apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

just looking through the garnet hill cataloge and found very similar colors on their 'block percale'sheets to the lovely parisian lobby on the site yesterday. all raspberry and green etc. which reminded me that something i do when ordering bedding online is to first get a standard set of pillowcases and see if you like the feel and colors. sometimes two new pillowcases are all you need to perk up the bed.

I second that, oh wise obi.
And if your bed is set up this way, another thing is to do two Euro Covers... then it's not as weird if that's all you get, since it's more part of the "architecture" of the bed than the part that needs to work most closely with the sheets.

Hey, not sure if people saw on yesterday's open thread, but Maxwell got a shout-out in the April Domino.

Nice pic (natch) of him, the book cover, and a good blurb about the book, his philospohy, and this addictive web site...

is today the big book release day?

I loved the Maxwell blurb, but very upset by Domino's dumb "get rich flipping" article.

I did love Thomas Paul's "Lichenstein-like" wall treatments!

Meanwhile, when do we get some news about the book release?

If I thought two pillow covers would be all I need to perk up my bed, I would buy them.


Ok, I'll look.

Book: I think it is official now because my pre-ordered charge went through the bank. I can not wait for this book!

annemarie-
Methinx 'tis buhcuzz today's muh birthday (as Eeyore once said, "It's muh birthday. Dontcha see the presents? Dontcha see the cake?") and so I remembered that that was to be the same day, so on my lunch hour, I'll probably head over to Borders and use up my old gift card on it today.

Oh, and I have to say that this new way that you welcome new folks, by saying a tiny bit of something about them is truly ideal and fun and warm, and it gives us a handle on who they are so far, in a way.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS!!!!

happy birthday, Curtis. And, happy shopping. I think I'll do the same!

Happy birthday, Curtis!

I will paint something in your honor today, though not one-eighth so well as you do.

Hey, a couple of weeks ago New Tenant posted a link to what I believe was a Brooklyn-based seller of hip SCONCES. You guys know that perfect white globe ceiling pendant? I don't know the name of it but it's a modern classic. I am trying to match sconces for that fixture in the library.

happy day curtis. when i went to the barnes and noble site to order maxwell's book i wanted to order something else 'design wise' to save on shipping.(free shipping over $25.00). soo today for all the people doing the same please advise on books you love on home decor etc. what joy. waiting for 'the book' to arrive, plus another one to read later.

Hey Jonathan
I don't think I was the one who posted that link. But I got my light (the Le Klint pendant) from ylighting.com, if that helps at all.

I was at Barnes & Noble at 10am to get the book...very exciting!!!

Thanks N.T., my creepy love for you grows. The Le Klint is more or less similar to my perfect white sphere globe - any suggestions for sconces to go in a room with pendants like that?

J - How . . . um . . . incredibly disturbing.

I've never bought a wall sconce, but I guess if I were going to, I would chose something simple like one of these. But, don't these seem incredibly expensive? I don't know - I've never priced sconces.

http://www.ylighting.com/leu-golfp1.html

http://www.ylighting.com/cubox21.html

http://www.ylighting.com/prd-zerow3.html

http://www.ylighting.com/tec-2kd-700tddmnsws.html

thanks! by the way, i have a snapfish portfolio of our hellhole renovation - how can i post/send it?

OT:

Anyone with windy city knowledge, is one CB2 bigger/better than the other?

I am "blowing" through (hahaha) but hope to run in and check out a few sofas, beds and the acrylic tables for quality assessment...would hate to hear a salesperson tell me "oh, you should have gone to the OTHER store..."

Happy Bday Curtis!!!! Many happy returns, and thanks for all your wonderful contributions here (and the posts to your awesome art for us gawkers)

Just want everyone to know how much I love this site:
http://del.icio.us

When I come across any sites I want to keep track of - lets say Y Lighting - I can save them to my space on this site and put in various search labels, such as "lighting," so then when I want to find all my sites on lighting, I can just search on that term. Also, I can access this from anywhere I am, so I don't have to have bookmarks at work and at home and I don't have to email links to one central computer. There may be other sites like this, but this is the one I know about and it's really great. Simple to set up and get started too.

happy birthday Curtis! glad you're here!

what's with all this birthday crap, anyway. birthdays are not good. birthdays signify the passage of time, another year further from the innocence and purity of our childhood, and the inevitability of death. WHY oh WHY must we cheerfully drone on about birthdays?? Congrats - you're another spadeful of dirt in the grave!! What the hell? Curtis, ignore these pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey notes. You should be profoundly depressed. This whole TOPIC has depressed me.

Jontahan--

Leave Curtis (and the rest of us who want a at least a piece of cake to mark another year's successful passage) out of your tiresome misery.

But do tell when your birthday is, so we can all arrive, spades in hand.

Agreed, P2!

I'd sure be there.

Hey Jonathan

Maybe you will appreciate these photos, which I took at the Catacombs in Paris over the weekend. I got kind of obsessed with these signs containing morbid sayings about death.

http://elpispistis.shutterfly.com/action/slideshow?a=67b0de21b3348582e487&auto=1&idx=-1&m=1&d=1143567781460

Jennifer:

The CB2 stores are fairly equivalent in size, and display the same items. The Lincoln Ave. store is a bit bigger and therefore the discontinued stuff hangs on there a bit longer. The North Ave. store is the second, newer location.

Biggest difference: North is better if you are on the L (right across from North/Clybourn red line station), and Lincoln has more parking if you are in a car.

Happy Birthday Curtis - enjoy your day!

NT, you have a russian soul, i knew it. p2, believe me you would not want to get anywhere near me on bday. the wife actually left town last year to stay with friends because i am such a horrible ogre. last year i worked late, then went home and sat there by myself watching the sopranos and drinking myself to sleep, ignoring the phone calls of family, well wishers and sycophants

OBI
re: other design books that are good to add to your order.
I have to say that I am a closet Nate Berkus fan. His book "Home Rules" shows off his interiors which are modern but still warm and livable. You even get some bonus glamour shot of Nate.
For books on small spaces I like "Living Large in Small Spaces" I think how the book is divided by square footage and how it reflects a wide range of styles makes it a book I thumb through often.
Am curious what other people think - I have had the same problem - wanting to add to my order but never know what to get.

Amazon allows you to keep things in your cart or on your wish list indefinitely. I'm always stashing things in there so that when I need to order something, I have lots of things I have already perused to fill out the order to $25. Also, just stashing things there instead of automatically buying means I can cool my heels on items and later decide I don't really want them. Putting them in the cart satisfies some shopping urge.

Hey, Curtis. Happy Birthday!

Jonathan -

I selected Wall Sconces last year. I ultimately purchased one from the FLOS line of sconces. On the whole, FLOS seemed to offer a contemporary look, high quality fixture, and relatively accessible price.

http://store.yahoo.com/ylighting/flos-wall-allitems.html

They offer a variety of metal finishes, glass shade colors, which allows further customization.

thanks 'dave n dc' and 'pixie'. i also have 'living large in small spaces' and love it! i'll check out the other book you mentioned. pixie, very good idea about keeping books in your cart. come on now more design book suggestions.....patrick 2, enrique etc.

Happy B-day Curtis!

So isn’t there suppose to be a plant therapist on call here? I posted on yesterday’s OT and no one responded :(

I am wondering about automatic plant waterers and if anyone has used them? Click on my name...

P2-
I went out and bought Domino yesterday because of your post. But I must say, even being a girl, I too was embarrassed to read it on the subway. The format is not my style at all. But happy to see the bit about Maxwell and AT!

Obi-
As a house warming gift to myself, I recently ordered "Inside Asia." I love it.

obi--
I vote for Vicente Wolf's "Learning to See."
Although his style is highly recognizeable, it is without fail gorgeous.

And, um, at the risk of raising group ire, I actually love the Pottery Barn Series of books...

Thanks Janel! I will be on the L so I will definitely do that branch. Appreciate the insiders knowledge.

Lori 2!

I'm back. Had a great time, as I hope you did, too. I put my email in the url box, hoping that it works if you want to compare experiences.

And happy birthday, Curtis! I hope you have a lovely day.

obi: I love Taschen's "Icon" series of small paperbacks, particularly the ones edited by Angelika Taschen. I find these books to be very inspirational because they don't focuse on interiors you typically see in the design mags. I like the ones that focus more on exotic locales than urban spaces. Actually, my favorite volume was one Taschen created specifically for Old Navy a couple of years back called "Beach Houses", which focused on rustic coastal homes along the European and African coasts.

New Tenant & Jonathan, here's a slightly cheaper, but still quality, simple wall sconce: http://www.lightology.com/index.cfm/method-light.store_profile/sku-1001WS-SMQTRSP-010I1-00WH

Pixie, I would add http://www.lightology.com to your space. They have pretty much everything ylighting does, plus more. You may want to price-check between the two; when ylighting's products aren't on sale, they usually cost more.

Does everybody here think that Victorian furniture is not "cool?" Somebody said that when commenting on Katarina and Stephen's apartment and I wonder what the general consensus is on AT.

Wow! Well... thanks, P2, wende, obi, jennifer, annemarie, janel, pixie, and whomever else said something after I started typing this.

Jonathan, what you said reminds me that this morning I was doing a French accent while I talking to a co-worker about my birthday, and he said something congratulatory, I said, in what is thought to be a typical nihilist French kind of thought process, "For failing to die?" He busted a gut laughing.

By the way... there are now 3 copies of Apartment Therapy (the book) at the Kip's Bay Borders now. I told them it should have been out in the front with other "new releases" but they already had it in with the home decor stuff, but impossible to find, but I finally did.

Anyway... the book is discretely sized so that it doesn't take up too much room in your apartment, and it's paperback, so it doesn't take too much of a bite out of your decorating budget. I haven't started reading it yet, and I can't promise when I will, because I hate having to put on reading glasses, like I have to these days.

*obi,
I recommend Donald Kaufman books on color (one I've linked to my name)

Curtis, I wish I could share with you the cake I was presented with on Sunday...can i do it virtually? Have a piece, dear Curtis, and happy birthday!

(and yes, Jonathan, it's the "holiday with tears in your eyes", as the Russian song says)

Welcome back, Fiona!

Glad to hear your trip went well. I can't wait to hear about it. I was on my trip for work (no Safari this time), but I used to live in Tz. After living in Africa for a long time, I moved back to the states in '05. And you lived in Kenya, right?

I'll send you an email!

Oh, yes, Happy Birthday, Curtis!

The notion that Jonathan would have a sycophant is THE most disturbing comment on this thread.

My local independent bookstore just called! The book is in! Going to pick it up after work :)

This whole discussion of birthdays and the close cousin of birthdays (e.g., death) is profoundly disturbing. I have been doing age math all afternoon (e.g., 'i am now closer to 40 than to 12, etc. soon i'll be dead soon i'll be dead soon i'll be dead)

The boconcept bed arrived this weekend. i think the bed makes me look fat. is that possible? i set the camera on timer and lay there to see what i looked like on the bed and i looked fat. now i have to go to the bathroom and force myself to vomit up lunch.


So anyway here is an exmaple of a "perfect white globe" ceiling pendant.
http://www.farreys.com/lighting/sea_gull/collection_hanging_globe_-_white_6018-15.html

THe sconces must go with this in the dining room/library. This is where I will sit and, over the years during dinner, pass on a mind-boggling menu of mental dysfunction to my poor son.

I vote for vintage out of print design books. I just ordered a bunch for less than $1 each at amazon.
Anyone know anything about maintaining white leather upholstered chairs? I just got a new set of black chairs with white seats and was told to treat them with saddle soap. When? After theyre stained? How often?
Happy Birthday Curtis--I've been an admirer since seeing your bathroom (now that MUST sound weird).

well, well, well -

Things are busy around here.

Jonathan, 27 is closer to 40 than to 12. That's not setting the bar very high. Don't tell me that you are a mere wet-behind-the-ears youth of 27 with a Park Slope brownstone that you're renovating. I will have to discount everything you say as the whining of a spoiled child. You aren't, by any chance, an avant-garde novelist with an inheritance, are you?

Happy Birthday to Curtis and all others who like to celebrate such things.

Jennifer - I'm glad someone else was annoyed by the flipping article. My one complaint about Domino is its real estate feature - "buy the building, live for free," etc. When Lucky started up, they had an online shopping column. "That seems a wee bit behind the times," I thought to myself. Sure enough, they dumped it at some point in their first year. I think the editors at Lucky and Domino are very good at having their fingers on the pulse of fashion and home decor trends, respectively - but they are not as perceptive about broader cultural trends.

Online shopping didn't disappear, but wasn't worth discussing as an independent example of hipness. Ownership (and the real estate equivalent of daytrading - flipping) will eventually seem the same way. People will still buy houses, people will still flip houses in rising markets, but flipping will not be offered in decor mags as an example of fresh thinking for spring. (But it's going to be tedious until we finally get beyond this.)

New Tenant, did you choose a rug?

re: sycophants. Why is it that the people who want them the least often have them? Apparently, I just don't lead the kind of life that would even bring me into contact with potential sycophants.

Curtis --

Wishing you the happiest of birthdays!

When you blow out your candles tonight, don't forget to ask for a bed that's very slimming. (Since you're one year closer to the great beyond, you've apparently earned it.)

Jonathan
ooo, shiny. (the globe.)
Do you have multiples of them hanging?

I'm curious if your lovely wife is treated to the same celebration as you enjoy on your one-year-closer-to-death day?

What's so bad about death, anyway? I thought it held a certain allure for you.

Jonathan's ongoing renovations (and NEVERending "waddya think abouts") are bringing us ALL closer to death than birthdays ever will.

Curtis, can we IMPLORE you to make a certian wish when you blow out the candles tonight!?!?

And original blues--
I think some have proven that no matter how close to death, you can't always outgrow being a spoiled, whiny child.

Thanks, Fiona, Bubble, Tat, Enrique and whomever ELSE I've left out accidently.

P2 -
There will be no candles, but methinx you may guess what my wish might be, and of course it always has to do with color harmony and beauty throughout the entire home.

Shoshana -
Thanks for your good wishes, compliments and Loretta says hello.

And now, I must to Le Singe Vert for le diner de mon anniversaire, wearing my reading glasses on the train while having a look at Maxwell's new book, that I'm so pleased and proud of, even though I'm not his mom and have no real right to be.

Bon anniversaire Curtis! May you have many more years of making things beautiful! :)

Happy Birthday, Curtis!

I, too, love your bathroom!

Do make that wish!

"re: sycophants. Why is it that the people who want them the least often have them? Apparently, I just don't lead the kind of life that would even bring me into contact with potential sycophants."

Posted by original blues

OB, you have to come to Capitol Hill for that. It's a way of life.

CURTIS! Happy birthday, darlin'!!
(I'm a fellow Southerner; I can say that.)

For some reason I envision you getting birthday PIE - either sweet potato or pecan.

Hope your day and evening are special; all best to you. And - I bet no one can paint the town like you can. (groan)

To Jonathan:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS....HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS...HAPPY BIRTHDAY CURTIS...

To Curtis:

Really, Have a Happy Birthday!

Curtis

Buon Compleanno!!

Other Patrick: you're right, "you can't always outgrow being a spoiled, whiny child". But at a certain age, can't we give some merit to an old fart's cynical refusal to look at the world through rose-tinted reading glasses?

(By the way, did it make you feel old to be referred to as "distinguished" in my other post?)

Anyway, Jonathan had it partly right: what else are birthdays if not an excuse to get drunk? Happy drink-yourself-to-sleep day, Curtis. (Please don't thank me for saying so.)

Curtis, Happy Birthday! Just can't keep up with all these postings.

Happy Birthday Curtis!

I want to thank all the people who gave me advice a couple weeks ago on my bedroom. I took a vacation day today, and ended up (all by myself!) turning the bed so that it faces the door. I took down the Rasterbated image I had put up, and replaced it with an old tryptic that I made a few years ago. Then on the small wall between the doors, I hung an unfinished canvas (it's white with a black border) and it actually looks kind of cool.

The closet also got a makeover, so all the things I want to reach are in one spot, and the things I don't need access to as frequently (formal gowns, mostly) are tucked in the back corner. I can see all my shoes at once!

So, long story short, thank you everyone for your input, and thank you Maxwell for a site that has inspired me with such great visuals of real spaces.

Anna--
Would be true in this instance were the aforementioned person in question OLD enough to be a "cynical fart", OR young enough to be a "whiny child." But no. Square in the middle, nice looking, wealthy enough to be doing a serious tonwhouse reno, worthy enough of a patient, patient, PATIENT wife. So, no excuse. imho

re: distinguished
Just wondered which bad/questionable recent double entendre led you to THAT conclusion. ;)

rachel (i d)--
Congrats! Sounds like progress worthy of some sort of amazing Tilapia concoction, no?

Wow! OK, now this is just too much! Thanx everybody! Wow.

Anne (the first one from Dallas), it didn't end up being pie, but that sounds great. It was pot au chocolat at Le Singe Vert, and it was very good!

Happy Birthday Curtis!

Enrique, I love those Taschen Books too. I could pretty much sell everything I own and go on a Taschen shopping spree.... Hell some of those sumo books piled up with some throw pillows could almost constittute a sofa.

MY current favorite Icon book is the "see the world" one with all of the vintage travel illustrations (it's on my new side table as we speak) , but I am lusting after the enormous David La Chapelle book as well.

Just a comment. I wanted to let AT and all contributors know how much I've enjoyed the Smallest/Coolest contest. The pictures and everyones comments are very entertaining, and informative.
Thanks,

Lori 2,

How interesting! No, actually my husband lived in Kenya while he was in high school, but he also did a lot of international NGO work throughout Africa. If you are also in that field, maybe you know each other.

Although I have to admit that we were discussing whether we could figure out something viable to do for a living so that we could stay in Africa!