apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Matte Stephens is now selling prints of some of his work on ETSY the address is: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5063179
I love his stuff and the prints are extremely affordable! Check it out.

hi all,

i guess i go against the grain and like a very colorful bed in a neutral room. i'm looking for a duvet cover in a deeply saturated teal (a pattern with teal as the dominant color would be okay too).

i feel like this color was big a year or two ago, but now i can only find pastels. anyone have any ideas?

I have a big brown leather sofa, chair and ottoman. I need to purchase extra seating as our family will be growing via adoption. The thing is that I prefer a modern style but I need something that won't be swamped by the overall "huge-ness" of the sofa....and it must be budget priced. (adoptions are expensive!) Can anyone give me some ideas for good looking sofas or loveseats?
(this pic is from the JCPenney website..not my living room--lol)

Click name for picture:

Pier 1 has some nice jewel tone teal bedding.

Liz,

How about this in the blue green color:
http://www.thecompanystore.com/parent.asp?product=CP72x%5F4&dept%5Fid=3101

Also check Ikea. They tend to have brighter colors.

Check out this NY Times Home & Garden post on earthen floors - I am inspired!

i liked the article to my name, but maybe that's not so obvious
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/08/garden/08dirt.html?8dpc

My boyfriend and I have recently decided to move in together. We don't have a target date, but it will be sometime in the fall or winter.

For career and location reasons, he'll most likely be moving into my apartment. Neither of us has ever lived with a significant other before, I'd love to hear from others who have been this situation. In terms of the apartment, I'm worried about making the place seem less like "mine, plus him" and more "ours".

Liz,
this duvet cover from Amenity is on sale right now. It looks pretty saturated to me. (click my name for link)

yes, that's actually the one i want, but even the sale price is beyond my budget, alas. :)

i might just make a cover out of two flat sheets, so if anyone knows of any sheeting collections, i might have better luck there...still only seeing lots of pastels/neutrals, but maybe there's a resource i don't know about.

Liz, another idea is to check out the teen girl bedding options at different places since the colors seem to be brighter and more saturated than the adult bedding.

Lynne,

Take an inventory of your stuff, do a purge, ask him to do the same.

Agree on whose bed/couch/chairs/table/dishes you're going to use.

Make room for his stuff.

Congrats!

I want to change the medicine cabinet in our bathroom and wondered how easy this will be, and I thought one of you could give me some pointers! The existing one is recessed, so do I have to get another recessed cabinet? And how difficult is it to take out the existing one and install a new one? Thanks in advance!

Hi, All.

Wondering if anyone has any experience or thoughts on placing a wood-block rug (such as sold by West Elm; link below) in a bathroom? The item is for indoor-outdoor use, but might the wood blocks trap moisture or become moldy in a (small, usually warm) bathroom?

Grateful for any feedback!
Best,
Rick

http://shopping.msn.com/track/TrackItemClick.aspx?p=3373:3373:453368201:S:5067:-1:-1:3:83:-1:-1:3:100:-1:1&u=http%3a%2f%2fwe40.cpcmanager.com%2f%3f10038584&stext=wood&hsv=Yunb45%2fyvDY%3d

Hey Lynne,

Ana's advice is great. I'd also add that, at least in my experience, it's important that the one who is moving into the apartment take some initiative in "owning" the space and the way things are organized within it. For me and my sig. other, it was less about what stuff you/he has in the apartment and more about each party taking the time to learn where everything is, discuss how things are working, and come up with solutions.

I commend you for having the foresight to think about this before the move actually happens—it was something that took me a while to figure out!

Best of luck and congratulations!

kamillakat
it's not too hard. usually there are screws inside the cabinet and if you don't have an electrical connection in the cabinet, remove the screws and it slides out. you can replace it w/ recessed or not. either way, but it's wayyyyyy easier to use the same size, if you go with recessed. good luck.

Liz,
CB2 also has a neat looking teal branch print. The background is lighter, but there is definitely teal throughout. I think you can get a better look at the pattern in the room view (link on my name).

Liz,

I bought a flat sheet on eBay and sewed silver silk chantung to the top, two widths of fabric wide. See name for a link to picture. The sheet is Polo, and only was about $10, and is very soft.

I cut one width of fabric in half length wise and make it {1/2 fabric piece-1 whole piece-1/2 fabric piece} so that there wasn't a seem down the middle of the bed.

Good luck!

Thanks, lisa in austin! I've seen some other posts on AT about medicine cabinets, but why is it so hard to find a simple one with clean lines that is also affordable??

skywaykate: that's lovely. i'll have to check out some fabric stores this weekend. it seems like an easy enough project, right?

olivia: yep, i have checked out the cb2 duvet, and it's my if-i-don't-find-what-i-love backup choice. :)

Ok I need advice on shelving; my apartment has no real linen closet, but I do have a nice, big walk in closet. There's a shelf in the back above the clothes rail, and we already installed a Lack shelf on one side for linens, but it's not enough. The celing goes up pretty high, so we could conceivably mount another shelf--but it's be difficult to do and then still difficult to get to stuff. So what is the best kind of shelving to install for linens?

Liz,

Hit up ebay and search by color name.

I was, until last week, duvet shopping and while I liked that amenity cover, I couldn't bring myself to spend so much on that kind of item. With luck was able to find something really similar by searching 'turquoise duvet cover'.

Good luck!

Liz: IKEA definitely has a deep, jewel-toned teal coverlet (in a shiny rayon fabric). Solid color, no pattern, large box-stitching; but defnitely not a duvet cover. I just picked one up in queen-size for $59.

Liz,

I will third the Ikea suggestions--I have a pillow case (Hanna) with a ginormous flower on it and the colours are very deep. I've also seen their solid colour sheets (Sova) and the colours are rich and beautiful. You could easily buy two flats and sew them together for a duvet cover, and the quality isn't too bad, either, from what I remember. The colour you should look at is called blue-green. Happy decorating!

P.S.--I also have the same bedspread as Enrique (in purple/dark lilac). It adds a bit of extra warmth and is very light.