apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I very much like the clean mix of styles.

This is the type of apartment that if I were to visit, I would immediately think was cool and would be jealous of, even though I myself prefer a more masculine look. Lovingly treated, extremely liveable. Feels twice as big as it is, which is a tremendous accomplishment. Congrats.

I love the reading light in the bathroom! And the screen near the bed is lovely. Nice job on making your place stylish and homey.

I felt like this space needed to go all the way in one direction or the other. I felt like the sleeping area is where she gets it all the way right, but I was lost on the living area with such modern lamps and shelving. I think what could have worked would be pieces that are modern and clean lined, but that make reference to the baroque. I didn't like the bathroom, but I could see where she was trying to go with the overall design.

my favorite so far... and the page won't let me vote! i love the delineated spaces- hard to do (well) in a studio. i also really like the flexibility of everything; it feels light and beautiful and spacious. great work!

Very charming. There's a lot to like here. Melissa, did you paint the screen? Is it Indian? I just got a similar one on ebay (an Indian wood, but with a deep cherry wax/stain). If you did paint it, how did you go about it?

I really like the screen, and it looks like your layout is really halping you make the space look bigger. The style looks a little country or shabby chic to me, rather than baroque.

Ultra pretty Melissa! I love the standing lamp in the bathroom. Love the screen...is that one screen or two screens together? Honestly, I've lived in a studio and you've used the space more than efficiently.

This is one of the best studios I've seen. Well done Mel!

You say you're renting; maybe that's why the walls are still so neutral (white?). Regardless, you've done a lot to make it work beautifully. I'd be curious to see how far you could go if you were (or felt) free to work some color and/or pattern on the walls. Given what you've done here, I'm sure that either would be subtle and evocative, without being too busy.

There's probably a compelling reason (like a fire escape) driving the choise of which window has the air conditioner, so you're probably not wanting a bed directly in front of it. But if the bed could have been on the opposite wall, it would have been nice to be able to look down that corridor and not have one's eye get stopped by the screen. I do like the screen there otherwise, though.

I think it's a wonderful example of having things that mean something to you, and are beautifully, neatly and artfully arranged.

Thanks for the nice comments - it's nice to hear ideas and feedback, even if it is sort of strange to see my house on a website!

Enrique - the screen was white when I bought it, which is why I bought it, actually. It's whitewashed, so some of the darkness underneath shows through in spots, which I like. Maybe milk paint could do the same thing?

As for Curtis' idea of moving the screen - I actually had the same idea to have a long, uninterrupted view to the window. Surprisingly, though, it made the room seem smaller. I think Maxwell said something about the need to meander around a space in a posting of a house tour a while back; it really seems to be true in this case. It was amazing how much smaller the space looked when it was a direct shot from door to window. And yes, I'd love to paint the walls!

i think your lighting and the arrangement is fabulous and i _love_ the bedroom. i like how your place is evocative, or both soothing and stimulating, with out spending a lot.

one thing that might look great (can't resist a suggestion just because it might really work, bear with me folks!)
is grass cloth on the two dining room corner walls.

the May Elle Decor U.S. has a living room which features it beautifully (its cocoa-brown, subtle texture takes on an almost rosey tone because of the surrounding furnishings; it's from Donghia).
or maybe something silvery grey blue, like the sea foam candles you have, velvet...or shadow grey paint, a fine backdrop for the midsummer lamp...thanks!

i keep looking at the slideshow again and again.
thank you for your b4 pics, the one w/out boxes...your whole arrangement feels superb.
the couch and chair, beauty.
and sometimes the smallest things, like the little plates, and the curled sconce between the dresser and the shelves, that whole wall really...i just love it.
it's so fun when some one makes you love a place done in a style you didn't think you liked.

I want this apartment. The layout is amazing. OK, fantasy over. I like how you've defined your space, I like the feminine colors and the simple, uncluttered approach with the occasional swirl and lace to catch the eye. I'm trying to vote but the vote thingy isn't working now. Will try again soon. Love the softness of the overall picture and the practicality as well. There is an openness to your decor--it rocks!

sorry, it's the April Elle Decor which has the grass cloth in a London aprtment's sitting room.
it's cocoa brown, faintly sort of striped, close to your couch color.

Thanks for the tip, Orangered - I'll check it out. The walls are definitely too bare. I've been chickening out on making a big decision like buying a huge mirror to rest against the wall or painting specific walls. Thanks for the inspiring idea! What a great use of this contest...

i love your floor lamps also. where did you find them?

Melissa -

If you want to stay with a look for your walls that's rather clean, and yet have a bit of visual interest on them, consider doing what I've done for a couple of different people, which is a stripe that's kind of aged and whitewashed.

I have tended to do this in a bathroom, in which the bottom portion of the wall was tiled, and I did this to the top portion.

On an off-white painted wall, I used 1-and-a-half-inch wide blue painters tape, and made stripes an APPROXIMATELY equal distance apart, which were approximately straight! Then I painted a pale beige, and I do mean pale. Then I took off the tape (always while the paint is slightly wet). Then, I took some white paint mixed with clear glaze and wiped it on with one sponge, and almost simultaneously off with another one that's clean. Experiment on some illustration board until you like how it goes.

I think it was Benjamin Moore's Linen White for the first color, and their Off White for the second one, and then the glaze was probably mixed with Non-Yellowing White. This way you have sort of a cottage-y shabby chic thing which has a pattern, but it's still not a busy one. You could do this on one entire wall, or you could do it up to a chair rail height and then actually put up an actual chair rail. The result, in that case, would be kind of faux beadboard.

Another possibility, which I mentioned as a suggestion in someone else's bathroom, but which you could do anywhere in your place, is one of Ralph Lauren's Linen wall treatments. They're kind of tricky, but the look is fantastic, and it would be a warm look that would still be crisp and clean; you might use one of their more neutral beiges or off-white ones.

Or of course, if you want to be really brave, I could do a mural that you could fill in the colors yourself, based on an old paint-by-number painting -- I have loads of them you could look at, but I'm thinking of this one particular one of roses that would be fun. I would just paint the blue lines and numbers, and match up the colors to the original painting I have. The huge scale would be kind of fantastic. I did one of Paris at Night with Wet Streets in my place.

I really do not see the minimalist influence here at all. My overall impression is a space with a major identity crisis. Save for a few modernist pieces thrown in here and there, the apartment mostly references the baroque. There isn't any focus, or a common theme that helps pull it all together.

It IS possible to do a minimalist baroque style, but oftentimes that means stripping the baroque elements down to their most basic forms. Take for example, Starck's Louis Ghost Armchair, or Baas for Moooi's charred armchair and chandelier, and even those silly chandelier screen prints popping up on everything from dishwear to pillows. All of these items use the baroque, but in a unique, unusual and minimal way, that works.
It is possible to have an unaltered baroque element, but those elements must be used sparingly or the space quickly becomes cluttered and unfocused. Basically, she needs to do a lot of weeding out. If she works on a more distilled vision she could have a great space.