
If truly HUGE, what about some small Airstream Trailers as offices?

If that's not practical, I like the idea of something you "bring in" rather than actually "build in."

Check out Interiors magazine. They have some great examples of innovative "brought ins"... like a conference room core made from shipping containers...