apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

One room "work-out":--I like that!
I love it when the weekend thread goes up, too. Feels like a fresh start. A new chance.

I just posted to the week thread, so I'll go copy that over to here:

Today's plans are to finally finish the kitchen chairs. I want to put two/three coats of varnish on them and I've already got the first done! Only require two hours between coats!

The second goal is slightly more ambitious: Get the dining room completely packed up! Hopefully I got enough boxes to do that yesterday....

Then I just have to figure out what I'm doing with the computer...what paint supplies we have and what we need to get and so on. (I have the car tomorrow, yay! I can actually go and get whatever we need.)

I feeling hopeful I can get the room completely packed today. I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to put all the boxes, but one thing at a time, I guess.

Hey! That room looks familiar!
My kitchen is on the internets!

thanks for the shout-out. :)

Mace Elaine: your kitchen looks fantastic. Quite wonderful, in fact. Have you considered putting up a curtain to the door of your pantry?
I'm thinking of the Alvine Smal in yellow. I've seen it in person and it looks close to your kitchen wall colour.
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/30111964

Look what I found searching for the above!
Jessicat--new from Ikea...for your blik room:
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/40122212
What do you think? They'd have to go down to the floor to get the full tree effect and you might not want that near the little guy--but, migoodness, how perfect!

PS: these links are to the Canadian Ikea. So, don't be scared by the $$.

Um, at the moment, $1 US is equal to $1 Canadian.

Oh, duh, an American wouldn't order from Canadian IKEA. I'm losin' it. Friday, Friday, Friday!

Oh Wende!!

Alana - I had the same comment for maceelaine re: the curtain on one of her earlier kitchen photos! I too think it would be a great way to reduce visual clutter while not impeding access to the pantry.

I saw that fabric at Ikea recently! You know, it might be perfect for over his glass door to the back yard; I have leftover fabric from the window, but felt like it would be too matchy for me to use it on the door. Thanks for reminding me about it :)

My boys (hubby/kiddo/dog) are off for a one-night camping trip tomorrow, so I am really really hoping to at least make a tiny bit of headway around here. I do totally get that I'm not supposed to be making myself crazy over this, it's just frustrating 'cause I wish I had more...no, some...time to devote to this right now. The house really needs it, and so do I. Actually, what I *really* need is a way to keep everything in my entire house off-limits to the kiddo so I don't spend all my free time putting back what he pulls out, LOL! OK I'm only kind of laughing. But crying inside. Heh.

Jessicat: it is never too early for the little one to learn to pick up after himself. Seriously. You will spend a LOT of time "helping" him. but the more consistent you are and the more you two do it, the more automatic it will be.
I was really diligent about this with my son: with my daughter, not so much. Guess who's "better" at it, now? And guess who looks after the guinea pig's cage, best? It's amazing how you can teach "reponsibility" just by teaching them habits.

And if you do this already, I apologise for preaching and I totally commiserate. In fact, I found a photo recently of what my living room looked like on a typical day when the kids were 4 and 8. If I can find it again, I'll post it for you and link.

LOL Alana -- would love the photo!
And yes, he absolutely does help clean up; we've done this ever since he was wee, but he's just recently started testing the waters of personal power more and more and I'm not pushing back too hard on stuff that isn't as important. Aah, the joys of child development! I guess I really should start that Curing with Kids thread on the AT:SF flickr page...although it seems we'd be the only ones posting!

Got it.
Hope it makes you smile.
Hugs.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/46773919@N00/1456326032/

Thanks Alana, I needed that!
(My guy makes me take all the couch cushions off too, so he can do 'high jumps' and 'slides into the mud'.)

Popping in from the Chicago group for a minute.

Wende, although it's true that the Canadian $ and the American $ are about at par right now, that isn't yet reflected in the prices Canadians have to pay for things. Our prices are still listed at higher amounts than what Americans pay for the same thing... for example, quoting directly from the back of my Apartment Therapy book, and most prices for most things are like this, US $14.00 / CAN $21.00 Makes a big difference in the buying power of a dollar, even when it's theoretically at par. Sigh.

Um, Alana and Jessicat? My place used to look like that "days of yore" pic over at Alana's Flickr, and I've never had kids... ... ...

Beth--The prices of books are outrageous. I think they were all printed when the dollar was $.60.

When I have wanted to buy a book at retail, somehow it usually has to be ordered in. (I go through a great indie bookstore here in town. Never the chains.) Then I'm charged not the price on the back of the book, but the US price converted.

But also, don't forget that prices will be different here, too, because of the whole economy of scale issue.

Alana - love your before before picture. have you ever noticed children's toys take up more room than they did in the box they came in?

As for the dollar thing: this really scares and depresses me. I used to buy antiques in Canada and air ship them to New York for less than a comparable item would cost in New York, before tax and shipping.

So that's where all the antiques have gone!

Not to worry--it won't last long. I predict the dollar will go back to about .85 by this time next year. (Though what do I know?--ask Wende) No one here likes it much, really, either. Mostly just the tourists going to Vegas.

Though IKEA prices in Canada vs. the US seem to be completely independent of the usual Canadian mark-up. When I lived in Vancouver a few years ago, I was astonished that some things were comparatively cheaper at the Canadian IKEA vs. the prices I had been used to in the states.

And there have been times when I've been in Vancouver after that, that I've made my way to the Richmond or Coquitlam IKEAs to pick up something for slightly cheaper, or that my Seattle IKEA was out of stock on.

But don't ask Wende on a friday!

Not much to report. I hit a wall just as I finished my errands at about noon. Should have had a nap, then, but foolishly I slogged on. Just really didn't get much done. I'm trying not to beat myself up about it.

And yes, it is absolutely normal for your place to be in shambles right now. Someone on the Chicago thread said it was like being in the shaggy stage of growing out a hair cut. That's why you should plan a party. It forces you to clean up and put the finishing touches on everything: like doing up a fancy do.

I just really, really need my dh to be home more often instead of working. Next weekend is Thanksgiving. He's promised to take all three days off. Unbelievable. (We'll have to devote one to assembling the Expedit from all I've heard!)

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one who's house is in a shambles. My living room looks like a tornado came through (and my daughter's off at college so I can't blame her!). But looking at my kitchen makes me keep going. I'll post after-pics as soon as said daughter returns my camera. I'm having trouble finding one thing though...small-ish compact flourescent bulbs that are the equivalent of 60w incandesant bulbs. The one's I've found so far don't fit inside the light fixture in the kitchen. Does any one have any ideas? I've tried IKEA bulbs and Energy Star bulbs...

I need some help. My goal for the fall cure was to bring some color into my living room. While assessing the project, I also determined that I need to better integrate the dark wood furnture into the western light-filled room. I'm not having much luck.

First the color - I've determined that my furniture has warm undertones. The couch is taupe with orange/yellow/gray tones, the console is dark brown with red undertones and even the off white chairs have a yellow/gray undertones. I thought a dark teal or agua/geen might work as it's a complimentary color to the red undertones and a triadic partner to the orange/yellow undertones. I painted a few test patches, using Aegean Teal by Benjamin Moore, and it's not working for me. I feel like it's fighthing with the console for attention. I thought I might like the contrast but it was too much. I guess I want a more harmonious, serene look. I was contemplating going darker, which would subdue the dark console some but I'm thinking that would be fighting all the natural light in the room. The rest of my place is light also, so a dark living room is not making sense to me.

So what do I do? I like my furniture and I like my light-filled apartment. The stark white walls need to be warmed up and the dark brown console needs to be toned down. I'm not having much luck with wall color. So now I'm thinking maybe a brown patterned rug, to pull the brown through and ground the room, a darker neutral, with warm undertones, for the walls and then splashes of color in the accessories.

I feel like that's taking the easy way out but I'm literally throwing things against the wall and nothing is sticking. I found an interior design/color consulting business in town that charges $350 for a color consultation. That's pricey but I'm feeling color challenged and frustrated enough to think it may be worth it.

I've been offline this past week due to long work hours and then illness. I've read over week three posts and I'm so impressed with everyone's Deep Treatment progress. I didn't take on the Deep Treatment for a number of reasons but I didn't expect to be struggling this much with the One Room Workout. After making plans and doing a deep cleaning in the first two weeks, I put in some time again this weekend. However, I don't feel like I've made much progress, unless you call figuring out what doesn't work progress.

Any ideas?

http://flickr.com/photos/60733342@N00/1395187730/in/set-72157602051223927/

Carina -- Your room doesn't want more brown, which will just add heaviness to fight those fabulous white chairs and the transparent coffee table. It doesn't want a dark or bold color at all, but something with a light touch, almost frothy.

Aegean is much more the right idea. The danger with blues and greens, though, is that if the console is truly warm-based, the contrasting undertones will always highlight it rather than knocking it back. A clear violet-gray, like Sherwin Williams' Porcelain, may quiet it down more. (Basically, I'm thinking the violet-gray equivalent of your blue glass bowl.)

That's exactly what was happening, Wende. The aqua/green colors were highligthing the console and pushing it more into the room. I'll have to find somewhere else to use the color as I'm really taken with it. After playing around with online color tools, I see that the violet-grays may indeed put the console in it's place. I'm off to the paint store. Thanks for your suggestion.