apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I have a huge window in my kitchen and I would like to put up a solar shade. Is there a certain brand that sells the kind that can go down from the top? I'm not sure of how to describe it, but I would like to be able to walk around without being seen, so the bottom half of the window would be covered by the shade, and the top half would be open..... uuugggh, can anyone help me?

sorry i can't help you karen...AT seems unusually quiet today. me thinks everyone left for the long weekend already.

As a way of avoiding actual work I should be doing, I Googled "solar shade" with "bottom up". It seems that these are a common option in a Roman blind style -- Smith + Noble does one, Bali Blinds does one, JC Penney may do one, etc.

I think you are looking for this, right:
http://images.scrippsweb.com/HGTV/2003/07/22/dws920_shade_redo_e.jpg

Only perhaps not quite so ugly? It seems they are called "top down" shades. JC Penney's has some jute ones that aren't half bad:

http://zoom.jcpenney.com//is/image/0900631b80ec9960M.TIF

If you search for "top down" blinds or shades you ought to come up with something. HGTV has a DIY page, if you want to make the first image but less ugly.

karen - i think smith and noble carries a solar roman shade that can be lowered from the top.

hi karen. many shade makers have what they call bottom up top down options. as the name implies you can do either. this sounds exactly like what you are looking for. i have a lovely little catalogue from 'the shade store' and they have lots of really stylish options. also i believe they have a good reputation. most other manufacturers have these also.

there you go karen....

Karen - check out the last few posts in the August 30th Open Thread, there were lots of comments/suggestions regarding those shades.

I'm feeling a need for a 9-month cure update. Its September 1, and inquiring minds want to know! Excited to see the progress and the hopefully-closer-to-finished product.

"I'm so sick of Mid-century. Everybody puts so much value on things that are old, but I'm most excited by what's next. I want to make history, not follow it," says Douglas Levine, a Chicago designer who worked at Holly Hunt before starting his own multifaceted design firm in 1997.

http://www.northshoremag.com/cgi-bin/ns-article?article=/homegarden/02-06-furniture.html

What are AT people doing this weekend. I am staring at the rain and contemplating how close to death i probably am.

I painted my living room super white today ... ceiling and all. My entire body aches. Tomorrow I visit my parents. And on Monday I'll paint the trim all around my huge wall of windows. What an exciting life I lead.

Why are you close to death Jonathan?

laura -
Well, maybe I'll just have to be excited on your behalf, if you won't be excited. I think paint jobs are like a nice big huge piece of clean underwear that lasts several years, and an opportunity to transform a space.

I hope that Super White was either a choice for a fun reason or that you'll make it look like a fun choice, though.

I also hope that you'll do that trim in a satin finish alkyd paint so it will last longer and be wipeable.

Anyway... I think it's an excellent way to spend a weekend.

Curtis, for two days I have been contemplating similar thought: sometimes it's a pleasure to do some maintenance, either in your home or soul. The process is a healer itself.

But Laura, as you contemplate a weekend of painting and parents, consider this... the gals on Sex & the City got to go to exclusive parties in the Hamptons, and they were *miserable*.

probably because of the uncomfortable shoes.

you know this Ken Brown character on HGTV? i hate his filthy guts. He's so godamned smug. I'll bet he posts here. I'm watching him right now, as the chunkster feeds the half-savage bastard. they think i am paying attention to them. but in reality i am watching ken brown, and hating him.

Tat -

I'm at a friend's and on Saturday I took a little half-hour out to clean his box fan, because it had kind of a lot of dust accummulated on/in it.

It was actually kind of fun unscrewing all the screws that held the plastic grills on each side, and taking them into the shower and cleaning them, and then wiping down the blades and then re-assembling the whole thing. The fan looks like new and no money was spent; just a little time and effort.

And now you'll have a nice fresh breeze.

My NY family branch made to here Saturday and now they are on the way home. I have alot of debris from Ernesto to clean up. Grateful that it's just leaves and twiggy stuff.

Opoponax, I've always assumed it was knowing how they looked in some of those outfits.

Just to get semi-back on topic, the one thing I appreciated about Sex & the City was that (according to the official Web site), in the first season, Miranda's apartment was all bruise colors to symbolize how battered by romantic disappointments she was, and then her new apartment was done in brighter, lighter colors to suggest she was going to be more optimistic.

finally found all my assorted hardware for the big bathroom project, which is FINALLY after months of hemming and hawing, happening next weekend. the plan, as it currently stands:

1. sand, tape, and prime the vanity from heck.
2. paint the walls. not sure yet what will become of the moldings and door. i like a nice white trim, but on the other hand i'm trying to cut down on the amount of white in the room.
3. paint the vanity
4. install hardware, including new metal shower curtain rod and rings.
5. once the vanity dries, i'm going to use paste wax to de-formica-fy the texture. i did this with my kitchen counters (in hopes that the stains would buff out, which they didn't), and the change in texture really helps.
5. a new shower curtain and perhaps new rugs are in the works. haven't settled on anything yet, and who knows, maybe the ones i have will look fine in there. i also think i'm going to end up scraping out the fish 'tread' on the bottom of the tub, unless it coincedentally looks cool.

Hi Wende,

I was just perusing your blog, as I've often found your comments here v. witty. Still, I'm biting my tongue in half, and I have to say it -Chekhov wrote the Cherry Orchard! So, Chekhovian. ;)

Never bite your tongue in half, tabbymook: that mistake is now fixed, and I'm grateful for the correction.

We will know things are going well when that blog stops sounding harried, defensive, and punchy. It has become not only my goad to action (and something to wave at people who say they can't post pre-Cure BEFORE photos because it's too embarrassing), but also my barometer for my relative sanity.

this is kinda late in the thread...and i know there was an entry on bed tables, but i'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction. i am searching for a bed table that will pivot over the side of the bed rather than sit on top...more like a hospital bed. and not the rolling one like ikea has (which requires the whole bed and is actually too short). more one that i can pull over for my computer and can push away when i'm not using it, but it won't require the bf to move on his side. i'd rather have something a little more asthetically pleasing than an actual hospital bed...but of course not a lot of money...under $100 if i can get away with it. i'm willing to do myself, but haven't found any instructions that seem to be stable enough (instructables.com have some unsturdy or overly advanced makeshifts). i've posted here before for help and everyone was really helpful, so i'm trying here once more. thanks =)

hey, wende. i was just reading your blog, and i'm curious -- why's the current wisdom for unprinted newsprint instead of old newspapers, when packing?

is i some kind of overly anal marthaism wrt proper china maintenance?

an environmental thing?

the current Real Simple advertiser-led party line?

Anon, the logic is that newsprint will get on the dishes, so we can be sure the source isn't the dishwashing liquid manufacturers' lobby.

Since I took it seriously enough to feel guilty, the source is more likely Real Simple (which I suspect is sometimes obsessive to the point of silliness) than Martha (where I'm already sure). But I read homemaking books/sites the way I used to read Jane Austen or etiquette books, so who knows?

There are a few finishes that I would never wrap in newsprint because I know I'm asking for trouble, but the shiny glaze on my Pier 1 dishes ain't one of 'em.

Um, anon, why the conspiracy theory over, um, newsprint?

wende's one of the good ones. I'm sure she had a good reason (as she details), but seriously doubt she is part of some evil plan to launch some unprinted newsprint empire!

wende,
re: miranda's apt, bruise colors to optimistic brights, brilliant!
"he hit me, and it felt like a kiss," a st. etienne song aside which fortunately doesn't apply to my life, but a similar color switch does, as my bedroom changes into yellow, grey, violet from orange + white
(with grey + yellow carpet tiles eventually replacing the gross royal blu, black, beige, bruisy, industrial carpet i've been so tempted to remove, but covered in canvas, which i can paint at least, etc.)
which reflects joy + melancholy too, or feels meditative.
just no blues or angry reds (the kitchen similarly going from red + white to softer colors) altho i'm learning to love blue, pale or "pastel blues" an early nina album title + the blues i can handle.

not to be a name dropping fool, but holly go lightly + ms. simone seem like muses as fine as miranda + carrie b. + company...
this thread may be over but my aversion to bruise colors may never be (the last apt i shared b4 this one being done entirely in royal blue, some powder blu thank god + red...evry single thing + surface, by a loud, high functioning alcoholic...altho a more minor lush myself, lving there was at times more harowing than 4 years in a brick box btwn 6th + 7th streets in civic loin s.f.).

but wende, thanks, as usual....