apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I love the combination of books and carpets. It feels so rich. Can we have a house tour, taureg?

Wow, love the open space. My home office looks like hobbits work out of it.

Rich
http://www.bizjama.com

I work on a tv show Lipstick Jungle. One of the characters, "Wendy" has a similar set up in her NY loft. The show is on nbc at ten on thursdays. It is a similar set up to the Japanese photo. The cabinets go up 12" higher than the counter so when you are outside of the kitchen you can't see the counter. But the part that is higher than the counter is actually a cubby on the reverse side. So you can put things like your toaster, etc in the cubby and not have it clutter up your counter. Also it keeps the counter out of view which can be nice. We actually shot originally in someone's loft in Manhatten, so what you see on the show is what their kitcchen was set up like. But when the show went into production they built a duplicate on a set. Check it out. I was taking measurements at work so I could maybe copy it someday!

House tour! House tour! Don't you just want to see the rest of the plan from this tantalizing snippet?

Could we also someday have a Books at Home Month, in which we talk sensibly about how to take proper care of books and integrate them into home design? Some of us truly cannot read-and-donate or get everything at the public library because we constantly need reference books that are too obscure for libraries to stock.

Where's the receptionist?

ha ha, patrick, that's my sentiment exactly! when i first saw this pic i thought, 'what kind of pseudo-moroccan coffee shop is that?' OOPS!

I like this version better than the japanese version from the earlier post.

I am inspired to save this photo for a couple of years until I get my counters re-done and have this applied to the outer side of my prep counter that divides kitchen from dining. I think this would be a great way to create open storage for other common use or artsy items.

I love books, but I don't really care for bookcases in my living space because books are dust collectors. I keep a handful of cookbooks over the stove, gardening books in my living room end table, and whatever I'm currently reading next to the bed. After lots of moving over a lifetime, I realized that hauling around books was attachment to physical representations of the intangible experiece in the stories. I can get any book I've ever read again if I feel compelled to re-read, so why port a book I haven't looked at in 20 years?

Bless your little heart, kimg924, that you only read fiction and light non-fiction and never have to worry about professional publications!

Condescending, much?

Embrace the books (and bookcases) in your life. You never know when you're going to want to reread (for instance) "Lark Rise to Candleford" or look up the precise relationship of Juno to Hercules, and (after all) why delay the gratification?

Personally I think a home without books just feels weird. I can't even imagine a living room without them. To me they embody comfort. But I'm an academic, so no matter how many I cart over to my office, they just seem to creep into all the crevices and flat surfaces of my home . . .

Exactly. Books everywhere. That is comfort for me, too.