montoni's Profile

Your space is gorgeous. I would replace the bookcase and magazine rack with some big old tropical plants in terra cotta pots and add a kilim pattern rug! Maybe it's the angle of the photo, but if you wanted you could paint the recessed space behind the sofa a warm color to bring it in a bit.

I like this idea a lot for many reasons, a big one is that many of the mid-century modern houses I've visited are overcurated to a point that they lack personality.

I second everybody else saying buy piece-by-piece depending on your needs, and would like to add:

Copper is gorgeous and cooks beautifully but the good quality stuff is through-the-roof expensive (for this twenty-something of modest means), plus it has to be relined every once in a while depending upon how often used, few people reline, and the service is expensive.

If you have a high-output stove like many people do these days, buy cheap anodized steel or aluminum that you can beat back into shape for the hot burners.

All-Clad makes Cuisinart stainless cookware. I have some of each mark, and call me a plebe, but I can't tell the difference in performance.

The previous owners of my house painted over old wallpaper in the bedrooms -- which I discovered whilst re-painting when the walls began to pucker. They also installed white vinyl over rotting subfloor in the kitchen, and installed one of those hideous surround baths with mottled glass sliding doors in the upstairs full bath, and an equally dreadful stand-up shower in the downstairs full bath. You can only imagine the caulk job. My husband and I almost completely remodeled the kitchen (saved vintage cabinets) but can't deal with any more demolition and mixing/laying cement and destroying router bits on stone 'til summer. Thank God they were too lazy to do anything else -- they left beautiful multi-pane windows and little abused oak floors.

We left our own little gift for the next owner: some in-cabinet jerry-rigging to support the 200 lb. range top I bought after measuring improperly.

This is going to horrify some of you, but why do you need a backsplash save behind the stove and the sink? If you do want the same height everywhere, though, I would go all the way up and cut down round the half wall.

These are all great kitchens. However, commercial refrigeration in a private residence is ridiculous.

I know where I'm going next vacation!!!

Beware when getting a bed off Craigslist or from any other source of used furniture -- the bedbugs that may come with it can be vastly more expensive than a new bed from a fancy design house.

I love the 6th one with the tub in the alcove, so 18th century! Where are the diaphanous curtains and les beaux chevaliers?

That said, I would not enjoy a tub or shower *in* my bedroom owing to the tenement factor.

Wear sweaters and put down carpets, and if your landlord's legally liable to crank up the heat, make him or her do it. The same problem is endemic in my natal neck of the woods, with everything concrete against earthquakes and (I feel, now that I'm spoiled by American energy profligacy) sub-standard heating.
At least you'll be comfortable in the summer!