apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Happy Friday everyone! Anyone else considering the last few apartment tweaks and refreshes before the holiday guests arrive?

After living with no curtains and too many close neighbors for a few years, I put up 3 pairs of deep burgundy Pottery Barn curtains in the three tall windows in my living/dining room. I got them to accent the burgundy in my living room rug, but I think they make the place feel too dark, maybe too Stickley-ish? I’ve called the un-intended look “old man library” on here before. They also clash with my newly-exposed kitchen colors.

I'm thinking of switching to white curtains. All the better to let more light in and they should be flexible for future color changes, while still keeping the peeking neighbors out. I am worried I’ll be just as unhappy with white curtains -- too hospital? This morning I had a vision of dove gray curtains, but that seems weird too.

I have curtain-phobia. Maybe it is wooden blinds I need, when I can afford them.

Has anyone else been having trouble accessing the site? I normally use Netscape as my browser, but in the last 12 hours it only comes up with a blank page. The top and side banners are there but no content appears. Has the webmaster changed some code or something? The LA site works fine and I'm currently accessing from Safari on my office Mac.

My only nod to the holidays is to decorate my potted piece of driftwood. Green lights and small pearly white or silver ornaments. The driftwood is potted with river rock in my fake "architectural pottery"-sytle vase. It adds just the right amount of Holiday bling for my non-trad taste. (I posted a pic in the flickr slideshow on the LA site if anyone wants to take a look.)

jimkk-i and others had that problem recently, but only with a certain thread and I was able to access it on my Mac at home, but not on windows at work.

We are looking for Rya rugs - scandinavian free-form design. We bought couple in 1970s , but now they are threadbare and need replacing. Can't find any dealers. We live in Wash. DC area.Help !

Carla,

Recently I was shopping for an RYA/danish style rug and ebay was the best bang for my buck. I regularly see very nice ones sell for 300-600, many used as wall art so except for age the condition is almost new.

If you don't like ebay I know goodeye in northwest (goodeyeonline.com i think) gets them second hand every so often. Call them and let them know you're looking and they will keep you in mind.

I don't see many stores sell them new, and the designs now are not like they were in the 70's!

chris,

what color are your walls? i'm in the same boat, i think white would be too boring but all the other colors scare me. but i need some curtains up!

Enrique,
I'm totally digging your Flikr Mexico pictures on the LA site.
I associate Mezcal in Oaxaca with bring-your-own bottles..it's rot gut really...and not those pretty pretty bubble bath things in Condesa!

more more more, por favor

Hey Chris - maybe you could put sheers up behind the burgundy curtains to lift the look. Then, with the heavy curtains pulled back, the sheers give a lighter feel and you'd still have the privacy. Or you could band the curtains with a lighter color fabric to take the musty old library feel away.

Every single day I have to type in another # code before my post goes thru. I have become anal about typing in the correct code(I double check it before I hit "post") to avoid this problem but even with the right code I still get a "wrong code" message. This happens with almost every post. For Christmas I want to never have to type in another code to post on AT!!

I have an old leather couch - I just noticed a rip in the leather on one cushion. Anyone try those leather repair kits? Any suggestions? I don't want to spend a load of $$. Thanks.

Hi,

I just bought a small office building for my design practice in DC. I'm looking for some cool industrial look task lights to hang from the ceilings which are 11' and 9' tall. Any suggestions?

Anne, the same happens for me if I take a long time to draft a message, but not for quick ones. Although I don't mind typing in the codes myself, I don't quite understand why there're needed. Probably something to do with spam or automated programs. (?)

As for the curtains, knowing the wall color would definitely help, but sparing that, I'm a big fan of white roman shades. Substantial, yet limited.

Hey, what's wrong with the library look? ;-)

Anne, same thing here, I always have to get a "wrong code" message first, even though I KNOW I typed it in correctly. Maddening.

It's a slow typing rebuke.
Hate it...can't wait for the web genius to change it...

Dianne and Anne,
Forgive me if you know this already, but that code times out. If you spend too long reading and typing then the code you see which was present from the time you clicked onto this thread will have timed out so when you use it, it is not longer valid.

If you read the thread over a period of a few minutes (maybe over 5) and then post then you will have to re-enter a new code so you should simply hit refresh before you start typing.

If it is because you are typing so much that the code timed out (which from your recent posts should not be the case) then either re-enter the code or copy what you just type (CTRL C or Apple Key C), hit refresh and paste back in (CTRL V or Apple Key V).

I got timed out typing that so the time out threshold must be low. Possibly a minute or two because I type fairly fast.

Yeah, it's when it takes a while to type. Trust me, I'm rather verbose on most of my posts.

Thanks for the explanation, jamie pup. Probably the reason for the time out is obvious to everyone but me, but . . . what is it? Some kind of means to thwart hackers, I'm sure, but I don't quite get it. Could the time out be made longer and still accomplish its purpose?

Good to hear someone else has my curtain phobia.

Minh -- my walls are a shade of white (which I am considering changing as well) but there isn't a lot of wall, since the major wall in the room is exposed brick. The windows open on to an airshaft, so there isn't much real light.

Anne -- I thought about sheers underneath, but the windows are very narrow. The two burgandy panel on each window cover almost 1/2 the surface of the window when "open". I thought another layer might make the windows look more clogged. I wish I could just have sheers, but I've had enough of the couple across the airshaft watching me eat dinner.

Nothing's wrong with Library. Maybe I need to find a better way to expalin the problem with my style. I want less Pottery Barn, more energy. I have a collection of old tiger oak bookcass, chairs and dressers that I love and won't get rid of, but I want more pop.

If you have a very bad experience with a contractor and would like to help someone else to make sure they do not get stuck with this jerk, what do you do?

On the web, we review stores, books, cars, films, even movers. I wish there were contractor reviews, especially here in NYC, where good help is hard to find.

I would not wish this contractor on my worst enemy.

I just posted something on another area of AT and even though it was short and I triple checked the # it still came up at "wrong code". AAARRRGGGHHHH!!
I'm sure it will happen right now as well.

For those of you having trouble accessing the site or certain threads, it may be spyware. Its happened to me a few times. Just run spybot or adaware and it usually fixes the problem.

As for curtains, got for a print. It could be subtle but it will be way more interesting.

Chris - Have the same curtain issues. I used to have heavy velvet curtains but I'm trying to open up my living room, just painted everything white and going to wallpaper one wall with a bold paisley print.

If you have mostly brick walls I'd say anthing velvet/dark is going to close up your space, maybe get something in a simple canvas or cotton, neutral but lighter color - taupe, sand, and I really like the idea of gray. Or maybe neutral or black and white stripes. Keep the sheers underneath for when you want more light. You could sell the pottery barn curtains on Craigslist...

I feel like I can always get more "energy" from pillows and other accessories and try and keep the big stuff neutral so I don't drive myself crazy. Good luck!
d

Chris,

If your velvet curtains cover up half the window when open, perhaps you need an alternative to curtains? How about getting some woven bamboo blinds instead? Smith and Noble have some gorgeous stuff though it is pricey! Their website/catalog is great for ideas. You can troll the myriad of web based blind stores for chaeper options. Good luck.

Reef

Chris:
You could put old-fashioned low profile white roller blinds on that airshaft window. And you can put them 1/2 or 2/3 up the window, so you get light *and* absolute privacy.

Then you can do what you want with the decorative part of the window treatment . . . white-on-white sheers or nothing or . . .

yo yo yoi