apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I am about to do some work on a small coop I have just purchased prior to moving in and I have a question in regards to color. We are sanding and refinishing the floors and painting before we move in. I KNOW they say live in the space, but we just don't have that kind of time. But I have taken several trips to the new place and really have a feel for what I want...I've pulled paint chips and my husband and I decided on the floor color and all of the sudden I realized - we're going all dark, deep wood and earth tones. Does that not do well in a small space? The apt is pretty railroad-y, but we just aren't in love with doing light colors? What is the opinion on opening up a smaller space in regards to flooring and color? Thanks!

JLBinBrooklyn You can get away with dark colours in small spaces. I've personally done it in a bachelor apartment I used to live in and it's nice. If you do it right, it feels warm and comfortable. I do think the best way to go about using dark colours in small spaces is to take advantage of contrasts, for example dark colours and light furniture. Or, instead of painting all the walls the same colour, you can have an accent wall in the colour you like and the other walls can be a neutral white.

Strictly speaking this is a distraction from the one-room remedy since this involved my other room, but while I was looking for that underwhelming lamp, I think I found the perfect chandelier to replace the one in my main room. Opinions? Questions, comments, queries?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7340332@N05/

I have dark floors in my studio apartment. White walls and light colored furniture. I like the way it looks and feels. The apartment also so has a lot of natural light and this may make a difference in youe choice of floor color.

JLBin -- Dark wood and earth tones in a small space can be warm and welcoming. That's why there's always a market for adorable Tudor Revival cottages.

The space will look larger if the big pieces of furniture are also dark wood and/or similar in tone to the walls. White is over-rated as a space-maker: if your furniture contrasts with white walls, the space will look smaller. The real gist of Maxwell's 80/20 rule on color is that 80% of your stuff needs to settle down and be unobtrusive, while 20% struts in center stage. So most things should blend into each other and the walls.

If the dark wood and earth tones make the place seem dark, you fix that with good lighting, mirrors, and reflective, transparent, or shiny accessories. But stick with the color scheme that feels right to you.

Thank you for your thoughts...I'll keep working on my dark color scheme since that seems to be what we're liking!

Hmm. Not the thing to bring up on a Friday...but I was hoping to comb the threads from the Fall Cure 2006. Can't find them. The blog page peters out at Spring Cure week three, and I don't see "cure" listed in the archives (could be because my eyesight is failing. Dang but that print is small).

Can anyone help me with this?

As well, what I was looking for is a few on-line floor plan generators we used way back then. Can anyone link me to those? There is one in particular I am looking for....
Thanks.

JoanathanB--what does "Cairine" mean? I did a google and it seems to be a school named for a Canadian senator--not what I think you meant!

Well, I don't like the old fixture. Looks like someone spray painted a cobweb: but the new one looks, well, busier. Like from a Bram Stoker film set. Fussy. But if it appeals to you....Do you like dusting?

Does anyone have experience with SELF-ADHESIVE towel hooks such as the one here:
http://www.blomus.com/blomus.php?l=en&a=detail&i=68571 ???
I'm wondering if this will work on 4x4 glass tiles?
Because I don't know what to do with my towels!!! My contractor sucks at doing ANYTHING with glass tiles. I don't want him to even attempt drilling holes on my tiled walls fixtures, what do i do...

Never mind about the floor plan generator thing: I found it.
It's awesome.
http://www.bhg.com/bhg/category.jsp?categoryid=/templatedata/bhg/category/data/arrangearoomtest.xml

I meant "attempt drilling holes on my tiled walls to install fixtures"

bombie--what about a freestanding towel rack/valet? I can't imagine self-adhesive hooks are going to work out that great.

scraplolly and alana:

yes, it is rather cobwebby -- rather what appeals to me about it -- not sure it's any fussier than anything else I have though. As for Cairine, if I remember correctly -- and I may not -- it's the adjectival form of Cairo. Again, if I remember correctly, it is not used in American English, but rather in British English only.

Thanks for your feedback.

scraplolly and alana are the same person. But you knew that, right?

Alana in Canada,
You can find all the threads from the past cure here:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/at-book/index

(It's under 'AT book' in the archives....)

Hi JLBinBrooklyn. GHBinBrooklyn here. I went with mostly dark furniture and color on my walls, but I decided to do a light colored bamboo floor. A dark floor shows every speck of dust. The walls are a deep gold, but it's not too dark because I get lots of natural light. If you don't have much light, it might feel a little cave-like. Good luck!

Does anybody know of a nice, small TV stand? Need 3 shelves (TV/VCR/Cable Box), approx. 24" - 30" high, same width. Looking for good quality wood or metal and glass. All I've seen are crappy wood/chip board units, but that's what I'm getting rid of. (I think it was from the Door Store.) I like this from CB2, but it's too low and I need another shelf http://www.cb2.com/family.aspx?c=118&f=2498&viewall=1
Thanks! -GHB

thank you for the welcome! i love this site and i'm really glad i found it. :-)

-sd

Thanks for your commets, Wende.

It's just that the one I have now -- which is simpler -- comes off as too bland....

Art hanging question... if i want to cluster a bunch of framed pictures, but some are part of a pair, and one of a group of 3. do i keep the pairs together and the 3 together and then cluster the others around them? or should i mix them all up? or should i not use the pairs or groups? thanks

pairs in a grouping can "tighten" the arrangement. As can a triad. Without some idea of the total number of pictures, etc., difficult to more specific.

http://www.merchline.com/iso50/category.420.c.php
three of these.

this and another one by the same artist http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=7171147

2 japanese kind of charactures of my kids and then a few single real photographs of my kids

this one http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=6277084

a few other random ones. do you think it will look stupid?

Newsweek's Freegan Girl is alot less hate-able than when she began . . .
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/freegangirl/archive/2007/09/21/day-31-the-end-my-friend.aspx

I've been so irritated with the various stunt articles about not consuming or reducing one's carbon footprint and eating locally etc because they tend to set up me-me-me disasters that make a mockery of legitimate sustainable living ideas.

It would be extraordinarily difficult to be more hateable than she was at the start.

When it's a revelation to someone that she can buy shoes one pair at a time, I have to figure, maybe some people really do need these stunts to wake them up to their own consumption patterns.

Yeah, she bugs.