apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

maxwell -
yes me too, have had a head cold since last wednesday. sick of drinking hot tea and eating chicken soup!

Fended it off with echinacea.

DC denizens and visitors:

Logan Circle house tour, my favorite, is this Sunday from 1-5

http://www.logancircle.org/tour_2005.asp

I've been remarkably well so far this winter, despite frequent contact with airplanes.

Mine started with a sore throat on T-Day and after recovering from the agony of plugged ears while flying home I am still troubled by a cough and general feelings of malaise.

After no illness at all for 10 years, I just fought off my second cold this year. It's sweeping my office. Of course, I was also on a subway car with a guy I swear had the bubonic plague; I have never seen such a sick person ambulatory. Ah, urban life.

Sick?? I was told last night that I may have pneumonia! Dr. prescribed antibiotics and an inhaler. Felt horrid since last Saturday. Went for a chest xray this morning and I'm clear, but still feel very yucky. Major conjestion in my chest/lungs and coughing and wheezing and overall weakness.

Used possible pneumonia story to show total dedication to two clients. Hopefully, if I screw something up they'll be sympathetic. I told one, you're number one, my health is number two and my family is number 3. had a good laugh.

Hope everybody feels better soon.

My own cold should kick in a week, after completing 2005's third move. (first move for family reasons and because we were expecting to buy, so we stayed with my mom for a bit, second move because - hah! - like we could buy in this market, and we really couldn't keep living with my mom, and third move because a 3 bedroom apartment with access to a yard came up in the complex we're currently in. I'm sure my son will thank me next summer, but my morale is pretty low right now. Moving is starting to feel like a part-time job, or at least a very serious hobby.

Anyway... this is all a roundabout way of asking if anyone knows of examples that successfully combine a warm modernism with the sentimental remainders of a more youthful and bohemian look. I still really like my battered antique dresser and my 1930s desk chair. But how do I pull off the combination of these things and my new bent-ply dining room chairs? (They're like the kids' bunny chairs at DWR, but black - don't know the provenance.)

So how do you combine the furniture of your modern dreams with the remnants of your flea-market past? Does anyone have any inspiring pictures to recommend?

Susiq, I assume you're a woman and not the man on the subway to whom Fiona referred.

Have fended off illness three times so far this fall, and swear that it's because I promptly went to bed after taking Wellness Formula (from the health food store).

Of course, I've just jinxed it.

My theory is artwork....add artwork. I have a family room that is warmly modern but with some unconnected other elements. The room works (at least I think it works) for two reasons....1) color is fairly consistent in the room 2) artwork and lots of it makes almost anything look good, and a step above the typical.

moi? At last check, I am. :-)

Does anyone have something like this?

http://www.anthro.com/PromotionDetails.asp?PromotionID=328&pr=enook

I think it's pretty cool (that cord-hiding panel is great!), but am not sure how it would stand up to regular use as a desk. Thoughts?

Blue, my theory on blending disparate styles is shared color/finishes. If things are meant to blend rather than to -- dare I say it? I must! -- POP, then just being the same color helps immensely.

Cross-pollination would probably help, too. Put some bohemian accessories by the modern stuff, and some modernist accessories by the bohemian stuff.

Oh -- and arrange the rooms so that similar lines echo in different parts of the room. (Sorry, no photos -- my own apt is nice, but won't win any design awards.)

Blue -
Wende is said a lot of good stuff in very few words, and she's so right. I like to say that everyone at the party needs to know (or at LEAST be able to get along with) at least two other people.

So, your vintage chair is aluminum with black vinyl on it and rounded shoulders on the back? Maybe some brand piece of something else could be aluminum and an even older piece have something black about it, and something yet else have something vinyl about it, and a different thing could have something rounded about it, and they'll all get along with that vintage chair in their own way, kind of different people will have different things in common with the host of a party.

It would be good if those other things have their own little exclusively mutual things in common, though, too.

Maribeth

I love that desk. Perfect for a tiny apt. Of course, my walls are made up of the same stuff as mentioned last week - dust, mouse skeletons, etc... so it would probably fall off as soon as I open the lid. I would need a stud finder and mount it properly. Hey, P2 could help me out there!

Now I have a question. Please read this :) because I need some advice.

I have an idea that I've wanted to put into production but don't have a clue how to start. When I had a business several years ago I made the products myself. But I don't know how to make this one. So I need help in finding a bag designer to help me out. I also don't want to take my idea around and show it to a bunch of manufacturers and then have them steal the idea from me. I have the basic idea of how I want this to look and function. I just need someone to help me "build" it. Any thoughts?

thanks for all the thoughts, everyone. Artwork, color, finding energy in the contrast - good advice.

And it does feel a little like introducing my old friends that I'm really comfortable with to a new crowd. I'll keep that metaphor in mind.

Hmmm... maybe the problem is that the new crowd can be a little intimidating. Sleek and cultured people that I'm hoping to impress. Some of them have very expensive clothes and impressive pedigrees. That may get at the problem I'm having - I can't expect the party to swing if I'm all edgy around these new people that I badly want to be my friends.

It will all work once I've figured out who the modernists are that I can actually be friends with, right? And they should get along with the things I picked up during my poor student years, since my version of thrift-store bohemianism was always clean and uncluttered.

ok, back to packing...

anne, i don't know if this is in any way helpful, but i just really like this company. Their customer service has always been very very good for me, and they just seem "nice" and make some very very smart, efficient, designs.

Susiq - what company?

the company that's linked to my name, above, acme made, but that's probably not what you're asking in your post.

That's the quality I'm looking for. Maybe I should send them an email and ask a few questions.

More suggestions are welcome!

I'm trying to achieve the same look in my apartment - combining grandma's lamp with fleur de lys with some updated/sleek but comfortable furniture. Trying to keep things clean but still warm.

Domino Magazine has been a real help to me, they have a lot of "vintage modern" rooms and great color combos

Blue,

Have a look at the designer's own apartment at

http://www.gregnatale.com.au

Grandma style visits bachelor pad.

good luck...i'm crazy about their tote plus i have a couple of others. their quality is very very good and their prices reasonable. if they can't help you, maybe they have sources for you!

I swear by emergen'C to help fend off colds! Tastes pretty good, too.

Airborne has helped in the past to fend off colds when the symptoms first started appearing. And hand sanitizer rocks.

Lovin' the Airborne, myself....

I always have Airborne and zinc lozenges on hand--at home, at my desk, in my briefcase, in my dopp kit, etc. Seriously. The stuff seems to work since I'm usually on 3-5 flights per week stuck next to or behind someone hacking up a lung, and rarely get more than short-term head colds... Other tips, definitely get a flu shot early in the season. And get a pneumonia shot every 7-10 years. The pneumonia shot is a great preventive, as it stops head colds from progressing from a simple head cold into the secondary stage in the lungs. (Bonus tip: Airborne and Emergen-C seem to work as decent morning-after supplements when you are hungover. Well that, and a super greasy breakfast.)