department of the interior: home decor

uh

http://www.ericofon.com/catalog/classic3/images/noteworthy.jpg

tres chic, i know

whatever you do I'd definitely suggest pre-drilling a diameter hole a bit smaller than the screws you're using - this will reduce the amount of compression the surrounding material goes through so it should stand up a little better. If it has four mounting holes you should line one or two of them up w/ a stud if you can so that it's taking the majority of the weight and the others are pretty much keeping it level.

That cantilevers pretty far so the top mounting hole/s will be carrying almost all the weight. Those are the important ones.

I visited my friend's house on Sunday and it's tip-top full of Girard textiles and Pantone chairs and every design nerd thing you can think of. If I didn't like her so much, I'd Single White Female her for the apt alone.

ah I had missed this thread... As a new home owner, I spend most of my weekends thinking about all these things without actually doing anything about it.
At the moment priority is to put together floor-to-ceiling wall bookshelves. I was initially thinking of getting someone to custom make it for me but then I realized how much that would cost... So my current idea is to play around with IKEA Billy shelves and try to fit as many units so as to cover most of the wall.

I saw a picture of someone's house the other day and they'd attached molding to the front of the Billy bookcases lining a specific wall, so that it looked like they really were built into the room! Brilliant.

also, I have since rearranged the room to fit the couch better (and bought an army of throw pillows) but I want to show off my fabulous new couch.. yes, it's from IKEA, but I'm also 26 and financially independant so that's how life is gonna be for the next ten years or so. ;)

er
http://photos-b.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v2128/224/57/516053577/n516053577_1259393_4197.jpg

Sunny wants a sectional so bad, but I can't give up the rocking recliner so easily.

i'd get one of those couches if i knew where i'd be living 9 months from now

gabbneb where u gonna go?

hey i made curtains!

they have poppies on them and are in my kitchen. this is also my first successful sewing project really ever. i am so pleased. /blog

!!!!
pictures!

I want so many area rugs. ALL THIS AREA RUGS. And I'm not even moving for another month. This decorating bug is TOTALLY OUT OF HAND.

did you get it did you get it????

DON'T KNOW YET but that won't stop me from looking at every sofa on the internet.

look on, and good luck, lady! you deserve the bestest sofa ever!

what is the deal with ikea - i went there for the first time on sunday and found it to be WONDERFUL (apart from uh the other people there), yet i sense some stigma attached to this brand name.

we went to eye up some glass doored bookshelves, and then came home inspired to rearrange our whole house and omg what a difference moving furniture makes! our home is so much more... homey!

also moved the cluttered work desk out of the cramped bedroom and into the living room and what a huge difference it has made to the 'vibe' of bedroom - pretty sure im sleeping better now.

^^^ xpost <3 sectional couches.

xpost2, my Ikea order arrived today. I feel a bit stigma-y about it sometimes too but y'know, I don't make a lot of ££ and I managed to get a lot of stuff with what I had. And it looks pretty decent. I would've bought more stuff money permitting. I can see why people don't like Ikea, but I think it's alright.

re: why ikea is disliked -- i think there are a few different types of stigma. i'm not crazy about a lot of their furniture because even if it's at a pretty reasonable price, a lot of it simply isn't very durable or well-made, and also for the fact that if you are looking for something other than sleek modular modern design you're pretty much out of luck. the furniture isn't horrible (except some of the chairs, which i hate), and i do have some ikea stuff, but i tend to think of it as temporary furniture, only there until i find something better on consignment or craigslist or whatever.

for other people, who are big fans if fight club and/or adbusters, it represents a sell-out yuppie corporate-sanitized lifestyle for brainwashed sheeple. one-stop lifestyle shopping, or something.

i like ikea for offering a lot of decent, simple smaller merchandise for cheap -- i went a few weeks ago and got some dishes, flour sifter, butcher block, bathroom organizers, glass storage jars, etc.

Yes, there's all of that, plus I've also heard an argument that it's a 'big box' store promoting urban sprawl and car dependency because their stores are usually in suburbs or city fringes inaccessible to those without a vehicle or a lot of public transpotation willpower.

transportation

Eh there are lots of big box stores, if it weren't for IKEA it's not like people would buy locally hand-made wooden furniture. And IKEA's flat-packing is probably way more energy efficient to ship than normal manufacturer's products are.

also they are basically socialists, which is great!

I live halfway between the two nearest IKEA stores to me -- One's in Houston and the other's in Chicago.

I've got friends in St. Louis who roadtrip to the Chicago one (or Schaumberg, whatever the fuck) to shop at IKEA.

maybe Greater Toronto Area could stand to lose one of its FOUR surrounding Ikeas in favour of the Canadian/US middle areas

geez, Toronto

I am obssed w trolling through Apartment Therapy looking for rooms I like. In particular, I want to buy a wall of Billy bookshelves from IKEA and paint the backs of the units some bright color and make them look built-in.

ooh that is smart. i need to get on this. i think shelving purchase/room painting will be my reward for turning in 1st draft of thesis!

i'm thinking i might abandon my wall shelving idea because i know i will never actually get them hung properly and i am worried about overweighting them. i may just have to find some inventive new arrangement for furniture to squeeze in another bookshelf?

http://img33.picoodle.com/img/img33/3/2/13/f_201m_b2565e6.jpg

I've gotten sooo much stuff out since my roommate moved out and I'm much happier with my place recently, now I just have to get moving on building some shelving to replace my current liquor cabinet and glassware storage, which is made of cardboard boxes.

wow!

would you like to come design my apartment?

The cardboard boxes are, admittedly, kind of rad.

Jpgs here pls

I'm sure it's some kind of mid-century cliche by now, but I can't shake the desire to paint my future living room robin's-egg blue and accent it with white woodwork and dark wood furniture and cream-and-gold carpets. It's total real estate erotica: I fantasize about washing the picture rails and putting out my (modest) Frankoma collection.

Specifically, this 8-foot-square rug:

http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e66/LimitedLiabilityGirl/P11887881.jpg

I DIED, you have far too much furniture. i think you need to strip it back a tad.

that rug <3

hahaha jed I have actually thought about getting rid of the chair but it was my great-grandmother's!

Laurel before you posted the picture of the rug your description sounded very early 19th-century Federal rather than mid-century modern!

I was kind of thinking of the white woodwork being egg and dart molding, though.

would you like to come design my apartment?

― lucky girl LOL (tehresa), Friday, February 13, 2009 10:16 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

step 1: put stuff in a closet, starting with the most important stuff and moving down from there

step 2: once the closet is full, throw everything else out.

done!

No, Brian, more like this.

Altho some of the stuff in that shot is a little too fussy for me, and the blue is too light/pastel. But you get the idea.

However, our realtor just reposted the ad for the apt on CL so we may not be moving in after all....

closet has too many skeletons for stuff!

oh no laurel I hope you get the space!

Laurel, more like this?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v369/colinohara/2960652988_1f9b5418bf.jpg

Yes, JUST like that. Orange/red/coral accents OBVIOUSLY to be expected. :D

Ugh, this is making me ill.